| | Good Monday morning. It is the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. In today’s Daily Kickoff , we talk to residents of the Israeli kibbutzim that were attacked a year ago today, and look at how the anniversary of the attacks is playing out on elite American college campuses. We also talk to legislators and Jewish communal leaders about domestic efforts to fight antisemitism and threats from abroad to Israel and the U.S. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Marc Rowan and Rep. Josh Gottheimer. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - Communities, organizations and government officials around the world will mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks today.
- In Washington, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be joined by Rabbi Aaron Alexander, a senior rabbi at Adas Israel Congregation, and participate in a yahrzeit candlelighting ceremony at 11:45 a.m. ET at the White House.
- Vice President Kamala Harris will mark the anniversary of the attacks at her Naval Observatory residence at 4 p.m. ET, where she’ll plant a memorial tree along with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and deliver remarks. Earlier in the day, Emhoff will attend the American Jewish Committee’s National October 7 Memorial Commemoration in Washington.
- Former President Donald Trump will mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Miami, with an event for Jewish leaders at his Doral golf club. The event will "honor the 1,200 lives lost" and "remember the victims of antisemitic violence.” Trump is also reportedly scheduled to visit the Ohel, in Queens, New York, this morning, where the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson is buried.
- Vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), will mark the day at a noon event hosted by the Philos Project on the National Mall.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is commemorating the day at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas.
- In New York, Israel’s U.N. mission will hold a memorial event at 3 p.m. Speakers include U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield; Rabbi Doron Perez, whose son Daniel was killed on Oct. 7 and whose body is still being held in Gaza; and Sigal Mansouri, whose daughters Roya and Norel were murdered at the Nova music festival. Israeli singer Eden Golan will perform her Eurovision entry, “Hurricane,” at the ceremony.
- The Israeli Embassy in Washington will hold a memorial event at 2 p.m.
- Tonight, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington will hold an evening of remembrance at The Anthem in Washington.
- Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Haley Stevens (D-MI) will join the Jewish Democratic Council of America for a virtual community gathering at noon.
- The American Enterprise Institute is holding a discussion featuring AEI senior fellow Danielle Pletka, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Elliott Abrams, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies David A. Deptula and former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
| Just over a year ago, Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square was the site of some heated and at times physical confrontations between secular and religious Israelis over gender-segregated prayer in public spaces. But just over a week after clashes marred the Yom Kippur holiday, the square became the site of a vigil that has never ended, for a people who have yet to be able to close one of the darkest chapters in their recent history, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
Fresh photos of hostages, fallen soldiers and Oct. 7 victims are interspersed among faded images that line the fountain. Memorial candles flicker in the breeze. Standing solo and in groups, people pause in front of pictures and stuffed animals, some quietly wiping away tears.
Scenes like this will play out across Israel and the world today. Across Israel’s south, individual communities that bore the brunt of Hamas’ attacks will hold private memorial ceremonies.
Outside Kibbutz Reim, at the site of the Nova music festival, approximately 1,000 people — mainly family and friends of those murdered at the party — gathered at the site before dawn for the one-year anniversary of the massacre, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky reports.
A heavy silence hung in the air, broken at times by a wail and by the pounding of not-too-distant artillery cannons, at 6:29 a.m. this morning — the moment when one year ago today Hamas launched its deadly assault on southern Israel, first with a barrage of rockets and mortar shells, followed by a mass border breach.
Before the service and afterward, they gathered at the makeshift memorial that has been built at the site, lighting candles and saying prayers at the photograph-topped markers for each of the 364 people who were murdered at the festival. Some had visited the area several times before, while others were there for the first time.
“I come here every two weeks,” Moti Harlev, whose 41-year-old daughter, Hila Keylin, came to the festival to celebrate her Oct. 5 birthday, told eJP. “This is the last place where she enjoyed herself. And because of that I come here,” said Harlev, who came with his family, including three of Keylin’s four children. (The youngest, 9, stayed home.) “We help her children as much as we can. They came here today, but I'm not sure it is good for them.”
A year after the attacks, Israelis are still unable to properly mourn the losses of their loved ones. A memorial event organized by families of Oct. 7 victims that was expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees to Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon park this evening was forced to cancel most of the tickets over safety concerns following Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week and Hezbollah’s ongoing firing of rockets and missiles.
For the friends and families of the 101 remaining hostages, today brings added grief. Those whose loved ones were killed on Oct. 7 and then taken to Gaza, or who were killed in captivity, face the indignity of being denied the ability to grieve their loved ones according to Jewish custom.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced this morning the confirmed death of hostage Idan Shtivi, who was believed to have been killed at the Nova music festival, where he was a photographer. Shtivi’s body was taken to Gaza, where it remains among the bodies of dozens of other Israelis whose families are unable to bury their loved ones.
