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Two years later, I still can’t forget October 7th—even if the world has
By Ariella Kimmel, president of Winston Wilmont
Like most people can tell you exactly where they were on 9/11, I remember every detail of October 7th with crushing clarity. I was glued to my phone, my hands shaking as I scrolled through scenes that felt ripped from a horror movie. But this wasn’t fiction—these were real families being murdered in their beds, real grandparents being executed on Facebook Live, real children ripped from their parents’ arms, real young people gunned down while dancing at a music festival. This wasn’t some distant tragedy—it was an attack that cut straight to the heart of Jewish existence.
The images from that day are burned into my memory. I can still hear those terrified Israeli voices calling from bomb shelters, still see that young woman being dragged by her hair into Gaza, still feel the gut-punch of hearing about parents using their own bodies to shield their children from bullets. For my generation, it was our darkest day, forever changing what it means to be Jewish in a world that often looks away from our suffering.
What stings almost as much is how quickly the initial wave of support disappeared. Sure, there was an outpouring of grief and solidarity in those first few days. But before long, the same streets that had hosted vigils were filled with protesters cheering for the very terrorists who committed these atrocities. Here in Canada, Jewish students faced harassment on campus, our synagogues were vandalized, and politicians danced around condemning the hatred outright.
Now, two years later, it’s like the world has developed selective amnesia—or worse, is actively rewriting history. People post about “context” for Hamas’s actions, as if anything could justify the systematic murder, rape, and torture of innocent people. Governments stood up at the UN and announced they are recognizing a Palestinian state, while pleas for the return of the 48 remaining hostages have become little more than performative footnotes in diplomatic statements about “both sides.”
I can’t just move on. None of us who lived through that day can, even those of us watching from abroad. October 7th isn’t some academic debate point. It’s a raw wound that hasn’t healed.
The world might choose to forget. But as a Canadian Jew, I won’t. I’ll remember every victim. I’ll remember who fell silent. And I’ll remember who truly stood with us when it counted most.
Israelis are gathering while waiting for the release in Gaza of six hostages by Palestinian militants, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday Feb. 22, 2025. Oded Balilty/AP Photo.
Has the world learned anything from the lesson of October 7th?
By Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a human rights group in Geneva
October 7, 2023, was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. An Iranian-backed army of thousands of Hamas terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 men, women, and children, committing unspeakable atrocities, and kidnapping more than 250 people—babies to grandparents. For Israelis, it was not a “cycle of violence.” It was a pogrom.
The shock was not only what happened that day, but what followed. Much of the world could not bring itself to say a simple moral truth: that the deliberate slaughter of Jews is evil.
Within days, international organizations and media outlets shifted from horror to equivocation, from sympathy to “context,” from grief to blame. At the United Nations, no emergency session condemned Hamas. Instead, Israel—the country under attack—was put on trial.
