Israel Palestinians

A man rides his bicycle next to a billboard with information about upcoming events marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday. Oded Balilty/Associated Press

Mainers gathered in prayer and protest this weekend to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 kidnapped, launching one of the most destructive conflicts in recent memory.

The sobering milestone is even more intense for some as it falls in the midst of the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Mainers with Jewish and Palestinian ties said they are feeling despair as the violence in the Middle East expands.

“To be Jewish is to have 7 million brothers and sisters in Israel,” said Dawn LaRochelle, executive director of the Maine Jewish Museum.

“And whatever our politics, or however we feel about particular Israeli policies or actions or war conduct, what happens in Israel is deeply personal and emotionally loaded for the overwhelming majority of the worldwide Jewish community,” LaRochelle said, “and therefore the trauma and heartache on Oct. 7 are ongoing and especially acute as we approach the anniversary of the massacre.”

“My fear and my worry, of course, is that it will continue to get much worse before it gets better,” said Fateh Azzam, a Palestinian-American who is retired after a long career in human rights and lives in Georgetown.

Officials and journalists estimate the death toll in Gaza over the past 12 months has surpassed 40,000. Tensions in the Middle East have escalated in recent weeks as Israel has launched airstrikes and a ground invasion into neighboring Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah fighters who have been exchanging fire with Israel since the conflict began. According to the Associated Press, some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed since late September.

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HIGH HOLIDAYS

Chabad of Maine marked Rosh Hashanah on Thursday evening with a gathering at Fort Allen Park. A small crowd recited holiday songs, ate apples and honey and listened to the traditional Shofar blowing – a ram’s horn instrument played during the holiday.

“It’s was a difficult year, and it’s always important to gather together,” said Rabbi Levi Wilansky of Chabad of Maine.

Rabbi Levi Wilansky with Chabad of Maine, blows the Shofar at Fort Allen Park in Portland on Thursday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Wilansky led the crowd in a refrain of “Am Yisrael Chai,” or “The People of Israel Live,” an anthem dating back to the 1960s used to express Jewish solidarity. He encouraged people to do extra mitzvahs, or good deeds, to strengthen their faith going into the new year.

For Jackie Soley, of Freeport, who attended the Shofar blowing on Thursday night with her family, the war has been deeply emotional.

She volunteered this summer with the Israeli Defense Force providing food and aid for the army. Soley said she was deeply impacted by her experience in Israel and supports the notion of defending a Jewish homeland.

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“For every person, for every soldier, for every hostage who dies, I cry,” Soley said. “I don’t know them, but I know them.”

But lately, she and others in Portland’s Jewish community have been frustrated with city leaders, who voted unanimously last month to divest from companies doing business in Israel – a largely symbolic vote because the city later said it had no investments in those companies.

“Portland has turned against us, which we’ve been here for generations,” Soley said.

“It was a stab in the chest,” Wilansky said.

Rabbi Levi Wilansky, with Chabad of Maine, leads Shofar in the Park at Fort Allen Park in Portland on Thursday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Aaron Hoffman, of Scarborough, wrote a letter denouncing the divestment vote, calling it a “betrayal to the large and historic Jewish community of Greater Portland.”

He said that he’s had conversations with Jewish people who are critical of the Israeli government, but hopes they can balance a critical lens with an understanding of Israel’s right to exist.

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“It’s not like we want vengeance or something, we want to be safe,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman, a social worker, said he supports Israel defending itself, but he also grapples with the ways in which the war has put some community members at odds with one another – even within his own family.

Like many others, Soley said she worries about the rise of antisemitism and hate in the U.S. since the start of the war.

In the three months following the Oct. 7 attacks, the Anti-Defamation League noted 3,291 incidences of anti-Jewish hate. Similarly, the Council of American-Islamic Relations reported about 3,600 incidences of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate in the same time.

Hoffman said the potential for violence is constantly on his mind when he goes to synagogue or attends Jewish events. He said that his family has noticed an increased police presence around synagogues in Portland and South Portland, especially during the High Holidays.

“That provided a feeling of security for people, but also the reality that we’re a target,” Hoffman said.

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LaRochelle said the Maine Jewish Museum has been forced to spend much of its budget and time in the last year on ensuring it has proper security.

“For the first time in my lifetime, my Jewish friends and family members are debating taking their mezuzahs off their doors and not wearing their yarmulkes” because they feel unsafe, LaRochelle said.

‘A DISORIENTING YEAR’

Abby Alfred and Ethan Schechter, of Portland, decided last year to enroll their son in Hebrew school. Both grew up in active Jewish families, and before they moved to Maine a decade ago the couple lived in Jerusalem for two years  There, they befriended Israelis and Palestinians and saw the impacts of violence in the region.

They felt increasingly uncomfortable with their relatives’ and religious leaders’ support of Israel, but they also wanted their son to receive a Jewish education. A year ago, they watched in horror as violence exploded again.

“We weren’t willing to make that compromise anymore,” Schechter, 44, said. “We weren’t willing to agree to disagree.”

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The couple is among the Jewish Mainers who have looked for ways to support Palestinians and distance themselves from Israel. They felt alienated not only by the Israeli government, but also by Jewish institutions.

“It’s been a disorienting year,” Schechter said. “It’s been about, how do we create Jewish community outside of those institutions … and we’re creating community among other like-minded Jewish people. It’s been encouraging that there are a lot of us. We’re not just fringe.”

