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This Year, We Remember the Hostages; Then We Live
People gather in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. Photo: Paulina Patimer
Throughout the month of October, Jews all over the world have gathered around the table with family and friends to celebrate, reflect, and mourn. Rosh Hashanah, a day traditionally filled with love and laughter, marked the beginning of the holy month. Next was Yom Kippur, the day of deep contemplation and expiation. Now, we’ve transitioned into the more festive celebrations of Sukkot and Simchat Torah.
Typically, as we enter Sukkot and Simchat Torah, we are filled with joy and gratitude, celebrating the harvest and dancing with the Torah in hand. But this year feels different. As the anniversary of the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust looms, tears stream down our faces and we are paralyzed by anger and profound sadness. The usual sweetness of the New Year has turned bitter.
How can we remain hopeful for the future when 101 innocent hostages were missing from our Rosh Hashanah meals, Yom Kippur break fasts, and now our Sukkahs?
This October, words like “dark,” “evil,” and “unfathomable” feel empty. Our hearts, already broken, shatter into a million pieces as we realize that our brothers and sisters were supposed to be home by now. For the people of Israel and Jews around the world, the past year has been nothing short of a nightmare.
Anti-Israel protests have flooded our streets and our college campuses. Organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, under the banner of Palestinian suffering, have perpetuated dangerous antisemitic stereotypes while seeking to justify their cause. Over the past year, more Americans have called for ceasefires, an end to “genocide,” and divestment from Israel, rather than raising their voices to demand that we “Bring Them Home.”
Universities across the country became toxic hotbeds of Jew-hatred and anti-Israel rhetoric, invoking the same ostracizing antisemitic ideologies that paved the way for the Holocaust.
At my alma mater, UCLA, I often felt fearful walking through campus, as intense, intimidating, and sometimes violent protests unfolded.
After all, while chants calling for an “intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — which calls for the destruction of Israel — resounded, anti-Zionist professors held seminars just days after October 7th, attempting to contextualize Hamas’ inhuman attack. Where were campus leaders or administrators enforcing the student conduct code or upholding the university’s values?
To my dismay, at my graduation, students armed with keffiyehs proudly waved their red-stained hands, symbolizing the brutality of the Farhud and the Second Intifada, both of which led to the murder of numerous Jews and Israelis. In the absence of leadership and moral clarity, Jewish students were forced to hold the university accountable for allowing an encampment to enforce a “Jew Exclusion Zone.”
Sadly, not much has changed this school year. While Jews celebrate the joyous holiday of Sukkot, Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine has built a sukkah of their own, using our tradition as a tool to further their agenda.
I could go on and on about the injustice of our nation’s discourse regarding the atrocities of October 7th and its aftermath. But now, as we continue to mourn, I choose to divert my attention to the hostages.
Not a day has gone by that we haven’t thought about you. Not a day has passed without me defending you. I begged my editors at my university paper to publish my words about you, and I urged my friends to listen as I explained your situation. I read, I researched, and I hoped. I, along with so many others in our community, have embraced my Jewish identity like never before. Witnessing your fight has reminded me why I am immensely proud to be a passionate Jew.
On days that feel lifeless, I will honor your lives by challenging myself to embody the resilience that defines the Jewish people and enables us to keep moving forward. I will cherish the memory of each hostage whose life was so brutally taken, and hold close the courage of those who continue to fight for their lives with every passing moment.
Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, Master Sgt Ori Danino, Abraham Munder, Alex Dancyg, Yagev Buchshtab, Chaim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Amiram Cooper, Chaim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Lior Rudaeff, Elyakim Libman, Orion Hernandez, Chanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, Shani Louk, Amit Buskila, Itzhak Gelerenter, Ron Benjamin, Sonthaya Oakkharasr, Sudthisak Rinthalak, Gadi Haggai, Ron Scherman, Nik Beizer, Tal Chaimi, Joshua Mollel, Eden Zecharya, Ziv Dado, Jonathan Samerano, Sahar Baruch, Dror Kaplun, Aviv Atzili, Arye Zalmanovich, Ronen Engel, Maya Goren, Guy Iluz, Ofir Noa Marciano, Yehudit Weiss, Uriel Baruch, Tamir Adar, Yossi Sharabi, Itay Svirsky, Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka, Alon Shamriz, Inbar Heiman:
May your memory be a blessing. And may your memory ignite a fire within each and every Jewish person to relentlessly pursue and support the justice that Israel deserves: bringing home the rest of the hostages. Your memory should not drift into the abyss of a yearly commemoration of a tragic event, but rather become a constant source of fuel that drives us to protect our people, our home, and our future.
Amidst the grief that overwhelms what is usually a festive time of year, I think of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’ explanation of Jewish resilience: “To mend the past, first you have to secure the future. I learned this from the Holocaust survivors I came to know. They were among the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met, and I wanted to understand how they were able to survive, knowing what they knew, seeing what they saw… Jews survived every tragedy because they looked forward.”
Certainly, we must look forward. But perhaps even more importantly, we must carry the memory of October 7th with us into November and beyond. While the elimination of terrorist leaders like Hassan Nasrallah and Yahya Sinwar brings us some relief, it is not nearly enough.
I cannot think of a better way to commemorate October 7th than to embrace the privilege it is to be alive, using our strength not only to preserve the memory of the hostages, but also to fight for the lives of those still with us. So, later this week, we will dance for Simchat Torah. But we must also envision that glorious moment when the hostages, too, will dance again.
Emily Samuels is a recent graduate of UCLA.
The post This Year, We Remember the Hostages; Then We Live first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.