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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.
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Tourists Stranded in Israel as Sirens Sound, Missiles Fly, Planes Grounded
FILE PHOTO: A worker at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel sits at the arrivals terminal as all flights from and to the airport are indicated cancel, following an Israeli attack on Iran. June 13, 2025 Photo: REUTERS/Tomer Appelbaum
Woken by air raid sirens, hurrying to bomb shelters, scouring travel sites for escape routes — thousands of tourists in Israel have found their holiday plans upended by the country’s conflict with Iran.
Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran in the early hours of Friday, shutting down the national airspace and telling people to remain where they were as the arch Middle East foes traded deadly blows.
The violence has left around 40,000 tourists blocked in Israel, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Airlines are cancelling flights until further notice, leaving travelers to decide whether to wait it out or seek costly detours through neighboring countries.
Justin Joyner, from California, is on holiday in Jerusalem with his father John, who lives in Nevada, and his son. They had expected some possible disruption, with Israel locked in a months-long conflict against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
But, like most locals, they did not foresee a whole new war.
“We didn’t expect Israel to attack Iran. That is a completely different level of escalation,” Joyner said from his hotel in East Jerusalem, which, for the past two nights, has seen Iranian ballistic missiles flash overhead like a rain of meteorites.
“It’s unsettling to feel the shockwaves of intercepted missiles above you, and to take your family down to a bomb shelter. That’s just something we don’t think about in America,” he said.
Dr. Greer Glazer, who lives in Cleveland and was in Jerusalem for a nursing training program, faces a race down 10 flights of stairs in her hotel to reach the shelter when sirens sound — as they have done regularly since Friday night.
“I feel safe,” she said, “but waking from a dead sleep and running to the safe room, that’s been the hardest. My family is scared to death … They think it’s 24/7 destruction, but it’s not like that.”
THE JORDAN ROUTE
Glazer had been due to return home on June 29, but is looking to bring forward her departure. The easiest exit route is via land crossings into neighboring Jordan and then a flight out of Amman airport which has been operating in daylight hours.
Israeli media reported that the transgender US influencer Caitlyn Jenner, who only flew into Israel on Thursday for Tel Aviv’s since-canceled Gay Pride Parade, had left through Jordan.
Hours earlier, she had been photographed drinking a glass of red wine in a bomb shelter. “What an incredible way it has been to celebrate Shabbat,” she wrote on X.
Not everyone is rushing to leave.
Karen Tuhrim is visiting from London to see her daughter, who lives in Tel Aviv. “Within two days of being here, Israel attacked Iran. So now I’m stuck,” she said.
Unlike Jerusalem, Tel Aviv has taken direct hits from the Iranian missiles and Tuhrim has had to dip in and out of her hotel’s shelter. But she said she felt safe and was happy to be near her daughter.
“For me, personally, at the moment, I feel better being here than in London, watching it all on the news, knowing my daughter is here. So, for now, we’re good.”
Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has set up a round-the-clock virtual help desk in English and Hebrew for stranded travelers.
But for anyone stuck here, all the museums are closed until further notice, entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem is barred to non-residents and many shops remain shuttered.
“The streets and shops are empty,” said Jerusalem resident Anwar Abu Lafi, who saw no quick end to the gloom.
“People are yearning for a break, to find something good in this existing darkness. We are deluding ourselves into thinking that the future will be better,” he said.
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4 Killed by Missile in Arab Town of Tamra, Including a Mother and Her Two Daughters
Illustrative: A Magen David Adom ambulance. Photo: David King via Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel was struck by an Iranian missile, tragically claiming the lives of four women from the same family, including a mother and her two daughters, aged 13 and 20.
The missile caused severe damage, nearly collapsing the three- to four-story building where they lived.
Emergency services responded quickly, evacuating 14 injured individuals and providing care for eight others suffering from shock at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
Despite the devastation, the community and first responders showed remarkable resilience and solidarity, working tirelessly to assist those affected.
Eli Bin, director general of Magen David Adom, described the scene as one of severe destruction but praised the swift and professional response of rescue teams. Paramedic Adnan Abu Rumi, one of the first on site, emphasized the dedication of emergency personnel in managing the crisis.
Residents like Hamudi, who was injured but survived, shared heartfelt accounts of the sudden impact, underscoring the strength of families and neighbors coming together in difficult times.
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Trump Sees Peace Between Iran and Israel Soon, Eyes Putin Role
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
Despite evidence that the conflict between Israel and Iran is escalating, US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday that peace would come soon and cited the possibility that Russia’s Vladimir Putin could help.
In a social media post, Trump said there were many unspecified meetings about the issue happening and encouraged the two countries to make a deal. And in an interview with ABC News, he said he was open to Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine and who has resisted Trump’s attempts to broker a ceasefire with Kyiv, serving as a mediator.
Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, killing scores.
“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.”
Trump did not offer any details about the meetings or evidence of progress toward peace. His assertion contradicted comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Saturday that Israel’s campaign against Iran would intensify.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how Trump and the White House were working to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East.
Trump told ABC News that Iran wanted to make a deal and indicated something like the Israel strikes would accelerate that. “Something like this had to happen because I think even from both sides, but something like this had to happen. They want to talk, and they will be talking,” Trump said, according to ABC reporter Rachel Scott. “May have forced a deal to go quicker, actually.”
The United States has engaged in talks with Iran about its nuclear program and Trump has told reporters previously that the talks were going well. But another round of discussions scheduled for Sunday in Oman was canceled after the Israeli and Iranian strikes.
Trump said he and Putin had discussed the situation in the Middle East on Saturday in a call that focused more on that conflict than the Russian war in Ukraine.
“He is ready. He called me about it,” Trump said about Putin serving as a mediator, according to Scott. “We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved.”
Trump, who portrays himself as a peacemaker and has drawn criticism from his political base for not being able to prevent the Israel-Iran conflict, cited other disputes that he took responsibility for solving, including between India and Pakistan, and lamented not receiving more praise for doing so.
“I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote on Truth Social.
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