Turning point: Oct. 7 - Increased Jewish identity and identification with Israel

By Steve Lipman

Some recent news in the Jewish community:

In Brooklyn, Amir (not his real name), a young real estate agent who had drifted from his roots in an Orthodox Jewish household, began flying a large Israeli flag outside his apartment in a mostly non-Jewish neighborhood. Intrigued, a bypassing rabbi introduced himself and encouraged Amir to become active in the activities of a nearby Chabad center. And since then, Amir has resumed his life as an observant Jew, davening every day and putting on tefillin.

In Chicago, Detroit-born, “accidental activist” Lindsay Pinchuk, a marketing consultant, began traveling around the country telling groups, both Jewish and non-Jewish, about “the importance of doing what’s right.” And she has helped mentor a growing number of Jewish-owned businesses, especially small, economically vulnerable ones. Pinchuk began her “online advocacy” with a video that quickly garnered 100,000 views; since then, she says, “I haven’t stopped” speaking up against” acts of anti-Semitism and the ignorance that led to them.” And urging other people to “speak out.”

In Los Angeles, where she moved from Colorado to be part of a larger Jewish community, Sara Fruman, an entertainment publicist, started lighting Shabbat candles more regularly. She bought a friend a pair of candlesticks for her friend’s birthday, and, according to aish.com, introduced a friend in Australia to YouTube videos of prominent rabbis. “Helping friends become more connected to their Judaism brings me more joy than just about anything,” Fruman says.

In New York City, Broadway-and-Hollywood actor Jonah Platt created a podcast, on which he interviews prominent Jewish guests, and notable non-Jewish allies, about “Jewish identity, pride, and inclusivity.” Guests on “Being Jewish with Jonah Platt” have come from such fields as entertainment, politics, sports and business.

And in Texas, honky-tonk musician Phillip Brush traveled to Israel to pick crops on Kibbutz Gan Shmuel as part of Birthright Israel’s Onward Volunteer Program. Occupational therapist Dorit Haenosh Aaron went to Israel to volunteer at Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan, teaching and treating in the hands clinic and rehab center.

All this has taken place since October 7. Across the United States.

The monstrous terrorist attacks committed by Hamas in the region around Gaza in southern Israel on Simchat Torah of 2023 have led to the Israeli army’s battle to eliminate the Hamas threat in Gaza; and they have stoked a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in many Western countries.

But, on the other hand, they have also brought many Jews — some of them previously distant from the Jewish community or from their Jewish identity — closer to Jews in Israel and in the countries overseas where they live. Many once-silent Jews are no longer silent; the unaffiliated are now affiliated. This increased activism and assertiveness has become evident in many Jews’ personal and professional lives.

Steven Windmueller, emeritus professor of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, calls this phenomenon “a fundamental recalibration of the American Jewish experience.”

While the post-Oct. 7 fervor has cooled in some cases, it has continued to inspire many Jews, as the second anniversary of that bloody day in Jewish history approaches. Simchat Torah, the holiday on the Jewish calendar on which the Hamas terrorism took place, will be marked this year in the Diaspora on Wednesday, Oct. 15; in Israel, when it is observed on the same day as Shemini Atzeret, it will be a day earlier.

Simchat Torah, normally a joyous holiday, will be tinged with sadness this year, as in 2024. Fighting goes on in Israel between the IDF and the remnants of Hamas; for families who suffered losses at the hands of Hamas, or whose relatives and friends were taken hostage, the mourning and worrying have not ceased. And, abroad, the challenge of dealing with antisemitism, coming from both the leftwing and rightwing sides of the political spectrum, remains.

“The world before Oct. 7 and the world after Oct. 7 are not the same worlds; at least they shouldn’t be,” Rabbi Tully Bryks, a veteran Jewish educator, wrote in a recent op-ed in the Jerusalem Post. “After Oct. 7, we experienced an awakening. Most of us remembered that we are one family. And even those of us who forgot received daily reminders through campus protests, UN condemnations, and frequent terrorist attacks … The Jewish people had finally come together as a family.”

Like Amir and Pinchuk and Fruman, some of the Jews who have drawn closer to the Jewish community in the last two years are relatively little-known to the wider public. Some, like Platt, have higher visibility.

