OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Monday marked the one-year anniversary since Hamas militants attacked Israel.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Harper Gordman remembers that day like it was yesterday as she heard the news from the United States.
"Never in wildest imagination did I think we would still be here one year later," said Gordman. "Ever since October 7 of last year, I've been waiting to hear 'The hostages have been rescued, everyone's home safe.'"
Jeannette Gabriel, PhD., with the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies said this is the largest loss of life in the Jewish world since the Holocaust.
"The violence over the past year has really escalated into mounting, global antisemitism which we see very much so in the United States," said Gabriel.
In fact, the Anti-Defamation League recorded that 2023 had the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the United States, at 8,873, since it started tracking in 1979.
Rabbi Benjamin Sharff leads Temple Israel on Omaha's Tri-Faith campus, which houses a mosque, church, and synagogue along 132nd St. in west Omaha.
"We've really worked on rebuilding our relationship with the neighbors both in the mosque and the church to understand what it means to be in relationship and not hold ourselves accountable for events that are taking place across the world," said Sharff.
Gordman said in moments like these, it's important to uplift and support each other.
"Being good allies for the Jewish community and realizing that this problem is not just a Jewish problem, it's a problem for the entire western world" said Gordman.