They unenrolled their son from Hebrew school. They attended a protest to call for ceasefire and connected with other Jewish families who shared their views. They celebrated holidays at home with friends instead of traveling to see relatives.

“A lot of us have been feeling like we want to own our Jewish traditions and rituals in ways that feel good, and we don’t have to rely on those institutions to define Judaism,” Alfred, 39, said.

Demonstrators march down Congress Street in Portland on March 30, decrying U.S. support for the Israeli military in its war in Gaza. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Lara Rosen, of Portland, agreed. Rosen is a member of IfNotNow and Jewish Voices for Peace, two organizations for Jewish people that support a free Palestine. She supported the City Council’s divestment vote.

“I don’t think it has to be a zero-sum game, where you can only care about one set of lives or the other,” Rosen, a health care data analyst, said. “And what I would really like Jewish institutions to do is say that what Israel is doing is wrong, and to do what they can to counter the narrative that we have to give Israel our unwavering support no matter what, and that’s just not something that we see.”

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“And by asking for that, it doesn’t mean we don’t grieve the loss of life on Oct. 7,” she said.

CULTURAL ACTIVISM

Azzam, the longtime human rights worker who is Palestinian-American, worked earlier this year on a local staging of “The Gaza Monologues,” testimonies written by teenagers who lived through another one of the region’s many wars. He and others hoped the project would raise awareness about the toll the ongoing violence takes on children.

“I continue to try to do the balance of both political activism that is necessary, but also the cultural activism,” said Azzam, 74. “If you can reach people’s hearts and awaken in them a sense of personal responsibility for what their tax dollars are being used for, then maybe they can continue to add more pressure on our elected representatives.”

Fateh Azzam of Georgetown speaks during a rally in March in Portland’s Monument Square. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

But lately he has been feeling despair and frustration with politics. He said he does not want to support either political party in the presidential election; he does not support former President Donald Trump, but also does not believe Vice President Kamala Harris has done enough to condemn the Israeli government. When Azzam hears politicians say that Israel has the right to defend itself, he wonders, “Do Palestinians?”

He wonders when the cycle of violence will end.

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“What does it take for politicians, decision makers to really understand the depth of what’s going on, the seriousness of what’s going on, the emotional and physical and traumatic scarring?” he asked.

Azzam said he often is faced with feelings of anger and agony. But he has been heartened to see more people protesting in support of Palestinians this year than ever before in his memory.

SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIANS

Jamila Levasseur of Waldo, who describes herself as an anti-Zionist Jew who has been in solidarity with Palestinians for as long as she can remember, doesn’t mince words when she talks about what has happened in Gaza over the past year: “I know genocide when I see it.”

Levasseur, a 69-year-old retired registered nurse, said she views the Oct. 7 attack as “a justified reaction to decades of occupation and being imprisoned in Gaza.”

“When people are imprisoned, what do you expect them to do? Are they supposed to just sit down and take it and slowly starve to death?” she said. “Or are they supposed to stand up and fight back? These are people who have seen Israel’s war against them throughout the course of their lives.”

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Jamila Levasseur, of Waldo, protests with about a dozen others outside of General Dynamics in Saco on Friday. Levassuer said she comes to protest there because General Dynamics makes components to bombs dropped by Israel in Gaza. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Levasseur said it has been difficult for her to see what has been happening in Gaza. Her great-grandparents and other family members died in the Holocaust, while her grandparents escaped and came to the United States in 1939. She said her family and others in her circle share her opinions about Israel and the war.

Supporting Palestinian liberation is now Levasseur’s life work. She frequently attends rallies and was arrested at a sit-in at Congressman Jared Golden’s office and twice for blocking traffic during protests.

She’s helped organize and testified in support of cease-fire and divestment resolutions. She said she has come to know “many amazing people” through the Maine Coalition for Palestine, Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace.

“This is what has kept me sane this year,” she said. “We have become family to each other because we are all struggling with grief and anxiety and we care enough to try to stop this genocide.”

Leo Hilton has been an active organizer with the Maine chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

“Our people have, just like the Palestinians, undergone centuries after centuries of genocide and ethnic cleansing and exile from our homes,” he said. “And it’s shocking to the very core that people would try to weaponize our culture to harm people who are just like us.”

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On Sunday, Jewish Voice for Peace Maine met at the Maine State Pier for Tashlich, an atonement ritual that may be performed during the High Holidays. Before that gathering, Hilton said it would be meaningful to him to perform that ritual with the people of Palestine in his mind.

“Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be a celebration of the New Year, and Wednesday night, it felt hard to hold any kind of joy,” he said.

‘DIALOGUE ACROSS DIFFERENCES’ 

As the war continues, the Maine Jewish Museum is hoping to facilitate conversations through art.

The museum is currently showing “Stitch Them Home,” an instillation featuring hand-stitched yellow ribbons to memorialize the more than 100 civilian hostages still held in Gaza.

While understanding that the Jewish community has diverse views on the war, LaRochelle said she prays for “understanding and empathy.”

“The Jewish community has never been and will never be a monolith – we’re a big tent,” LaRochelle said. “What our approach is, is to prioritize dialogue across differences, to make the museum a space that goes beyond politics, and brings people together through art, through programming that is community-minded and based, and keep an open heart and mind.”

 

Staff Writer Gillian Graham contributed to this report. 

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