And across the U.S., events and vigils meant to punctuate the end of this dark year will face added security threats. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a statement in advance of the anniversary, warning against the possibility of extremist violence without citing any specific threats.
President Joe Biden released a statement marking the day, saying that last October’s attack “brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of hatred and violence against the Jewish people.” Biden also stated his belief “that history will also remember October 7th as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”“
On this day of remembrance,” Biden concluded, “which also falls during the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, we honor the indomitable spirit of the Jewish people and mourn the victims of October 7th. May their memory be a blessing.” | one year on 'I mark Oct. 7 every day'  Melissa Weiss In the first weeks of the war last fall, reporters in Israel were given access to the kibbutzim and Nova music festival site when the entire Gaza border area was still considered an active military zone. On a day that reporters were taken to Kibbutz Nir Oz last October, Hadas Calderon guided them through her ex-husband’s home and traced her children’s efforts to evade Hamas. Nearly a year later, reporters were again given access to the sites of Hamas’ deadly massacre. Some of the locations have been cleaned up and sanitized for the many solidarity missions that have traveled to the region over the last year. Others were private homes that members of the press were given special permission to enter, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports from the Gaza Envelope.
One year later: The Calderon house, like all the others on its block, sits empty. A layer of dust has settled on the sturdy wooden furniture that Ofer Calderon built for his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. On the morning of Oct. 7, Calderon and two of his four children were awakened by Hamas terrorists in their neighborhood and attempted to hide, rushing out the back of their home, through a window and into the bushes before they were captured. Sahar and Erez Calderon were taken with their father, released a month and a half later in the agreement that freed most of the child hostages. Ofer remains in captivity in Gaza. Their mother, Hadas, survived the attack on the other side of the kibbutz; her mother and niece were killed. On the front door are posters of Ofer and his children. Peeking through a broken window, one can see that the house has been largely cleared out — all that remains in the living area are a couch, tables and chairs. The shattered glass, scattered papers and household items that littered the floors after the home was ransacked by terrorists were cleaned up months ago. The only item on the wooden kitchen table is a mug with the word toda — “thank you” — that had survived that day and all the days since.
Read the full story here.
Hostage forum: In The Wall Street Journal, former hostage Sahar Calderon calls for her father’s release from Hamas captivity, while in The New York Times, 86-year-old Yaffa Adar recalls her time in captivity. campus beat 3,000 miles apart, two campuses plan to quietly mark Oct. 7 — and hope for peace  Gabby deutch Ahead of the anniversary of the Oct.7 Hamas attacks, Jewish faculty members, staff and students at Stanford and at Columbia University, two elite institutions marred by antisemitism and divisive campus protests last spring, talked to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Haley Cohen in late September about their hopes for the new school year. At both campuses, they spoke with a gritty weariness developed after Oct. 7 upended life for Jewish students on campuses across the United States. Taken together, these two prestigious universities — 3,000 miles apart — offer a window into what Jewish students are experiencing a year after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Today, they will gather to mourn and to come together, to mark the somber anniversary, while 101 hostages still remain in Gaza.
Realism and optimism: “It's very challenging to be realistic and optimistic at the same time. But that's what it is to be a Jew,” Rabbi Dov Greenberg said, as he and his family prepared to welcome more than 100 students for Shabbat dinner at the Stanford Chabad house that night. “If we're faced with hostility and hatred, we're not going to let haters define our Jewishness.”
Read the full story here. U.S.-Israel relationship White House defends military aid to Israel ahead of 10/7 anniversary  ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES Vice President Kamala Harris stood by the Biden administration’s military assistance to Israel in a “60 Minutes” interview, describing it as “our imperative” to help Israel defend itself against threats from Iran and Iranian-backed militias, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Aid argument: “The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200 ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel,” Harris said in a clip released a day before the full CBS News interview, which is scheduled to air on Monday. “When we think about the threat that Hamas, Hezbollah presents, Iran, I think that it is without any question our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks.”
Read the full story here. Q&A Gov. Glenn Youngkin discusses his work fighting antisemitism in Virginia  CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES In many ways, Virginia has been at the center of confronting growing turmoil on college campuses and elsewhere in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks one year ago. But the state’s ongoing efforts to counter a surge in anti-Jewish prejudice amid Israel’s war with Hamas predated the attacks, according to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who established a commission to combat antisemitism on his first day in office in 2022 and has continued to actively speak out on such issues throughout his tenure. Speaking with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel last Wednesday, Youngkin discussed his administration's efforts to combat antisemitism, shared his plans for commemorating the Oct. 7 attacks and weighed in on rising tensions in the Middle East, among other things.
