What I see and hope to see in NC one year after the massacre in Israel | Opinion

Tomorrow will mark the anniversary of the worst day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. On Oct. 7 last year, the Jewish people experienced a pogrom in which Hamas terrorists attacked 24 communities, two cities and the Nova music festival — murdering nearly 1200 individuals, torturing and sexually assaulting others and abducting almost 250 individuals to Gaza. As Jews, we thought pogroms, violent riots against Jews that mostly occurred in Europe, had ended by the mid-1940s. We were wrong.

As Jews in North Carolina, we were shaken to our core when we witnessed the panic and horror through videos and texts. My second cousin was murdered that day. The violence triggered memories of intergenerational Jewish trauma of persecution and exile.

As war has been waged to uproot terrorists and prevent another attack — which has been explicitly threatened and prepared for by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian leaders — this past year's battles have wrought displacement, devastation and the immense loss of civilian life in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon.

I belong to three Charlotte synagogues (Reform, Conservative and Orthodox) and am past co-chair of our North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association. The war has left Jews across the state and across the denominational spectrum exhausted and emotional. Expressions of pain and grief, the mentioning of the hostages' names and plight and prayers for peace have been constant.

For many of us, the war is personal and our souls are not settled. There are 15.8 million Jews globally with 7.3 million Jews living in Israel. For the North Carolina Jewish community, this past year has been marked by sleepless nights, anxious days and interfaith relationships stressed, stretched and, at times, broken. There has been a tsunami of antisemitism, flooding every avenue of Jewish life in schools, jobs and governments. There is intense security at every place and time Jews gather. Our Islamic neighbors, too, are experiencing rising Islamophobia.

At the same time, this year has been marked by an empathy that has moved me. Neighbors, acquaintances, academic and interfaith colleagues have shown they deeply care. The year has been highlighted by an enormous amount of Jewish pride even in the face of physical and emotional peril — the wearing of Jewish stars and the sharing of support for Israel. We are experiencing Jewish renewal — a resurgence of Jews wanting to reconnect with their Jewish community.

The milestone marking 365 days of misery falls at the exact midpoint of our Jewish High Holidays, our ten days of intense reflection and prayer. Wednesday, we welcomed a new Jewish year, and Friday, we will commence our 25-hour Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, fast and earnest self-reckoning. These days of introspection come at a time when the war is expanding. We pray for its quick end.

In 2008, at the time of an event hosting Israelis and Palestinians in Charlotte, Robi Damelon of Israel taught me: "Fighting here does not create peace there."

Now, I ask the opposite — could creating partnerships for peace here advance peace there?

I pray that this anniversary moves us to transform polarization into peace-pursuing partnerships and inspires community healing in which Jews, Muslims and people of all faiths, as well as the secular, can hear each other's pain and lift up each other's prayers.

I pray that this anniversary and new Jewish year will hasten a reality where the 101 remaining hostages in Gaza will come home, where the war will end and the rebuilding of the Middle East can begin with new Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed to peace. I pray that we, as North Carolinians, will do our part in making it so.

Rabbi Judy Schindler is Rabbi Emerita of Charlotte's Temple Beth El and immediate past co-chair of the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association.