life in israel One year after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, terrorist attacks are far from normalized, but one expert told FOX News Digital that while living near an active war zone, the psychological impact of the massacre remains explained what it looks like to deal with the effects of Twelve months later, it had a lasting impact on American Jewry.
Dr. David Fox, director of crisis and trauma services for Chai Lifeline International, a Jewish nonprofit organization and support network for families living with illness and loss, met with families of hostages. He said he has traveled to Israel multiple times in the last year to consult with survivors. Families on the ground.
“October 7th will remain etched in the consciousness of Jews and Israelis,” Fox told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes simply called “7th'' or “October''. October is neither Israeli nor Hebrew, but it has been called that. So I think it will never be forgotten as a day of infamy as the fight for survival continues. ”
The Los Angeles-based rabbi told Fox News Digital how everyday life in Israel remains uprooted. Tens of thousands of Israelis are internally displaced, and Israeli families are having to adapt as their parents, who were in the Army Reserve, are called back to active duty. With a ceasefire and hostage release agreement still elusive, Fox also described persistent trauma and constant fear of new attacks, especially in border areas.
Family and civilian life in Israel
Fox said he spoke with one of the country's most prominent infertility specialists who returned to military service from his day job as a gynecologist and obstetrician.
Doctors now spend their days crawling out onto the battlefield, rescuing injured soldiers, loading them into ambulances, and transporting them to hospitals.
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“Families of currently active and deployed reservists may not see their dads for weeks or even months at a time. Spouses may not see each other for a while…and There's that anxiety: 'Will he or she come back?' So that was a crisis for a lot of people,” Fox explained. “On the other hand, those who serve in the Israel Defense Forces and the military approach their work with a strong conviction that they are doing the right thing and that they are truly doing what God wants them to do. But we're doing it.'' What do our families need to do now so that an unfortunate separation doesn't tear them apart? ”
On October 2, 2024, thick smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese border town of Kiam. (Getty Images)
“But I believe that in most situations, children will respect the parent who has to leave,” Fox said. “They'll look up with love and admiration. But this is definitely a change in what's happening on the ground, and families' lives have changed.”
The heightened threat environment is particularly evident in the Moshav, Israel's Jewish cooperative farming settlements. Fox cited a recent conversation with a moshav member who said the moshav is “surrounded by hostile villages, where settlers are sending messages from prayer towers and minarets calling for attacks on Jews.” I could hear it being broadcast.”
“Some of them are armed, but many of them are not,” Fox said of the Jewish residents. “The military and security forces cannot necessarily protect or evacuate civilians at the moment. So there is a sense of fluidity. The situation is changing.”
According to Fox, Chai Lifeline will provide “24-hour” support as well as Zoom counseling, trauma interventions and other resources to Israelis who have witnessed the horrors of Hamas or have family in Israel over the past year. He said he has been working to expand the crisis hotline. On October 7, 2023, terrorists massacred approximately 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage. Since then, the rabbi said he has observed new social changes among Israeli youth, who are “more politically conscious, looking at how other people react or not.” the country of the Red Cross and the United Nations,” and “rethinking who we trust.”
Israeli soldiers stand guard in the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank on September 14, 2024. (Mosab Shower/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
“An ally who is an ally in times of peace, but who is ignored or turned against in times of conflict is not an ally,” Fox said.
“The world does not expect Jews to fight back,” he added. “The world does not expect small countries faced with genocide and genocide to stand up and defend themselves, for example by continuing retaliatory attacks. And we have to face many accusations of sanctions from other countries. But we are fighting to survive, and what any other country would do if its citizens were attacked, raped, mutilated, slaughtered, and their homes desecrated. , I think there is now a broader understanding from other people that we are effectively doing the same thing. What would any sovereign nation do if its people were attacked?
Tens of thousands of people evacuated from border areas
Fox said the trauma of the October 7 attack still lingers on the families of Israeli civilians and hostages, including those still held in Gaza and subjected to deprivation and torture. said.
But Fox said there is also a growing sense of support among Israelis to support each other as the Jewish state continues its war effort.
“We know that reactive sadness is constantly interrupted by an intensification of fear and fear,” Fox told Fox News Digital. “Historic Jewish attitudes, and those of the State of Israel since its founding, have responded to oppression by coming together and showing resilience.”
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The rabbi told Fox News Digital that he has been in direct contact with the families of Israelis who fled their homes in the northern part of the Lebanese border amid escalating skirmishes by Israeli forces and rocket fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists. He said he was there. As people fled their homes in the southern part of the border with Hamas-controlled Gaza. Fox said that people who are “out of their comfort zone” find it “very difficult to feel emotionally and mentally grounded when you don't know what's going to happen next or where it's going to happen.” Because of their feelings, they spoke about the continued need for intervention services. Take it home. ”
Family members and friends mourn at the grave of Eitan Yitzhak Oster, an Israeli soldier killed in fighting in the northern border area with Lebanon, during a funeral at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, October 2, 2024. . (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
“There are families who have been forced to leave their homes and have nowhere to go. All their belongings have disappeared,” Fox said. “But this country and its people, its privileged people, have absorbed those who have nowhere to go. Other communities have also welcomed those in need of shelter. And we… We're finding ways to keep them in school with our kids and give them support, “some financial support and even employment if needed.'' ”
“Also, the principles that have really defined the Jewish religion, such as loving-kindness, charity, compassion, and care for one another, are on the rise,” the rabbi added. “So it sounds like we're in this together. We're going to help each other. Still, the trauma is there.”
“Those who participated in the targeted massacres were deeply traumatized, and they still bear the traces of what they saw, heard and witnessed, and some of them themselves are physically and mentally affected. There are also traces of what they endured,” Fox explained. “So there was a clear need for trauma intervention services, and we have been providing some of that.”
American anti-Semitism is on the rise
His work also extends to supporting Jewish Americans who are experiencing a rise in anti-Semitism in the United States.
Anti-Israel protests reached a climax on U.S. college campuses last spring. As the fall semester resumes and the Oct. 7 anniversary approaches, Fox said there are unfortunately many things that are out of our control.
“I think there's a lot we can't do,” Fox said. “Despite the fact that we are providing support, there is no getting away from the fact that new fears are in the air, and they are based on credible threats. I don't think any of us can predict how things will play out, whether prejudice and bigotry will rise again or decline.”
Fox also pointed to the decline as more Jewish students choose to transfer from Jewish institutions and major elite universities in the United States. He drew parallels with what happened in Germany in the lead up to World War II, saying university leaders are now either “turning a blind eye” to anti-Semitism or “sometimes condoning it.” “It appears that Jewish students and parents are causing anti-Semitism,” he said. You no longer feel safe.
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“We saw this in Germany in the 1930s, where professors could be fired from their jobs if they were Jewish and students could not be admitted to medical school or graduate school if they were Jewish. “So we've seen this before. It was from the political governance of the German state, and what we're seeing here is not from the White House.” he said. “It comes from other influences, other attractions. And the government and the police in some cases just tolerate this and, as I said, sometimes condone it. So this There are some similarities and some pre-World War II echoes.” ”
“I believe there will be a major change in attitudes towards Jews. I never thought that would happen in the United States,” he added.