‘Clear-eyed understanding’: “We find ourselves, I believe, at a moment of clear-eyed understanding that antisemitism in the United States and in Virginia is clear and present and is a danger,” he told JI. “We also recognize the concerted efforts of evil forces around the world, particularly with regard to trying to eradicate Israel and the Jewish people.”
Read the full story here.
Bonus: The Washington Post published letters to the editor about Oct. 7 from Youngkin, Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Rabbi Susan Shankmana and Maryland House of Delegates Assistant Majority Leader Adrian Boafo. alarm bell ADL CEO Greenblatt: American Jewish community is at an 'inflection point' as antisemitism skyrockets  ADL Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. are hitting unprecedented highs not seen in a century, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod ahead of the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, bringing the community to an “inflection point.”
New record: New ADL data released on Sunday showed that the ADL has recorded more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. since Oct. 7, a record high since the ADL began tracking such data in 1979. The number of antisemitic episodes has more than doubled from the year prior. “This is a moment in time the likes of which we haven’t seen in well over a century,” Greenblatt told JI. “Even prior to Oct. 7, we had seen… an increase in antisemitic incidents. A worsening of antisemitic attitudes. Since 10/7, things have exploded.”
Read the full interview here. tehran talk Neutralizing Iran's goal of wiping out Israel key to ending Middle East conflict, Wasserman Schultz says  ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES A year after the Oct. 7 attacks, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that ending the growing conflict in the Middle East rests with focusing on its source: Iran and the Islamic regime’s commitment to eliminating Israel and the Jewish people.
Long-term vision: Speaking to JI last week, a day after Iran’s second ballistic missile attack on Israel, Wasserman Schultz said that the U.S., Israel and American allies in the Arab world and globally “need to continue to come together to focus on ensuring that the terrorist commitment — Iran as the mastermind, as the ringleader of an obsession with destroying Israel and killing Jews around the world — that has to be neutered. That goal has to be undermined and neutralized.”
Read the full interview here.
Security assistance: Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is locked in a competitive Senate race, called on Congress, during an address at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America on Wednesday, to reconvene over the October recess to pass an Israel aid package as it faces the possibility of war with Iran, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. | Time to Take On Iran: In The New York Times, former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who sat in Israel’s war cabinet until June, argues in favor of serious action against Iran. “In a post-Oct. 7 reality, it is clear that Israel must — and the world should — be proactive and determined in the face of the threat the Iranian regime poses to Israel’s existence and the region’s future. The world cannot overlook Iran’s role in the strangling of freedom of navigation and the harming of global commerce in the Red Sea or its technological and military support for Russia in Ukraine. The regime and its axis must face a strong and united Middle East, led and supported by the United States, that is ready to take the initiative to prevent the realization of the Iranian vision of a regional Oct. 7. Now is the time to bolster regional cooperation and make a broad effort to confront Iran.” [NYTimes]
Doing the World’s Dirty Work: In The Telegraph, former Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy stresses the need for Israel to directly confront Iran’s terror proxies across the region. “Israel is doing the world’s dirty work. It does not want your sympathy; it demands your respect. It is single-handedly taking out the world’s most wanted terrorists with bounties on their heads. It is dismantling the Iranian regime’s proxy armies and disrupting their supply routes. It is conducting espionage operations far beyond Q’s wildest ambitions. It is showing the world what it means to have a spine and stand up for yourself, your survival, and your country. To withstand unimaginable pressure to do what you’ve got to do to keep your family safe. In Israel we all dream of peace, but we know peace is impossible while we are surrounded by enemies that openly seek our annihilation. … And have no doubt, if Israel does not win the October 7 War, there will be a next time, and it will be worse, and it will be worse because the enemies of the West will conclude that it will keep saving them from the wars that they start.” [Telegraph]
Echoes of Krakow: The Free Press’ Matti Friedman looks at the repercussions of the long-term mass displacement of Israelis from northern Israel. “My visit evoked others — to Kraków, or Cairo, or Marrakech — the kind of places where the guides tell you that Jews once lived here, but not anymore. I thought of this evacuation as temporary, but that’s not the way it feels when you’re here. It felt like the landscape was slipping from our hands. Impermanence is the Jewish nightmare, one that was supposed to be solved by Zionism and Israel, as embodied by the people who founded Hanita. I wanted to ask them about it, but there was no one here. By evacuating civilians from 200 square miles of northern Israel, the government meant to save lives, and it did. But it also effectively declared that the communities here, denuded of residents, are legitimate targets. This reality may be changing now, as the Israeli offensive gains steam, but it hasn’t changed yet.” [FreePress]
Tehran’s Choice: In The Wall Street Journal, Thomas Kaplan considers how the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks shifted Israel’s approach to Iran. “Is the ideological fetish of destroying Israel worth losing tens of millions of people — and the concomitant eradication of thousands of years of patrimony? Such is the question before Tehran. Having witnessed the daring and ruthless manner in which Israel executed in Lebanon the decapitation of Iran’s prize piece on the chessboard, not to mention the impressive long-range raids prosecuted on the Houthis in Yemen, Tehran should realize that the continued pursuit of nuclear weapons — successful or not — could be a death sentence for the regime and the Iranian nation.” [WSJ] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | Reuters reports that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that Israel was planning to target him following two large-scale operations targeting Hezbollah members carrying pagers and walkie-talkies provided by the Iran-backed terror group…
The Washington Post does a deep dive into the dual operations that targeted Hezbollah members last month, calling it “one of the most successful and inventive penetrations of an enemy by an intelligence service in recent history”...