And some are in between.

Like Michael Kaye. A New Yorker raised in a traditional Jewish household, he shed much of his ties to Jewish life as an adult, until Oct. 7. Then he reclaimed his Jewish identity. Loudly. Increasing his profile outside his immediate friendship and colleagues circles.

“I am not your stereotypical Jew, but I have become a proud Jewish activist,” he wrote in an essay in the Jerusalem Post. The essay’s headline: “Being Jewish was always important to me, but now it’s my reason for being.”

For a large part of the country’s young, non-Orthodox Jewish community, people like Kaye are their voice and public face.

“As someone who was educated at a Jewish school and learned about the Holocaust, I am no stranger to antisemitism or the dangerous impact it can have,” he wrote. “My earliest memories include being taught by my parents to be proud but quiet about my Judaism … and always leaving my Star of David at home when traveling.”

“October 7 changed me, as it did many others,” wrote Kaye, 33, a native of New York State’s Rockland County who works in New York City in marketing for a tech company. “Who I was before is someone I can never be again. I cannot be complicit or silent. I donate to the Anti-Defamation League, I speak at conferences wearing an #EndJewHatred T-shirt; I never leave home without Jewish-themed jewelry; and I use my social media platforms to discuss the rising antisemitism on college campuses across the United States and around the world.”

This is not an isolated phenomenon.

Daniel Rosen, co-founder of Emissary, an organization that combats antisemitism on social media, described “The Star of David Effect” in a recent op-ed in The Algemeiner. “What in the past may have been a rare quiet personal expression of faith has now become a visible symbol of resistance and pride,” he wrote. “It has become a rather frequent occurrence within certain sectors of the Jewish community, where young people are outwardly displaying these necklaces and it speaks to a desire to fight back in their own way.”

“I could not imagine an event [like Oct. 7] happening in our lifetime,” Kaye said in an interview. “It was an extremely tough day.” After Oct. 7, he saw “lot of hate online.”

Did putative friends turn out not to be friendly toward someone like him, who felt devastated by the Hamas atrocities?

“Absolutely.”

And he received death threats, which “only fueled me to be more vocal.”

Hence, his renewed activism, which drew on his marketing skills. “I wanted to do something for the Jewish community. It’s important to be more visible and more proud.”

“We need each other more than ever,” he said.

Every day, Kaye said, when he goes out in public he wears “something that symbolizes that I am a Jew.”

Kaye’s rebirth as an uber-identified-and-vocal Jew typifies what Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, calls a “surge” in Jewish communal life and a renewed sense of Jewish unity, and strengthened support for Israel since Oct. 7 of many members of American Jewry.

“The surge continues,” he said in an interview, calling Oct. 7 “a turning point” for many members of U.S. Jewry.

“I still meet people — ‘October 8th Jews’ — who were transformed” by the Hamas terrorism,” Sarna said. And, he added, he hears about an increased number of non-Jews who express an interest in converting to Judaism.

This surge of Jewish identification is likely to continue and will probably shape “a generation of Jewish leaders” in this country, he said. But he cautions that his expertise is in interpreting Jewish history, not in predicting the Jewish future.

Sarna says the Orthodox community, particularly the Chabad-Lubavitch chasidic movement, has been best prepared for welcoming Jews who have experienced a new interest in Judaism into their ranks.

Jews like Michael Kaye. While he does not identify as Orthodox, he attended a Jewish day school when he was growing up, and says Oct. 7 restored his Jewish feelings.

“Everything changed for me on October 7, 2023,” Kaye wrote on a Linkedin post. “I have witnessed a surge in antisemitism, prompting me to use my platform to advocate for the Jewish community and combat this issue both locally and nationally.” He was accepted into the ADL’s Glass Leadership Institute.

“I am eager to connect with others in the Jewish community here in the greater New York City area,” he wrote. “I look forward to applying what I learn to help create a more accepting and welcoming environment for Jewish people everywhere.”

“Today, it feels like the beginning of a second Holocaust. That is why I cannot remain silent,” Kaye says. “I cannot be silent about my Judaism any longer.”