By Marijke Friedman and Sam Gauntt
When Caleb Becker-Schwartz realized the severity of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, he spent hours glued to his phone.
Becker-Schwartz’s grandparents, uncle and cousins live in Israel, he said, along with many of his friends from Jewish summer camp.
He frantically messaged friends and family, hoping to receive prompt responses, he said. But some didn’t respond for hours.
“Luckily, most of them were fine, but the hard truth was not all of them were,” the sophomore aerospace engineering and astronomy major at the University of Maryland said. “I have names. It’s not just numbers for me.”
Monday marks one year after Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 people hostage in its attack on Israel, according to The Associated Press. Since Israel declared war on Hamas the next day, its military forces have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, The Associated Press reported Sunday.
In the year since, many Jewish and Israeli students at this university have reckoned with balancing classes, coping with their grief and reconciling different perspectives on Israel’s role in the Jewish community.
“It was a day devoid of emotions — so painful that you couldn’t even really feel the sadness of what was happening,” sophomore government and politics major Zach Astrof said.
On the day of Hamas’ attack, Lily Weinstein was preparing to host a meal during Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday with singing, dancing and festive meals.
Weinstein said she was stunned when she learned of the attack. Remembering the people killed in Israel while celebrating the holiday was an emotional experience, the senior government and politics major said.
Weinstein said she constantly refreshed news pages for updates on the situation as she waited to hear from her friends and family in Israel.
“There’s real difficulty in going to class and going on with my normal life when people in Israel, people I care so deeply about, just couldn’t,” she said.
[‘It was heartbreaking’: UMD students grieve hostages held by Hamas, killed in Gaza]
Two days after the attack, hundreds of university community members gathered on McKeldin Mall for a vigil hosted by Jewish student groups in honor of the victims.
Elisheva Sukol said it was comforting to be around other people grieving at the vigil. During the ensuing weeks, Sukol said her emotions became debilitating, as she could not focus on or even attend some of her classes.
Over the past year, Sukol has tried to talk to students about the issue, but hasn’t found a space for others who share her perspective, she said.
“I’m a person that loves Israel and cares about Israel and wants Israel to exist, but also wants to be able to critique Israel, and knows that I have to critique Israel if I think that it should exist,” the junior philosophy, politics and economics major said.
Brandee Kaplan has criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza before this year, she said, but her activism against its recent military offensive has changed many aspects of her life, including her relationship with the conservative Jewish community she grew up with.
“Basically overnight, I lost a lot of people because I was willing to ask … for empathy from the world for the Palestinian struggle,” the senior women, gender and sexuality studies major said.
Kaplan said she found community with other “anti-Zionist” Jewish students at this university, which has helped her persevere through the past year. Together, they formed this university’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace in November.
Some students, including Kaplan, expressed feeling “emotionally unsafe” on campus at times since last October.
Last spring, Kaplan publicly supported a Student Government Association resolution calling on the University System of Maryland Foundation to divest from “companies engaged in human rights violations.” At an SGA meeting about the resolution, she delivered an emotional speech criticizing Israel’s offensive in Palestine.
Days after her speech, Kaplan said she noticed multiple students in one of her classes making eye contact with and talking about her. After class, the students taunted and followed her out of the building. Kaplan took her final exam for the class at home as a result of the incident, she said.
Becker-Schwartz said he has sometimes felt his expression in support of Israel has not been respected at this university over the past year.
Last year, Becker-Schwartz said, he hung an Israeli flag from his door next to his Mezuzah — a fixture inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah.
[Federal judge pauses UMD’s Oct. 7 event restrictions]
His flag was torn down and stolen a month after it was hung, Becker-Schwartz said. Someone also wrote “Free Palestine” on his door’s whiteboard, he added.
He said the incident was a “very clear violation” of students’ right to express themselves.
Rifka Handelman, this university’s Jewish Voice for Peace chapter president, said they have had to balance recognizing Israel’s importance to the Jewish community with their opposition to its recent military offensive in Gaza.
Handelman also serves as the president of Hamsa, a Jewish LGBTQ+ student organization. Handelman said they still want to be involved with this university’s Jewish community, even if they disagree on issues relating to Israel.
“A lot of people think that the Jewish community, and even the Israeli community, feels one way about this,” the senior environmental science and policy major said. “That’s not true.”
This university’s Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace chapters will hold teach ins and a vigil Monday night to remember Palestinians killed in Gaza over the past year.
For junior criminology and criminal justice major Taylor Faust, raising awareness about antisemitism has been a priority in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack.
Faust, Maryland Hillel’s president of Accuracy and Education for Israel, has distributed pamphlets about Israel and held conversations with university community members to find shared values, she said.
Hillel will host a vigil Monday night to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel.
