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‘Shiva: Poems of October 7’ Contains 59 Poems That Will Make You Cry
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The introduction to the anthology Shiva: Poems of October 7, notes that the most common response to the Hamas attack of October 7 was “ain milim” — “there are no words.”
Rachel Korazim, Michael Bohnen, and Heather Silverman are the editors of the book, which contain numerous powerful poems that represent feelings of heartache all Israelis and Jews experienced on October 7.
Korazim, 78, said her time teaching poetry in English for many years at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Hebrew University, and online, has given her a wealth of experiences with students.
During the Covid pandemic, she grew a community of hundreds of poetry students.
“When October 7 hit, I realized I could not continue what I planned to teach, and I started collecting works [about what happened] on October 10,” Korazim told me in an interview.
She said that rabbis approached her to create a class, and one advised her to make an anthology. The editors refined and edited translations, and the book is now printed in Israel and available at Amazon.
People often assume that poetry can help people deal with issues emotionally, as a catharsis from trauma.
“I don’t read poetry as being anything but poetry,” Korazim said. “For some people, it is a catharsis. For other people, it’s just a way to express themselves. You didn’t have a tsunami of poetry after 9/11 in America. But we did have it now in Israel. Throughout our history, we have put high value on poetry. If you look at Jewish history and Israeli history, you will see waves of poetry in regular times but also after catastrophe.”
A portion of Ran Shayit’s “A Landscape Sketch Without Entering Into Graphic Details,” hits hard:
There are no words for this
A strong smell of suffocation from the depths of a well
Like The palms of a dead man
Holding onto the foundation of a house…”
Many recognize Rachel Goldberg-Polin for her pleas and media appearances as she advocated for her son Hersh, who was taken hostage. He was murdered by Hamas, and his body was recovered at the end of August.
Her poem, “One Tiny Seed,” includes:
There is a Yiddish lullaby that says “Your mother will cry a
Thousand tears before you grow to be a man.”
I have cried a million tears in the last 67 days. …
Our sea of tears
They all taste the same.
Can we take them gather them up, and remove the salt,
And then pour them over our desert of despair …
And plant one tiny seed
A seed wrapped in pain, trauma, fear and hope?
Osnat Eldar’s poem, “Sea Fragments,” begins with Psalm 93 and is dedicated to Romi Suissa, a six-year-old girl whose parents were murdered by Hamas.
Romi hid in the backseat, and was eventually rescued by a police officer in a now famous recording where she asks the man who saved her and her sister: “Are you Israeli?”
In another of Eldar’s poems, she writes:
Mothers
If only they could change places with the boy or the girl
Ready for captivity or death.
In “A Good Day,” Tal Shavit writes:
I want to turn myself into bulletproof vests
For all the fighters,
Become iron domes
Over the heads of all the girls,
Each and every one.
One of the most powerful images is depicted in Dael Rodrigues Garcia’s “A Fallen Soldier”:
A soldier is falling
Like a coin into a tzedakah box
He bumps into the copper coins
Secretly, he falls anonymously,
He saves from death
He rattles with his brothers
He kisses their faces
Crusted with the sweat of battle
And his father and mother stretch out their hands
Begging me to bring him back
Through the narrow
Slit.
Garcia explained that the poem was written before October 7, but having lived in Israel, he recognizes that, “the deep act of kindness done for you by others who protect you, which is often hidden, is the greatest act of charity.”
There are different ways that the human mind processes horror. This book is a gut-wrenching assessment of the fragility, vulnerability, and undeniability that despite the trauma we’ve experienced, those who are alive continue to live. Net proceeds of sales of the book will be donated to the Israel Trauma Coalition, which works with victims of October 7.
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post ‘Shiva: Poems of October 7’ Contains 59 Poems That Will Make You Cry first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.