Psalms & Songs for October 7th: Artistic Tribute in the Time of Moral Erosion

No Lessons Learned

I have been studying the persecution of my people, Jewish people, for over 35 years. 

That detailed studies included the Soviet systematic state antisemitism and far- and wide-reached persecutions of Jews in the USSR in all and every imaginable aspect during the life of three generations of people there. It includes and focuses much on the Nazis ideology, practices and crimes against humanity, the Shoah, the post-Holocaust in Germany and anywhere it has occurred in Europe. It includes global antisemitism in any form anywhere it takes place. It includes terrorism and how it operates in many of its scenes of action, for years. 

I spent a half of my life to know in detail, emotions switched off, about the ideas, systems, principles and practices of all these persecutions in order to understand how it functions, to elaborate the principles, ways and material for the counter-action and for education to prevent it ever again in any future.  

And now, we are facing it all in one package, three generations after the Shoah, with obviously no lesson learned from the recent enough total crush of morale under the Nazis, which took over entire Europe and reverberated far beyond it. Nor anything was learned of the multiplied tragedies and attacks on humanity of all vicious terrorist attacks that have happened during the last 50 years. 

Inna Rogatchi (C). Cry of Heaven. Songs of Our Souls. 2019. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th Artistic Tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation.

For a year since October 7th, 2023 we are going through the attack on the Jews in their own country, their own state, their own territory, the attack which has been planned, prepared, carried on, and as astonishing as it is, which was and still be lauded world-wide, despite all the evidence which were available immediately and to everyone, in a real-time mode. 

The attack which actually combines everything I’ve learned regarding the historical and actual persecution of my people before: state policies, vile racist ideology, anti-human bringing up children making a monsters out of them as soon as they are able to walk and speak, instrumentalized hatred, dangerous ignorance, horrendous crimes which are largely ignored by the rest of the world. 

And more: today, a year after the world saw in a real-time mode the unspeakable crimes committed, being completely unprovoked, by total villains against civilians, the world is flooded with violent, ignorant, disgusting demonstrations willfully supporting pure evil. 

When some people are insisting that one cannot compare October 7th massacre and the Holocaust, I can agree – putting aside the fact of very nature of attacking Jews which is the same core fact for the both crimes against humanity, 80 years apart  – that one cannot compare the information which wide public in the world had in mid-1940s about the crimes committed during the Holocaust and the information which the same category of human beings worldwide have had on October 7th massacre, in a direct and full way. Did it help? It did not. This time the international public reaction is worse, much worse. 

Michael Rogatchi (C). Psalm 69. Psalms Country. 1992. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation.

When normal people who are supporting Israel and Jewish people world-wide are terrified with this unleashed glorification of murder and murderers that we all are facing on our streets in any place of the earth on the days which marks one year since the terrible unprovoked crimes had been committed, with 101 human beings, including small children, are kept hostages in the tunnels by barbarians for the whole year and counting, I tell to my friends that in these days in 2024, I am vividly remembering hundreds of photos from the German and other European cities from 1938 onward, with all those thousands and thousands of zigging people on all those squares. Not all of them were monsters, perhaps. But all of them supported evil. And – on those squares people gathered there lived under the dictatorship. One has to remember that. What dictatorship those advocates of terrorism, hate and murders are living under now, starting from the UN and finishing with so many university campuses? 

There is an ocean of stupidity, ignorance and bad will that is overflowing our streets these days. And, unlikely as after the end of WWII, there is no moral clarity, no normal strong and acting efficiently human will to prevent the ongoing disgusting and shameful for any society and any country glorification and support of evil. Period. 

So Jews and Jewish state is left on its own. It always was like that. We have a long history of surviving and overcoming, and we will handle it, as we always did, with will, skills and resilience. Most importantly – with moral imperative which makes things happen, and which keeps our backs straight, our heads upward, and our effort focused.  

Michael Rogatchi (C). Psalm 22. Psalms Country. 1993. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation

Personal Way of Reflecting 

Because of the freshness of the tragedy and because the tragedy is still unfolding for our people, because of the depth of the shock that we all went through as the result of October 7th, because the horror is so fresh, any reflection on October 7th and post-October 7th many open wounds is highly personal in any and every case of anyone who does it. 

We remember immediately the void of horror that paralyzed so many writers, poets and artists immediately after WWII before they slowly started to reflect in their poems and paintings on the unspeakable and incomprehensible abyss of the Shoah. 

We are facing a very similar abyss of anti-humanity again now, after October 7th. But this time, we are reflecting faster, although it must be said, not easily, lightly, or too quickly. As in any reflections to such tragedy, the ongoing one, it is absolutely personal matter and thus there is solely a personal way of visioning and creating. It does take time, coming from a deeply shocked numbness to some forms and images  of sharing the ongoing pain. 

