October 7: The Spaces In Between

A personal reflection from Debbie Kardon, Executive Director of Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, on turning 60, October 7th, and finding light in the cracks.

October 7 has always been my birthday.
This year, it’s a big one — 60.

But since 2023, that date has carried a different weight. It’s the day of Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel — a day that changed everything for the Jewish world. Two years later, the war in Israel continues. The war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, rages on. And for me personally, this has also been a year of profound loss and grief, layered on top of earlier losses.

Last year, for my 59th birthday, I was gifted a piece of art from artist Beryl Salinger Schmitt from her Paper Bag Tallit collection, made in response to the October 7th attack.  It shows a circle of women, stones, and lines — but what moves me most is the space in between. That space has become a metaphor for this past year — and maybe for this time in history.

There’s a line many people know from Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem:

“There is a crack in everything — that’s how the light gets in.”

Cohen drew on a deeply Jewish sensibility. In midrash, our sages teach that the Torah itself has gaps and silences, and we’re invited to step into those spaces — to fill them with our questions, our empathy, and our voices. In Japanese art, there’s kintsugi — mending broken pottery with gold so the repair itself becomes part of the beauty.

These traditions all remind us: light and healing come through the cracks.

Every morning, despite the darkness, we wake up and say “Modeh Ani” — “I am grateful.” The sun rises. We look for the space where the light comes through.

At Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, that’s what we do every day. We stand in the space between despair and hope — between those who are forgotten and those who reach out to help. We fill the aid gap for people who would otherwise fall through the cracks — elders in Ukraine, families displaced by war, and those who are still waiting for a bit of warmth, medicine, or human connection.

Through microgrants, we bring food, medicine, and small acts of kindness directly to isolated elders. Through telehealth, we provide access to doctors and care coordinators who check in even under air raids. With art therapy, we offer respite from non-stop anxiety.  And now, through our pharmacy program, we help supply life-saving medications in a system overwhelmed by war.

This year, as I turn 60, I find myself thinking about those spaces — the gaps between what has broken and what can still be made whole. Between grief and gratitude. Between helplessness and hope.

The action is in the open spaces.
And the impact is in the gaps.

May we each have the courage to step into the spaces between — to bring light where there is darkness, and to be the gold that mends what has been broken.

Learn more about how Action for Post-Soviet Jewry fills the aid gap — and how you can help bring light to those living through war and hardship.