The approaching one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed over 1,200 Israelis is bringing out a range of emotions and memories from that day for members of the Jewish community, from shock to grief, that turned into months of tireless work for Israel and Jews in the United States.
The attack brought out a sense of anxiety, anger and fright that many in the Jewish community had not felt to such a level in decades, and the attacks felt even closer to home despite occurring thousands of miles away due to the tight personal ties that many in the Jewish community have with Israel.
Harriette Wienner, a Baltimore County resident and chair of women’s engagement and philanthropy for The Associated, said that she found out about the Oct. 7 attack before it had hit the mainstream media from a message from her daughter, who works in the news industry.
She added that she immediately jumped on WhatsApp to message people she cared about to see if they were okay, and that the news coming out of Israel put the community through the stages of grief.
“Just seeing the video that was out there, I mean, it was so outrageous and so devastating. Those are just some images you can never get out of your mind,” Wienner said.
Neil Leikach, a Baltimore County resident and pharmacist, was at a friend’s house when the word of the Oct. 7 attack broke and said that the images on the news channels “didn’t make sense.”
Leikach, like Wienner, spent the next several hours reaching out to friends and family in Israel to see if they were okay.
“A lot of them, they just they weren’t responding quick enough for us to feel safe and see what was happening,” Leikach said.
The rapidly approaching anniversary is bringing a reminder of what happened that day and the irrevocable change it had on Israel and the American Jewish community to this day.
“We share this collective memory of how things are supposed to be [in Israel]. It’s terrifying and it’s sad and it’s frustrating and scary and angry sort of all at once,” Wienner said.
Despite the country being thousands of miles away, many local Jews have deep personal connections to what they call the Jewish homeland and its people that made the attack and ensuing war all the more important.
Both Wienner and Leikach have worked for the Baltimore-Ashkelon partnership with The Associated, which is a program that has connected the two cities since 2003 and fostered life-long friendships.
Wienner said that they have hosted shinshin, 18-year-old emissaries from Israel, in the past and have a close relationship with one, attending their wedding in Israel and other family events over the years.
But on an individual level, everyone had a different story of how their connection to Israel formed.
Wienner said she realized Israel would be an integral part of her life during a family trip to the country when she was just seven years old.
Leikach was a bit different, gaining that deep bond through a trip with the Baltimore-Ashkelon partnership and meeting friends in Israel through that.
“We feel like the friends that we made over there are family, and so we may not talk all the time, but we make sure we keep them in contact,” Leikach said. “And when we have a chance to go over there or they have a chance to come over here, we make sure we dedicate time to make sure we can see them because we feel like they’re part of our family.”
The anniversary of Oct. 7 also comes as not only a time to grieve, but serves a testament to the work that Jewish organizations have done over the past year to support Israel and a recommitment to continue the work in the months to come.
Representative Sandy Rosenberg, who represents Baltimore City in the Maryland House of Delegates, said that the Oct. 7 anniversary will be a day to reflect on the horror of the attacks as Jews around the world, comparing it to the way Sept. 11 is honored.
Rosenberg said that part of his work to redouble efforts to support both the Israel and Maryland Jewish community, he is working on legislation for the next session early next year to “correct wrongs” that he has seen over the past year.
Wienner said that despite this year being a difficult one for the Jewish community with the Oct. 7 attack and rising antisemitism, there’s a sense of resilience that has been necessary as people have to keep living their lives and fighting antisemitism with Jewish joy and keeping Israel a priority.
“I think that the war and dealing with all of this for an entire year now, I think has pulled a lot of people’s Jewish identity into sharp focus. [There’s a] feeling about Israel that is sort of like maybe the way you feel about your mother: that you need to take care of her, and that you need to be there for her,” Wienner said.
