By Rafi Josselson
On October 7th, 2023, over six thousand Hamas terrorists entered Israel, killing around twelve hundred Israelis and kidnapping two hundred more. Israel and the Jewish world were changed forever. The TLS community has been affected in the past year, as alumni were called up from the reserves, administrators reexamined how to discuss events in Israel, and students found themselves targeted by anti-Zionist hate.
Notably, many members of the TLS community had family or friends directly impacted by the massacre and the rocket attacks. With closed schools and constant rocket attacks, many felt like they couldn’t live a practical life. Junior Dan Mandelbaum was in Israel on October 7th. He had been living there for some time, but his family was already planning on moving back to America and transferring to TLS. The war sped that process up. He recalled his experience in Israel on that morning.
“At approximately nine [I woke up to] sirens and big loud booms,” Mandelbaum said. “When I checked my phone I realized what had happened. It didn’t feel real. You would see on your Instagram for example, people posting their family members saying that they were missing. Unfortunately, some people I know were killed that day. A few weeks after that school was shut down. I would go play basketball and then we’d have to get down to the ground and cover [our] heads.”
Meanwhile, in America, students and teachers were supposed to be celebrating the Chagim when October 7th happened. Associate Head of School Harry Pell was shocked by how the events unfolded. When the attacks started, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing due to the notifications he was getting from the Red Alert app which tracks rocket attacks in Israel. He wrapped it in a sweatshirt to muffle the noise. The next day, he began to hear of the extent of the attacks from a friend.
“They had a TV on and [I was] just nauseous,” Pell said. “[At the time], I thought that terrorists had overrun a couple of kibbutzim and murdered a couple dozen people. I found out over the next day and more that actually, they didn’t murder a couple of dozen people, they murdered 1200 people and they kidnapped 251 people.”
Right after the attacks, the Israeli Defense Forces called up reservists. Among the reservists included Hebrew Teacher Yaniv Cohen, who serves as a medic in the reserves. Cohen reflects on the difficulty of speaking in front of the school right after October 7th.
“I remember that I had two parallel lines of thought in my head—both really stressed me out,” Cohen said. “The first was as Yaniv the medic—what do I need to bring up from the depths of my memory about treating wounded soldiers? And the second was as Yaniv the shaliach. I knew I had to speak in front of the entire school. How does one talk about something so overwhelming that he can hardly wrap his head around it? What really helped me with the second was the fact that the whole school community was incredibly respectful and attentive. Everyone was quiet. I felt an immense amount of respect and kavanah. Everyone was there for me—not necessarily for me as Yaniv hamoreh, but for me as a representation of Israel—both as a country and as a people.”
In the weeks following the massacre, Israel launched an invasion of Gaza to rescue the hostages and eliminate the leadership of Hamas. While Cohen was serving in Israel, the rest of the TLS community generally continued with their everyday lives, but some things did change, including how each day began.
“At the beginning of each day, we start off by [saying the Achienu],” Senior Shira Hope said. “I think Dr. Wasser does a really good job of connecting all of the displaced people, the hostages, the soldiers fighting for land, and peace in the region.”
In addition, many students attended pro-Israel rallies. Among the rallies was a rally in Washington with an estimated 300,000 participants and many more watching online. To accommodate for the rally, transportation was provided by TLS and classes were canceled. While Mandelbaum was unable to attend the rally, he felt supported at another recent gathering.
“I attended the United Nations rally recently and it felt amazing to see people from a different country supporting you and supporting the Jewish people,” Mandelbaum said. “[They took] time out the day to come, support and [to] show that they care.”
However, October 7th has also revealed a growing wave of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Notably, TLS alumni on campuses such as that of Columbia University had to go into virtual school after pro-Palestine protestors encamped on the main lawn and later broke into an academic building. Hate has also reached the community directly. A girl’s basketball game was ended after an opposing player called a TLS player antisemitic slurs. Westchester for Palestine also organized a protest outside of the upper school campus after the school hosted a real estate event. While organizers claimed they were opposing the sale of stolen land, many members of the community felt targeted.
In response to a post planning this protest, Leffell administrators took action. They coordinated with local police to ensure order. They moved a planned SAT administration to an undisclosed location. And, they sent an email to the broader community addressing the situation. Students took action, showing solidarity with Israel in a counterprotest. Hope also criticized the organizers with a comment on the original post.
“The places in Israel that this company is selling are not occupied territory,” Hope said. “These properties are in Israel proper. By protesting this event you are denying Israel’s right to exist and essentially asking Israel to be wiped out which is genocide.”
The Israel-Hamas war also affected the academic experience. On Lev V’Nefesh, seniors went to both Hostage Square and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Holocaust was understood from a new perspective.
“I took students to Poland in the wake of October 7th,” Pell said. “If you’re a Holocaust educator you’re partly educating about the past and you’re partly educating to prevent a repeat in the future. And to think that we just experienced a day when Jews were murdered for being Jews and non-Jews were murdered for just for being with Jews changed my perspective as a Holocaust educator.”
On the morning of October 7th, 2024, the TLS Upper School gathered for a Tekes to commemorate the one-year anniversary of October 7th. Later in the day, students visited an interactive exhibit about the events of that day. One year later, Cohen noticed that his relationship with the diaspora had changed.
“As a shaliach, I see my mission here as a (last) opportunity to influence high schoolers’ Jewish identity before they go to college,” Cohen said. “It’s crucial that I do my best to prepare them because their task is so much harder—especially after what we’ve witnessed this past year.”
Cohen also believes that students’ relationship with their Jewish identity and Israel has changed. He shared one final message to students about what they should do going forward.
“I had only been here for a year before October 7th, but after returning from the reserves, I could see how students became more Zionist and proud of their Judaism,” Cohen said. “They are wearing shirts, pins, or necklaces, or they are actively involved—attending rallies and discussing our new reality beyond the school walls: Israel and the Middle East, antisemitism, and anti-Zionism. I think students care more now, or at least they’re showing it more actively. I hope this continues and doesn’t fade. It might be naive because that’s life; things tend to fade with time. But I want students to return to their routine as new people—holding a special place for Israel, for Zionism, and for their Jewish identity in today’s world.”
