Audience members, including Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, listen as the names of hostages are read at a West Kendall commemoration marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Photo credit: Tatenda Mukurazhizha
The conflict, fear and misery of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks extend to South Florida, home to the third largest concentration of Jews in the United States. While Chicago has the largest Palestinian population in the United States, an estimated 10,000 live in Florida alongside a growing Muslim population of 100,000 in the South Florida tri-county area.
One year after the Hamas attacks in Israel and Israel’s counterattacks in Gaza, the Jewish community and the Palestinian community continue to mourn the dead and the tortured; the kidnapped Israelis, the displaced Palestinians all forced to exist in the bombed-out structures in Gaza.
“Oct. 7: South Florida Remembers” is a series of articles by CommunityWire.Miami reporters who interviewed community leaders, residents and Middle East scholars on the conflict’s impact on the region and beyond.
Local Jewish, Arab communities reflect on the Oct. 7 attacks and Gaza bombings
Whether they mourn the Israeli civilians killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas or the Palestinians subsequently killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza, South Florida residents say the one-year anniversary of the attacks is a painful reminder of a heart-wrenching conflict that seems to never end.
CommunityWire.Miami
Miriam Singer, president and chief executive officer, Jewish Community Services of South Florida
Even though Miriam Singer and her husband live in South Florida thousands of miles away from the conflicts in Israel, they worry.
When any significant event occurs – including a barrage of missiles launched recently on Israel by Iran — the couple immediately goes into action, calling and texting to see if loved ones are OK
“We couldn’t locate one of my first cousins for hours,” said Singer, president and chief executive officer of Jewish Community Services of South Florida. “And of course, one begins to think the unthinkable…”
The unthinkable did not happen as the Singers finally located their relative, but the Singers are among the thousands of South Florida Jews still in mourning, shock and disbelief from the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
A year ago, Hamas militants launched night-time attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. They brutally killed hundreds of young people who were attending a music festival, and they simultaneously rampaged Israeli communal settlements that border the Gaza Strip. The combined assaults took the lives of 1,200 people, and another 250 innocent people were kidnapped.
Those attacks, along with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, have a gripping local impact, Singer said. Whether the news is positive or negative, the events in Israel impact South Florida, where the Jewish population is approximately 650,000 people — the third largest concentration of Jews in the United States.
South Florida impact
“I would say that South Florida has been profoundly and deeply and traumatically impacted by the events of October 7,” Singer said. “The connections of the South Florida community to Israel and Jewish communities are extremely strong.
Like Singer, other local Jewish residents have family members and friends who are either living in Israel, serving in the military, or they previously lived there themselves.
Julie Benz Reid, director of the Israeli Division of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, has lived in the United States for 35 years after completing army service in Israel. Apart from experiencing some sporadic anti-Semitic incidents, Reid said she has felt “free and safe” in the United States until the Oct. 7 attacks turned her world upside down.
“I think I’m still in this shock and disbelief,” Reid said. “A year later, this is not a post traumatic response. This is a trauma that is still continuing,” she said, affecting “people who I love, my family and friends, and my country.”
Other Jews without personal connections to those living in Israel say they also relate to the unfolding events in Israel and in the Middle East.
“Since we are such a close-knit community, I feel so connected to Israel,” said Joan Marn, a South Florida dietitian who attended an Oct.7 commemoration service in West Kendall. “It’s like our own families have been mowed down.”
Palestinian community reaction
But the Jewish community is not alone in its mourning, say local Arab leaders.
“You know, honestly, it affected me, and it has affected my community,” said Anas Amireh, the South Florida chair and co-founder of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. “It has made us all very depressed.”
As the Jewish community held commemorations at local synagogues to honor the victims of Oct. 7, Palestinians in South Florida held a protest march on Oct. 5 to call attention to the Israel Defense Force killings of innocent civilians in Gaza,
Following the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel retaliated in Gaza, hunting down the Hamas militant leaders who had planned and executed the assault. The IDF launched numerous air strikes and conducted ground invasions into Gaza, killing more than 40,000 Palestinians – primarily women and children. Nearly 2 million people have been displaced.
Hani J. Bawardi, an associate professor of history at University of Michigan-Dearborn, said Hamas expected retaliation but not the kind of response that was levied.
Palestinian community reaction
But the Jewish community is not alone in its mourning, say local Arab leaders.
“You know, honestly, it affected me, and it has affected my community,” said Anas Amireh, the South Florida chair and co-founder of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. “It has made us all very depressed.”
