The Baltimore Jewish Council and Chizuk Amuno Congregation are partnering on Sept. 28 to screen the film “October 8,” which documents the wave of antisemitism in America after Oct. 7, followed by a discussion.
The film explores the increase of antisemitism on college campuses, across social media and more, along with detailing the efforts by Hamas and other U.S. adversaries to influence antisemitism and misinformation in American society.
The film was released on March 14 and was previously screened in White Marsh, but organizers felt that not enough people were able to make the trip to see it during its limited release.
“I just had this inkling that when it was in White Marsh, it just didn’t get out to enough people,” said Rabbi Joshua Gruenberg, senior rabbi at Chizuk Amuno. “As a staff, we said, ‘We can’t just bring the movie; we have to have some sort of discussion.’ Our first thought was, ‘Let’s call the BJC. Let’s call Howard [Libit].’”
Libit, the executive director of BJC, said that he’s heard from community members who meant to see the film when it was released but had forgotten and had now penciled in the new date on their calendars.
He added that the timing of the film being one week before the community commemoration of Oct. 7 is important, as topics like antisemitism are on the top of people’s minds.
“Kids are now back on college campuses. They’re back in classrooms. Unfortunately, the events in Israel are probably going to make this fall a tougher time on campuses again,” Libit said. “It’s worth all of us thinking more about it and talking more about the resources we have available.”
Gruenberg said they’ll have people enter the Chizuk Amuno social hall, that has a large drop-down screen and plenty of seating for guests to watch the film.
Gruenberg and Libit will have microphones on stage and will have someone passing a microphone through the crowd to answer questions after the film ends.
Gruenberg added that the purpose of the event is to keep Oct. 7 fresh in people’s minds as we get further away from the day of the attack.
“The further we get away from a historical event, the less it is on people’s minds. And yet, in Israel and in Gaza, they’re still in this, and we haven’t even gotten to the post-Oct. 7 world. It’s still Oct. 7, and we’re waiting for it to be Oct. 8 on some level,” Gruenberg said. “Part of why this is so important is that we have to continue to keep awareness about what happened on Oct. 7, especially [as] the world’s sympathy for Israel wanes.”
Gruenberg stressed that the conversation they will have after the film is not going to be political. The purpose is to keep people’s outrage over Oct. 7 from subsiding, because he said that when it subsides, it increases the possibility of it happening again.
Libit added that the discussion will serve as a reality check for people, as both he and Gruenberg have kids who recently started classes again.
“Yes, there are concerns, but it’s not like our kids are under assault every single day, and we need to make sure people have the right balance of concern,” Libit said.
Gruenberg said that they also chose to screen the film because of the impact that a film can have on people as a storytelling device. He said that the film has become a vehicle for many people to be able to comprehend everything that happened on Oct. 7 and in the many months since.
“Oct. 7, especially for American Jews, can feel really foreign to us. It happened, but we can’t [fully] appreciate it. And this brings you into it, and that’s not easy,” Gruenberg said. “I think it’s so important for us to do that. I don’t know that any medium besides film could do that, because it’s music and it’s words and it’s visual; it speaks to you, really, on every sort of learning sensibility and mode. And it is, if not the most powerful, one of the most powerful storytelling vehicles that we have.”
Gruenberg also gave credit to the unique relationship that the synagogue has with BJC, which allowed them to plan and execute this event for the community.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen so much in other communities, where a synagogue and an organization partner and other synagogues and Jewish communities are all in because it’s Jewish Baltimore. And of course, we are so lucky that we can do these kinds of things seamlessly and with ease,” Gruenberg said.
For more information on the film and event registration, visit the BJC website at baltjc.org.
