Approaching the Anniversary of October 7

October 1, 2025

In an email to the community, Chancellor Schwartz shared her thoughts:

With both sorrow and astonishment, we find ourselves on the threshold of a dark anniversary, as October 7 comes around for the second time since the horrific crimes of Shmini Atzeret / Simhat Torah 5784. The sorrow is for the murder of so many innocent souls and for the hostages who are still alive but facing a possible third year of suffering. The astonishment is for the unfathomable cruelty that has kept the hostages and their families in such excruciating pain, and for so much complacency throughout the world in the face of unrelenting suffering. 

There is now once again some hope that a breakthrough may yet occur. It comes at the time of the year in which our tradition says “Call out to God when God is near.” And thus we may hope that our prayers for a successful end to the war and to the hostages’ ordeal will rise up and be answered.

The most authentic voices of all surrounding October 7 and its aftermath naturally come from Israelis. With that in mind, I share the following statement from the Masorti Movement through its Executive Director and CEO Rakefet Ginsberg:

Yesterday’s [Monday’s] glimmer of optimism from Washington, with the possibility of an agreement to bring our hostages home and move closer to ending the war, offered a powerful reminder: we must not give up. Our responsibility—as communities and as one people—is not to lose ourselves in isolation, but to reach out, support one another, and walk forward together, even when the way is uncertain and difficult.

May we all renew that commitment to one another and to Am Yisrael.