Jewish New Yorkers gathered at Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side on Friday for an interfaith Shabbat service on the second day of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and to commemorate the first anniversary of the Hamas terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2024.
Monday marks one year since the terror group Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 Israelis and foreigners. Over 100 hostages have been released, while 97 hostages still remain in captivity. At the end of August, Israel’s military recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas terrorists, including 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7.
Rabbi Joshua Davidson, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, led the interfaith service along with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. They were joined by Jonathan Greenblatt, national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Pastor Jared Stahler of Saint Peter’s Church.
At a presser before the service, Davidson recalled that Dolan, who was in Rome, Italy, when the horrific events unfolded, was the first person to call him and express his unwavering solidarity with the Jewish people.
“[Dolan] knew he needed to speak those words because he knew that the Jewish community by itself couldn’t carry the burden of defending Israel’s right to protect its people. He knew we needed that support, and he delivered it within moments after that massacre,” Davidson shared.
Dolan, a frequent speaker at Temple Emanu-El, addressed the ramped-up police presence outside synagogues across the city amid escalating tension between Israel and the Middle East and the upcoming anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks, describing the situation as a “downer.”
“It is a discouragement when you think that houses, temples, synagogues, churches that only rise up on behalf of peace need protection,” Dolan said. “This is kind of an indication of the topsy-turvy world in which we live.”
The events of Oct. 7, 2023, were the worst acts of murder against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. During his sermon, Davidson said the terror attacks horrified anyone with a conscience and altered Jewish history.
“We are still too close to it, I think, to fully appreciate the event’s impact on us psychologically, certainly geopolitically,” the rabbi said, “but we already know how it altered Israel’s sense of security in the world and through the spate of antisemitism that has followed our own sense of safety in America.”
Davidson thanked the many who have stood by the Jewish community, including Pastor Jared Stahler of Saint Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manhattan.
Stahler spoke to the Emanu-El congregation two weeks after the terror attack in support of the Jewish community. He gifted Emanu-El a candle, which, on Friday night, stood next to the Shabbat lights as a symbol of solidarity and support.
Stahler remembered the turmoil and the horror of the days following Oct. 7.
“Who among us then would ever imagine that this distress and sorrow would, one year later, not only persist but have grown and intensified,” said Stahler, acknowledging the uncertainty the Jewish community is experiencing.
In his address to the congregation, Jonathan Greenblatt talked about the surge of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attacks, nationally and globally.
According to data by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in the U.S., antisemitic incidents in the three months after the Oct. 7 massacre rose by 361% compared to the same period in 2023. In Germany and Austria, the first two months after the attacks, antisemitic incidents in Germany and Austria were up 350% and 500%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2022.
Greenblatt described the past year as a year filled with terror, death, and destruction and explained that 2023 shattered the record numbers of antisemitic attacks of 2022.
“Our 25 regional offices have heard about Jewish people being harassed, about Jewish children being bullied, Jewish-owned businesses boycotted, Jewish institutions vandalized, Jewish professionals shunned by their peers,” Greenblatt shared.
Like many Jewish people, Greenblatt thought that the Jewish community had “outrun” history, referring to World War II, when Nazi Germany killed 6 million Jewish people.
“The fate that we believed we had outfoxed, that haunted our ancestors, it looms at our door,” Greenblatt told the congregation.
Dolan described the terror attacks of Oct. 7 as “intrinsic evil,” which then were followed by the “malignancy of misplaced blame.”
“Irrationally, Israel became the villain, the vicious terrorist. Not only was a big chunk of the world silent in expressing horror at this intrinsic evil of Oct. 7, not only was Hamas let off by so many. The Jews on our own New York streets were harassed, campuses oozed antisemitism, the UN said on its hands as Israel and her people in diaspora were blamed,” said Dolan, describing the aftermath of anti-Israel protests and antisemitism, a “case of the world upside.”
After the service, amNewYork Metro caught up with some members of Emanu-El, who found solace in the community during trying times.
One member, who didn’t want to share their name, told amNewYork Metro that they were saddened to see history repeat itself.
“It’s very saddening that things we read in history books we’re seeing now on the news as current events,” they said.
Linda felt the Shabbat service was very “touching.”
“It’s a very sad time right now. So that [the speakers] all came together to uplift us was a wonderful thing,” Linda told amNewYork.
Lan appreciated the support of Cardinal Dolan and Pastor Stahler and described the service as warm and wonderful.
“It just means a lot that the community comes together. And I thought Jonathan Greenblatt from ADL gave a wonderful speech,” Lan said.
Though he thought that the cops with machine guns guarding the synagogue were a “sad” sight.
“It’s the state of the world today, it’s kind of shocking,” Lan added.