In our case, I was unable to create anything for months, then after three months after October 7th, 2023, just one image was created, which I never published. It was too tragic, and in my feelings, it was as if adding more pain to the open wounds of my people. 

Then a half of a year later, in summer 2024, the second image of the diptych was created which projects our response to the existential challenge that Israel and Jews world-wide are facing currently. With the second part, the diptych October 7: Pain and Resilience ( 2023-2024) was born, and it is published on the first anniversary of October 7th, commemorating it with the message of resilience and prevail: 

Inna Rogatchi (C). October 7th – Chazak! diptych. Pain and Resilience. 2023-2024. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation

Psalms

For the series of  various commemorations of the date marking the new post- October 7th reality, my husband artist Michael Rogatchi and I have selected a special collection of works as our joint artistic tribute. 

The collection consists of seven artistic interpretations of the  Psalms  by Michael and eight works from my Songs of Our Souls series on Jewish memory.

Michael’s artistic journey through the country of the Psalms , echoing the title of his series, Psalms Country, started in early 1990s. From then, he was returning to the theme periodically. The October 7th and the new reality it has marked has prompted Michael to return to the Psalms again. 

In our commemorative artistic tribute, alongside previously existing interpretations of the Psalms, there are three new works, two of which were created by Michael as direct consequence of October 7th, Psalm 1 and Psalm 87.

Michael Rogatchi (C). Psalm 1. Psalms Country. 2023. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation 

In both of them, the sun is upset and disturbed. In both of them, humanity speaks out. True to himself in addressing unbearable, Michael opted for a laconic and understated way of expression, focusing on kindness and the humane core of human life. 

But , importantly, the standing  questions posed by the overwhelming shock of the October 7th massacre in many of its aspects are tangible in these works expressing deep reflections, thoughts, unanswered questions, and that unmistaken sadness that we are living in for a year by now. 

Michael Rogatchi (C). Psalm 87. Psalms Country. 2023. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation.

Songs

I am working on an essential for me Songs of Our Souls series from 2017 onward. The works from the series are both my dialogue with those of our people who are not with us any longer, and also my personal tribute to the past generations and to those whose lives were taken brutally and inhumanly, as in the Shoah, as in the October 7th and its aftermath nightmare. 

Inna Rogatchi (C). Heaven’s Whisper. Songs of Our Souls. 2024. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation

In this selection for the October 7th commemorations, five out of eight works has been created after October 7th, and they are addressing our latest national tragedy directly. 

Inna Rogatchi (C). Black Milk. Songs of Our Souls. 2024. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation.

As it happen, as if of its own, one special diptych, Root Memory, is addressing our suffering and memory in the inter-weaved way, in its continuity from the memory of the Shoah and its millions of victims, each of them being an unique world – as it is the case now, in our post-October 7th existence. 

Inna Rogatchi (C). Root Memory diptych. Songs of Our Souls. 2024. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation

They have not disappeared, those children, youth, elderly, men and women who were all butchered in the most sadistic way just a year ago. They did not disappear for their families, friends, and colleagues. They did not disappear for their country. They did not disappear for us, those who have commitment to remember. 

Inna Rogatchi (C). Song of Our Souls IV. Songs of Our Souls. 2022-2024. Part of Psalms & Songs for October 7th artistic tribute international commemorative project. (C) The Rogatchi Foundation.

Continuous Remembrance 

Remembrance is a natural and essential part of human nature – one was inclined to believe just until a year ago. 

In the present world of an utter moral relativism, in this unprecedented erosion of morality, conscious remembrance seems to become a mark of decency. It always was, but today it is acutely evident. 

That’s why, we are grateful that our modest artistic tribute to October 7th is presented widely, at various commemorative events in different countries, from Finland to the US, and from France to Canada. Israel remembers its innocent victims and those 101 hostages who are still kept by the barbarians. It is Israel’s reality 24/7 for the last 365 days and counting. 

In our view, the wider the remembrance about all the victims of the most recent tragedy in Jewish history would be maintained and understood as it is world-wide, the stronger hope for dignified humanity we all will have. That’s why, we are saluting all of many compassionate commemorations these days all over the globe: in Finland, where the commemorative actions will have a place in 25 cities of the country, and many special commemorations which will be organised in so many countries, many of those by our dear friends in colleagues, in Lithuania and Estonia, in France and Germany, in Canada and Austria, in the US and the UK, in Mexico and Czech Republic, and many other places. We are grateful to them all together, and to every single person who knows from which side a human heart beats, and what consciousness means, and who stands on it. 

Any humanistic effort in the time of dangerous moral erosion, which is now, matters. It will bear fruit of decency, so the youth and children of today would know and would understand what is right and what is wrong, what should be lauded and what should be resisted, what is humanity and what is barbarity. And what is a human life, the highest value of Judaism and humanity, is about.

The entire Psalms & Songs for October 7th collection can be seen here.