A New Embrace of Zionism: Remembering 10 7 23
by Rabbi Sam Cohon
It is now one year since the horrific atrocities perpetrated by Hamas’ Palestinian terrorists on October 7, 2023. The terrible events of Simchat Torah 5784 remain seared into our memories. 1200 human beings were murdered that day, many more were wounded, injured and experienced severe trauma, and over 250 were stolen from their lives and forced into a brutal captivity. We continue to pray that the surviving hostages will be liberated and able to return home soon. We pray that the many Israelis exiled from their homes in the south and north of the countries can return in peace safely soon.
The horrors of that awful 10/7/23 are still with us. To this day, the remains of five of the murdered are unidentified, in spite of the finest Israeli scientific expertise being deployed to discover who they were. On that day, Palestinian terrorists murdered the elderly, they murdered babies, they massacred entire families. The same Palestinian terrorists committed war crimes of rape, torture, arson and abduction, and often documented their evil actions themselves. Most of them have now paid for their terrible crimes with their lives. But the damage they did remains.
Most of the murdered were civilians, and most were Israelis. But this is a day of remembrance also for Americans, Canadians, the French, Germans, British, Thai, Nepalese, and the citizens of 35 other nations who were brutally killed by Palestinian terrorists on that awful day.
We pray for the souls of all who died on that terrible day, as we offer memorial prayers for those who have died fighting terrorism, and those who have died in further terror attacks in the past 12 months. May the scourge of violence against Israeli civilians end, speedily and soon.
The dramatic rise in worldwide Antisemitism in the wake of October 7th is chilling and remains a profound concern. Today the ADL reported that this past year it recorded the highest number of Antisemitic incidents in its history, including a fatal attack.
Those who cloak their Antisemitism in the claim that they are merely “anti-Zionists” are liars. Being an anti-Zionist in 2024, in the wake of October 7th, is a blatant form of Antisemitism. To be an Anti-Zionist, or even a Jewish non-Zionist today, means to oppose the Jewish right to our own nation in our own historic homeland. It is advocating the genocidal destruction of a vital democracy with a thriving culture and civilization, a country of 9.5 million people, because you think that Jews, alone among nations, do not deserve their own land.
If there is one way in which we can best memorialize the martyrs of 10/7, it is by embracing the name “Zionist.” Being a Zionist is a proud label. It is a positive statement of Jewish identification and identity. Wear that word, “Zionist,” proudly: to be a Zionist is something powerful, positive, and meaningful in a world in which those labels are hard to come by. It is an affirmation of Jewish identity, a statement that we deserve our own dynamic nation, and the right to have one Jewish nation on the globe.
To be a Zionist means being proud that we Jews have our own nation, that it must be protected from destruction, that it is our eternal homeland. It is a good, legitimate and essential ideal, and a core element of Jewish identity today. It means being proud because you believe in our people, in our right to live and thrive in our own land, to seek to control our own destiny.
In this new 5785 year may we see the term Zionist embraced not only by all Jews, but by all honest people, as a proud statement of Jewish national identity, and of love for our homeland of the heart. That would be a true tribute to those who died a year ago today.