Portland Jewish community marks 1 year since Oct. 7 Hamas attack

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Monday marks one year since Hamas launched its attack on Israel, with tens of thousands dying in the aftermath.

It's a significant time for Portland's Jewish community, who are also observing a holy weekend. Two organizations spent Sunday evening memorializing the events in their own ways.

"It's a time Jews gather normally, but this has special significance because of the anniversary of October 7," said Bob Horenstein, communications chief of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

He said it's an important time for the Jewish community around the globe who just celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the start of the new year, and now look toward Yom Kippur on Saturday - the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. This weekend, though, is solemn.

"A year ago tomorrow was the worst mass casualty event against Jews since the Holocaust," Horenstein said.

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Congregation Neveh Shalom is mourning the 1,200 lives lost when Hamas attacked Israel and the remaining 101 hostages who have yet to return home.

"Every Israeli probably knows someone that has been directly impacted by what happened on October 7," he said. Horenstein has family in Israel that he said spent much of the past week in a bomb shelter.

Across town, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) gathered downtown to perform Tashlich, a water ritual in which stones symbolizing the year's missteps are cast away.

"We're here to create community space for Jews who are practicing during the High Holidays but also who have struggled over the past year because so many institutions in the Jewish community are still bound up in Zionism," said JVP member Zia Laboff.

Speakers explained the stones cast carry the weight of complicity in Israel's attacks over the past year, which have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and left 495,000 in Gaza vulnerable to severe hunger, AP News reports.

Horenstein said the Jewish community has feared for its safety over the past year, adding Neveh Shalom has spent hundreds of thousands on security.

"We've also seen a rise in vile anti-Israel hate and anti-Semitism," he said. "It's happened nationally but it's also happening here in the Portland area which is really unfortunate."

Laboff thinks many feel uncomfortable, and that a core belief is the value of all civilian life.

"We are seeing this moment of Israel continuing to use the idea of Jewish safety to push into regional war ... which is so separate from the continued rationale they're giving about hostages. It seems very clear that Israel does not care about Jewish safety or would not plunge the region into further war," Laboff said. "I think a lot of people, when they are feeling unsafe, they're really just feeling uncomfortable and I hope that people can sit in that discomfort, especially as we're in Rosh Hashanah, as we're in this time of reflection."