Bearing witness to the horror of October 7
It is hard to overestimate the effect of the October 7 attacks, not only on the state of Israel and the wider Middle East but also on Jewish communities all over the world.
The immediate trauma of the murders, rapes and kidnappings — images of which are seared into our collective memory– became part of the consciousness of Jews not just in Israel but around the globe. Barely had the shockwaves of the attack settled than the Jewish community here in the UK and in many other places around the world were confronted by a wave of antisemitism unlike anything we have seen before.
Since this time, events in the Middle East and the wider world have moved on. Focus internationally has shifted from the atrocities visited on the Israelis and others in the south of Israel. However, we cannot allow this terrible crime to be forgotten. As we approach the second anniversary of October 7, 2023, we feel that there is a need to remember and, even more importantly, to remind people of the events as they unfolded.
The Board of Deputies is the representative organisation of the Jewish community here in the UK, and British Jews made it clear to us that the plight of the hostage was a huge priority for them. We decided immediately after October 7 that we would do everything in our power to keep public and political attention on the plight of the hostages. We hold weekly vigils near Parliament, have conducted campaigns to publicise their situation, have twinned dozens of synagogues with hostage families, and together with other UK Jewish organisations, will be holding a major memorial event on October 5 to mark the second anniversary of the attacks.
However, as time passed, and the October 7 attacks began to slip from the collective consciousness of the UK public. People would ask us where they could find all the information about the atrocities, and we realised that such a resource did not yet exist. A new initiative was sorely needed – one that re-focuses attention on the event of that day and that documents the stories so comprehensively that no-one can honestly challenge the truth of what occurred. We decided to put all our energies into making that happen.
The result is a major new resource entitled “Remembering October 7: Resource and Learning Hub,” which has just been launched on our website. It contains testimony, interviews, accounts of the heroes of the day, of former hostages, and of eyewitnesses. There are photos and there is video content, some of which is graphic and is clearly labelled as such.
Our concept was to bring everything together into a coherent whole that bears witness to the events of the day. This can and should be used as a resource for commemorative events around the English-speaking world, as an educational tool for anyone who wishes to know the details of what actually happened and as an enduring document which can be referred to long into the future so that future generations will know and understand the horror which so many innocent people were subjected to on what should have been a quiet autumn Shabbat and festival morning.
We will never forget the victims and the heroes of that day and now, thanks to this resource, the evidence is there for everyone to see.
You can view Remembering October 7: Resource and Learning Hub at https://bod.org.uk/oct7resources/