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The Sound of the Shofar: A Civic and Communal Call This Rosh Hashanah

The blowing of the shofar, traditionally done on Rosh Hashanah. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

With campuses reopening and the Jewish High Holidays approaching, Jewish students must recognize that Rosh Hashanah is more than a date on the academic calendar. It is a holy day that embodies continuity, courage, and community. We gather to hear the shofar, to taste apples dipped in honey, and to pray and reflect together.

These moments do more than mark time — they declare that Jewish life endures. And we must make that statement now, clearly and proudly, in a season when Jewish identity is too often questioned, minimized, or attacked.

Across centuries and continents — through exile, persecution, and flight — Jews have gathered for Rosh Hashanah. They did so in shtetls and synagogues, in ghettos and camps, sometimes in whispers, and sometimes in defiance. That act of gathering itself became a statement: we will not disappear. We are part of a people, bound across generations, who mark time not only by the turning of the seasons, but by the turning of the soul.

To gather for Rosh Hashanah on a college campus is to stand in that same stream of continuity. Today, thank God, Jewish students gather not under duress but in freedom. Yet the meaning is similar: hatred has not silenced us, assimilation has not dissolved us, fear has not erased us. Standing together with classmates and friends, Jewish students declare: we are visible, we belong, and our values are not only intact but alive.

Judaism is not a private disposition. It is a public and communal faith. We gather to hear the shofar not alone, but together — not hidden, but visible.

The synagogue is more than a sanctuary — it is a gathering place. The shofar is not sounded for one individual’s ear but for the conscience of the entire community. This matters especially on campus, where belonging is contested, and identity is often treated as optional or disposable. When Jewish students step away from ordinary routines to gather for Rosh Hashanah, they proclaim not retreat, but presence. The visible act of praying, eating, singing, and being together is itself a civic statement: Jewish students are part of the campus community, not apart from it.

Rosh Hashanah is also about values and ideas that speak directly to the student experience. Renewal is central: the chance to begin again with honesty and hope. Accountability is demanded: recognizing where we have fallen short and seeking repair. Hope is sustained: the conviction that life has meaning, that community endures, and that the future can be better than the past. These values are not parochial. They are civic virtues, urgently needed in higher education. Renewal mirrors intellectual curiosity and the willingness to admit mistakes. Accountability parallels the integrity demanded of scholarship and research. Hope provides the resilience that sustains learning communities in difficult times.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks captured this universal power when he wrote that the shofar is “a wordless cry in a religion of words, a sound produced by breath.” That cry pierces complacency and insists on reflection. And in another reflection on the High Holidays, Rabbi Sacks added: “We defeat death, not by living forever, but by living by values that live forever.” Jewish continuity is not merely survival — it is the determination to live by values strong enough to withstand hatred, exile, and indifference.

These truths are not abstract. They have been lived out on campuses across the country. At the University of Pittsburgh, Chabad held a “Shofar in the Park” service where students, families, and faculty gathered outdoors to hear the sounds of the ram’s horn and to share brisket sandwiches.

The event came amid concerns about rising antisemitism in the city, yet students still came. “Community is the best part — showing that every Jewish student here has a family,” Rabbi Schmuli Rothstein told them, reminding each student that they are part of something larger than themselves, a family across generations. At other universities, Hillel chapters organized services and festive meals, some drawing hundreds of students who might otherwise feel alone in their observance. On the Georgetown campus, services included public blasts of the shofar so that even those walking by could hear. At large state schools and small liberal arts colleges alike, the act of gathering for Rosh Hashanah became a visible affirmation: Jewish life is here, proud, and present.

That affirmation is critical in a moment when antisemitism is rising in classrooms, in student organizations, and online. Jewish students have reported feeling pressured to conceal their identity or their commitments. Observing Rosh Hashanah openly is therefore not only an act of faith, but an act of strength.

The world does not stop for the Jewish calendar. Classes go on, deadlines remain, and the pace of academic life is relentless. That reality makes it all the more important to pause, to observe, to celebrate, and to make a statement.

And there is strength in that very tension. The refusal of the wider world to bend to the Jewish calendar has always been part of Jewish resilience. For millennia, Jews have carried their holy days into the rhythm of other people’s worlds. That same determination is required today. To stop, to gather, to hear the shofar even when the rest of the campus marches on, is a declaration that Jewish time matters and that Jewish life endures.

So this year, the call to Jewish students is clear: use your voice. Be part of the Jewish community. Choose to gather at services, to share meals, to hear the shofar, to mark time in the way our people always have. Jewish life thrives when it is lived openly, not quietly deferred.

And to the broader campus — administrators, professors, and fellow students — this holiday carries a challenge of its own. Notice Jewish students when they step away. Support them with respect, not reluctance. Understand that their observance is not withdrawal but contribution. Judaism is about public gathering and visible continuity. To neglect it is to weaken not only Jewish students, but the very ideals of higher education.

The sound of the shofar is a reminder of what is at stake. It echoes beyond sanctuaries and into quads, libraries, and lecture halls. It proclaims that Jewish life is here, vibrant, and indispensable, affirming that hatred has not won and will not win. It insists that Jewish continuity is not merely about survival, but about living by values that endure. And it invites the campus to see in Jewish observance a model of what community, resilience, and faithfulness look like in practice.

Am Yisrael Chai. The Jewish people live, and Jewish students belong.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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