It's a 'very difficult time' for U.S. Jews as High Holy Days and Oct. 7 anniversary coincide

Known as “The Days of Awe,” Judaism’s High Holy Days — which begin on Wednesday — annually provide an emotional mix of celebration, introspection and atonement for Jews around the world.

This year, for many, the emotions will be extraordinarily powerful, given that the midpoint of the 10 days spanning Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is Oct. 7 — the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the still-ongoing war in Gaza.

For Jews in the U.S. — the world’s second-largest Jewish community after Israel — the past 12 months have been challenging in many ways linked to Oct. 7. There’s been a surge in antisemitic incidents, and many college campuses were wracked by divisive pro-Palestinian protests. Jews grieved for Israelis killed or taken hostage by Hamas; many also are grieving for the tens of thousands of Palestinians subsequently killed during Israeli's military offensive in Gaza.

“It’s been a very difficult time, the most difficult time for a Jew in America that I’ve been alive,” said Gayle Pomerantz, senior rabbi at Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom. “I’m hoping that the holidays will help to contextualize our suffering and not let it overtake us.”

Another Miami Beach rabbi, Eliot Pearlson of Temple Menorah, took note of the civilian losses on all sides.

"It’s painful to us because we know how much it hurts when we lose a child, when we lose a mother. And just because it’s on the other side doesn’t mean it’s less painful to us,” he said.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said the confluence of the Holy Days and the Oct. 7 anniversary created “an impossible moment” for rabbis ministering to their congregations.

He noted that liturgy for Rosh Hashana – the Jewish New Year – includes posing the question, “Who will live and who will die (in the coming year)?”

“That’s going to resonate in a different way this year, for certain,” Jacobs said, evoking Oct. 7 as “a day of unbelievable grief in a war that is not only not ending, but maybe expanding.”

Pomerantz and Jacobs each said they had seen signs of a resurgence of Jewish pride and solidarity. In Miami Beach, Pomerantz said, there have been higher enrollments in her synagogue’s religious school and “intro to Judaism” classes, as well as in attendance at worship services.

“This is a moment where we need one another. We need community,” said Jacobs, whose organization represents more than 800 Reform synagogues in North America.

At the same time, there is pervasive anxiety about a rise in antisemitic incidents over the past year.

Major Jewish groups have been tracking this trend, which was confirmed last week in the FBI’s 2023 Hate Crime Report.

It found that the Jewish community was the most-targeted religious group, with 1,832 anti-Jewish incidents accounting for 67% of all religiously motivated hate crimes recorded by the FBI. That was up from up 1,124 incidents the prior year. The incidents include vandalism, harassment, assault, and false bomb threats.

One consequence: A mood of vigilance. Ahead of the High Holy Days, for example, there have been online training sessions offered by the Secure Community Network, which describes itself as the official safety and security organization of Jewish communities in North America.

Topics have included how to stop severe bleeding and how to respond to an “active threat” alert.

CSS, another Jewish security organization, has offered classes in Krav Maga, a self-defense system developed for the Israeli military that uses techniques derived from boxing, judo, karate and other disciplines.

The CEO and executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, provided a stark overview of the security situation in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

“I travel around the country all the time,” he said. “Any synagogue, any Jewish community center, any Jewish home for the elderly has armed guards in it -- people with firearms, in uniforms.”

“That is not normal,” he said. “You cannot find other elderly homes or YMCAs with armed guards.”

“In these 10 days, between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, it’s going to be a lot of soul-searching in the Jewish community about where we are and where are we going,” Greenblatt said. "If we’re not safe on the campuses where we learn, in the places where we work, in the synagogues where we pray, where are we actually safe?"

Noah Farkas, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, agreed that this is a difficult time, appropriate for asking existential questions.

“We are checking in with our higher selves to try to be better, asking, ‘What do we do with our lives?’”

“The thing to do is to choose and to act,” he said. “To choose righteous things to do ... to be caring about others.”

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, counseled anxious Jews to take a long view.

“If we’re going to look at this narrow frame of what happened on Oct. 7 and subsequently, we can become very discouraged,” he said. “We have the ability to step back and see it in the context of a long history ... being misunderstood, being attacked, being hated, and then finding a way to be part of having justice prevail.”

On Rosh Hashana, Hauer said, Jews “pray for a better world, where the presence of God and goodness will be clear and where evil will wither.”

“It seems right now we’re actually as far away from that as we can be,” he added. “So there isn’t a better time ... Our prayers are most powerful when they come from very deep feelings.”

In many Jewish communities across the U.S., special services are planned in conjunction with the Oct. 7 anniversary.

One distinctive example is in New York City, where Jews who oppose Zionism and support pro-Palestinian causes will convene for an evening service as Rosh Hashana begins on Wednesday.

Leading the service will be Rabbi Andy Kahn, executive director of the American Council for Judaism – an 82-year-old organization focused on Judaism as a religion as opposed to a nationality.

“I’ve felt a big part of my calling is creating spaces for people who want a Jewish life, but don’t identify with Zionism,” said Kahn. “I know a lot of people – Jews, non-Jews, Palestinians — who want Palestinian liberation and who are not antisemitic.”

