Don't Speak Hebrew in Crowds

Israel told citizens abroad not to speak Hebrew in crowds on the Oct. 7 anniversary. The National Security Council said terror groups led by Iran see the date "as a significant milestone," and told Israelis to skip demonstrations and keep army service off social media. ¹

Ofri Bibas Levy won't apologize to a Netanyahu booster. Yinon Magal, a right-wing radio host, on Tuesday read the names of the 160-plus contributors to Mr. Abandonment, a hostage families' book blaming Netanyahu, and called them "the most despicable people who live in the State of Israel." Their only penance, he said, is a Likud vote on Oct. 27. Bibas Levy, whose sister-in-law and two nephews were killed in captivity, posted: "The only ones I'll apologize to until the day I die are Shiri, Ariel and Kfir." ²

Researchers asked 733 American Jews what being brushed off after Oct. 7 did. In JTA, Columbia psychologist Becky Reed reports that "traumatic invalidation" tracked with worse PTSD, anxiety and depression. It stung most from universities and community groups. Almost half now wear visibly Jewish items more often. ³

Alon Shaya's new cookbook has a plantain latke with a history. Memories of a Good Meal, out Tuesday from Harvest and written with food historian June Hersh, pairs 80 recipes with accounts from ten groups who lived through World War II. Shaya traces it to a 2015 visit to Yad Vashem, where he learned about women at Ravensbrück who ran a secret "food" club, trading recipes and memories of their Shabbat candlesticks. The latke comes from German Jewish refugees who landed in the Dominican Republic. Navajo code talker John Kinsel, 107 when the authors visited, gets a chapter too. "The recipes are there to support the stories," Shaya said. ⁴

On Oct. 7, 1985, four gunmen from a Palestine Liberation Front faction seized the cruise ship Achille Lauro after it docked at Alexandria. The next afternoon they shot Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jew in a wheelchair, and threw him overboard. On the Hebrew calendar it's 26 Tishrei, and Shabbat brings Bereshit. ⁵⁶