The October 7 Hamas massacre “rekindled the flame” in many Jews and Jewish allies, according to Aish CEO Rabbi Steven Burg.
Speaking on an ILTV panel reflecting on the anniversary of October 7 with other Aish educators, Burg and his colleague Rabbi Daniel Rowe said the tragic events of 2023 united the Jewish spirit in ways not seen in decades.
“There was a soul that was awakening,” Rowe described.
That awakening inspired many Jews to come to Israel to volunteer or study Torah, explained Shiffy Silverstone, an educator for Aish Aspire — a program of the Suzana and Ivan Kaufman Institute for Women’s Education — and a youth counselor.
“Usually, when a country is at war, everyone’s running away,” Silverstone said. “But people were coming. People were coming on trips. They were coming for a week just to do some charity, to go to different bases, to pack up food for soldiers, to help families. People wanted to be part of what we were going through over here. Because it wasn't just that Israel was at war. The Jewish people were experiencing something very, very big, and everyone wanted to be part of it in their own way.”
She added: “It was a massive shift, and we’re still seeing it today.”
Part of the catalyst, Burg said, was the unprecedented brutality of the attack — with more than 1,200 people murdered and more than 200 kidnapped — but also the global surge in antisemitism that followed.
“There was antisemitism from people they had been friends with on October 6, and on October 8, their friends didn’t want to talk to them,” Burg said.
Now, two years later, as hopes grow that the war will soon end and the live hostages have come home, the question is whether that renewed connection to Israel and Judaism remains.
Burg said it is up to educators like him and his colleagues to keep Jews connected, and that the key is the Bible.
“We need young people today to really understand what these lessons were, and understand that what you're being told online, first of all, is not necessarily true,” Burg said, noting that biblical teachings go back thousands of years and form the foundation of all three monotheistic religions. “Morality and ethics go back to the Jewish people — the Jews that are being demonized today.”
To that end, Aish has launched large-scale social media campaigns and other educational programs to empower those who want to stand with Israel.
“Now that you're interested, you need to understand more, because as you understand more, then you can explain more to people,” Burg said. “Sometimes we find, with a lot of our young people, they want to defend Israel, they want to defend the Jewish people, but they don't know what to say. We must give them the tools to say to our enemies, ‘This is why I'm a proud Jew.’ We feel this pride, but there has to be much more to the feeling.”
Watch the full panel discussion:
Aish & ILTV October 7 event
(ILTV)