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is slated to travel to Washington this week for meetings with senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin…
An Israeli border police officer was killed and 10 others injured in a terror attack in Beersheva…
Hamas head Yahya Sinwar remains committed to armed struggle against Israel, according to interviews by Reuters with half a dozen Palestinian and Arab officials…
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called Israel’s actions across the region a "collective genocide"...
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was freed in a deal to release detained American basketball player Brittney Griner from Russia, is involved in Houthi efforts to purchase millions of dollars in arms from Moscow…
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who graduated from Harvard Law School, called on Harvard President Alan Garber to produce and distribute “a detailed plan to ensure the safety of Jewish students” on the Cambridge campus…
A bipartisan group of 130 House lawmakers joined a resolution, set to be introduced this week, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, calling for Hamas’ full surrender and expressing support for Israel’s right to defend itself, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Police in the Detroit suburbs of West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills are investigating a spate of incidents over the weekend in which antisemitism literature was distributed to homes in the heavily Jewish towns…
The Financial Times interviews Apollo Global co-founder Marc Rowan about the future of Wall Street investing…
The Wall Street Journal reports on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s plans to build resorts along the Albanian coast…
Iran imposed a series of flight restrictions overnight in anticipation of a possible Israeli attack; flights resumed by early Monday after the restrictions were lifted early…
Music executive Marvin Schlachter, who helped usher in the disco era, died at 90…
Former Brooklyn District Attorney Eugene Gold, who led the prosecution of the “Son of Sam” killings and fought for Soviet Jewish emigration, died at 100… |  Ilia yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images A woman grieves at the Nova music festival site this morning during a ceremony honoring the nearly 400 people killed at the festival a year ago. |  Brandeis Center Founder and chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, he served as assistant secretary of education in the Trump administration, Kenneth L. Marcus turns 58...
Retired chairman and CEO of Halco Lighting Technologies, Allan Nelkin… Former owner of Murray's Cheese, the nation's leading purveyor of artisanal cheese, Rob Kaufelt turns 77… Highland Park, Ill., resident, Margery Nyberg... President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin turns 72... Former chair of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women and senior advisor to the chairman of the Genesis Prize Foundation, Jill Smith... Former national chair of the Anti-Defamation League and member of its board of directors, Barry Curtiss-Lusher turns 73… Founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Bruce Lawrence Bialosky turns 71... Retired deputy director of community security at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, Ron Vosatka... Co-founder of the Israel Policy Forum in 1993, Michael W. Sonnenfeldt turns 69... President of Detroit's Imperial Management and a board member of the William Davidson Foundation, Eli Saulson... Creator, host and producer of “Extra Virgin” on the Cooking Channel, Gabriele Corcos turns 52... Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Closter, N.J., Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner... Composer for musical theatre on Broadway and the West End, Matthew Sklar turns 51... Political fundraiser and strategist, Arie Lipnick... Member of the Knesset for the Shas party since 2016, now serving as the minister of religious affairs, Michael Malchieli turns 42... Director of the leadership institute at AIPAC, Natalie Lascar Lefkowitz... Senior director for philanthropic initiatives at the Jewish Federations of North America, Adam Teitelbaum... CEO of Holbrook, N.Y.-based MW Impressions, Daniel Mael... Executive assistant for global client operations at WPP, Tayla Harris... Manager of editorial and content strategy for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Magazine, Barbara E. Martinez... Senior associate on the real estate team at Korn Ferry, Samuel Schear... Co-founder and chief growth officer at Riseup, Tamara Harel-Cohen... | | | | | |