In Florida, Pomerantz’s Temple Beth Sholom will host a commemoration service for the Miami metro area in conjunction with other synagogues and institutions on Oct. 7.

Among the participants will be Rabbi Pearlson of Temple Menorah, a Conservative synagogue in Miami Beach, where he has lived since the 1960s.

For the High Holy Days, his message will be of unity and perseverance despite the “tremendous trauma,” highlighting that Jewish people repeatedly have endured and risen stronger from attacks throughout history.

“We thought we lived in a new modern world where … we were hoping that things had changed,” he told the AP. “In reality, the players might have changed, but the game hasn’t. And unfortunately, their motivation is to destroy the Jewish consciousness, the Jewish people, and heritage and culture.”

At Temple Beth Sholom, Pomerantz plans do something new for Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement. In the morning service, all six clergy at the temple will give short reflections about Israel, instead of one rabbi delivering a single message.

Pomerantz plans to focus on “a framework of hope.”

“It’s easy now to not feel hope. It’s easy to feel despair, discouraged, frustrated, betrayed, anguish,” she said. “My message is, we cannot see ourselves as victims. … We have to see ourselves as people who have agency, in some way. And with that comes hope.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Worshipers sing as they pray for peace, during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Worshipers dine on sushi after a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Craig Berko, left, director of membership at Temple Beth Sholom, chats with senior rabbi Gayle Pomerantz as she prepares to start a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Gayle Pomerantz, left, senior rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom, chats with worshipers before the start of a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Craig Berko, left, director of membership at Temple Beth Sholom, hands out prayer books as people arrive to a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Craig Berko, director of membership at Temple Beth Sholom, prepares to hand out prayer books during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Rabbi Robert A. Davis speaks during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Gayle Pomerantz, left, senior rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom, and Cantor Juval Porat sing during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Men wear yarmulkes as they attend a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Gayle Pomerantz, senior rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom, speaks during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Quinn Schimel, second from left, lights a Shabbat candle as she stands with her family during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Worshipers stand to say the names of loved ones in need of prayers during a Shabbat service, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed his popular defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in a surprise announcement that came as the country is embroiled in wars on multiple fronts across the region.

Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival. Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” and a “crisis of trust” between the men in his Tuesday evening announcement.

“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and defense minister,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defense minister.”

In the early days of the war, Israel's leadership presented a unified front as it responded to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But as the war has dragged on and spread to Lebanon, key policy differences have emerged.

While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant had taken a more pragmatic approach, saying that military force has created the necessary conditions for at least a temporary diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the militant group.

Many of the families of the hostages, along with tens of thousands of people who have joined anti-government protests, accuse Netanyahu of scuttling a deal in order to maintain his hold on power. Netanyahu's hard-line partners have threatened to bring down the government if he makes concessions to Hamas, raising the risk of early elections at a time when the prime minister's popularity is low.

Opposition groups called for mass protests late Tuesday. The grassroots forum representing hostage families said Gallant’s dismissal is “a direct continuation of the ‘efforts’ to torpedo the abductee deal.” It called on the new defense minister, Israel Katz, to make an “explicit commitment” to end the war and reach a deal to bring home their loved ones.

The dismissal comes at a delicate time. Israeli troops remain bogged down in Gaza, over a year after invading the territory, while Israeli ground troops are pressing ahead with a month-old ground invasion against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Israel also has clashed with Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and is facing the possibility of another strike by Iran. Iran has vowed to avenge an Israeli strike that came in response to an Oct. 1 Iranian missile attack, itself a reprisal for earlier Israeli attacks on Iranian-linked targets.

Israel's Channel 12 TV said that Netanyahu's decision was prompted by Gallant's decision this week to send out thousands of draft notices to young ultra-Orthodox men.

Under a longstanding and controversial arrangement, religious men are exempt from military service, which is compulsory for most Jews. This system has bred widespread resentment among the secular majority, and Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the government to scrap the system. Netanyahu, whose governing coalition depends on ultra-Orthodox parties, has not yet implemented the order.

Channel 13 TV said Netanyahu had also taken advantage of the U.S. election, when American attention is focused elsewhere, to dismiss his rival.

Gallant, a former general who has gained public respect with a gruff, no-nonsense personality, said in a statement: “The security of the state of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life’s mission."

Gallant has worn a simple, black buttoned shirt throughout the war in a sign of sorrow over the Oct. 7 attack and developed a strong relationship with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

A previous attempt by Netanyahu to fire Gallant in March 2023 sparked widespread street protests against Netanyahu. He also flirted with the idea of dismissing Gallant over the summer but held off until Tuesday's announcement.

Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.

Katz, 69, was a junior officer in the military decades ago and has little military experience, though he has been a key member of Netanyahu's Security Cabinet over the years. Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu rival who rejoined the government in September, will take the foreign affairs post.

Netanyahu has a long history of neutralizing his rivals. In his statement, he claimed he had made “many attempts” to bridge the gaps with Gallant.

“But they kept getting wider. They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy - our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it,” he said.

Eleanor H. Reich contributed reporting from New York.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, speaks to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, left, at the opening of the 25th Knesset session marking the anniversary of the "Iron Swords" war, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (Debbie Hill/Pool Photo via AP)

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, left, and Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel Sunday Oct. 27, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)