As the Jewish community held commemorations at local synagogues to honor the victims of Oct. 7, Palestinians in South Florida held a protest march on Oct. 5 to call attention to the Israel Defense Force killings of innocent civilians in Gaza,
Following the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel retaliated in Gaza, hunting down the Hamas militant leaders who had planned and executed the assault. The IDF launched numerous air strikes and conducted ground invasions into Gaza, killing more than 40,000 Palestinians – primarily women and children. Nearly 2 million people have been displaced.
Hani J. Bawardi, an associate professor of history at University of Michigan-Dearborn, said Hamas expected retaliation but not the kind of response that was levied.
Hani Bawardi, associate professor of history, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Disproportionate response
“Everyone in the area knows that Israel has a policy of disproportionate response,” Bawardi said. “I don’t think anyone in the whole world anticipated the scale of civilian deaths in first three weeks. Almost 10,000 — mostly kids and women — were killed. No one in the world expected the Israelis to get away with this amount of killing.”
Zach Levey, Israel Institute visiting professor at the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado, says Israel has conducted itself in accordance with international law, but the high number of civilian casualties is unwarranted.
Zach Levey, Israel Institute Visiting Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder
“It is clear that even though Israel has not committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, most certainly it has stretched any definition and any norm of what constitutes an acceptable casualty rate among civilians while pursuing a terrorist organization,” Levey said.
The Israeli government should have recognized that it could not completely eradiate Hamas, Levey said.
“As the war ground on in Gaza, the Netanyahu government adopted the narrative that it would be possible to free the hostages only through continued military progress which would eventually reach those captives,” Levey said. “That, of course, most people knew was not the case and the evidence was clear that many of them were being held in tunnels to which the IDF had no access and could not even identify with regard to precise location.”
The civilian casualties in Gaza remains a heated source of contention.
University of Miami alumnus Howard Singer, whose daughter has served with the Israel Defense Forces, defends Israel’s dogged pursuit of militants in Gaza.
“Everyone’s screaming about, ‘Hey, we’re killing Gazans,’” Howard Singer said. “Well, we’re not killing Gazans. Hamas puts their headquarters within a mosque, within a school. It’s bad. It’s totally bad.”
Amireh, who was born in the United States but spent nearly 10 years of his childhood in Gaza, challenges Israel’s strategy to hunt Hamas leaders even though civilians would be killed.
Amireh asks: “If Hamas had taken the hostages and hid in Israel instead of Gaza, would the IDF bomb hospitals, schools and Jewish settlements?
“They would have got special commandos to go in and find out where they are,” Amireh said. “The goal is to kill hundreds of thousands of Muslims to teach others: ‘If you mess with us, this is what we’ll do with you. There’s no superpower on Earth that will stop us.’
Historical background
According to historical accounts, the territorial dispute dates back centuries with both Jews and Palestinian Arabs claiming the land as their ancestral home. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Britain entered the picture and took control of the land. Although Jews, who were in the minority. Britain pledged in 1917 to establish Palestine as the national home of Jewish people, which was supported by the League of Nations in 1922. Tensions between the Jews and Palestinians increased as more Jews, fleeing persecution in Europe, continue to settle in Palestine.
In 1947, the United Nations voted to split Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. Arabs rejected the plan. The following year, Britain withdrew, and Jewish leaders created the state of Israel.
The new state was immediately attacked by 5 Arab countries. Palestinians either fled or were forced out of their homes. At the end of the fighting, Israel controlled most of the area. Jordan kept control of the area now known as the West Bank, and Egypt controlled a smaller sliver of land – the Gaza Strip.
Following the war of 1967, Israel occupied Gaza. Finally, with the intervention of the United States, the Palestinians recognized the state of Israel and Israel recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinian people in 1993. As the Jewish state continued building settlements in the land Palestinians still considered to be theirs, hostilities increased
“Officially, the Palestinian Liberation Authority is the one to represent the Palestinians, especially in negotiations. Period,” said Robert Rabil, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University. And they have been mainly the ones who are in control in the West Bank. But what happened is that Hamas took over.”
In 2006, Hamas won elections to represent the Palestinians. It seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Up until Oct. 7, 2023, the militants and Israel have fought a series of wars and unsuccessfully negotiated a series of peace plans.
Called the “largest open-air prison in the world,” the Gaza Strip has been under siege by Israel for almost 20 years, Bawardi said.
The conditions for the Palestinians in Gaza were deplorable, Bawardi said.
“No material can go in or out,” Bawardi said. “It’s a besieged place, completely surrounded.”
‘Palestinians are living under siege’
So why did Hamas have to take the action it took on Oct. 7?
“Freedom,” Amireh said. “Palestinians are living under siege, with barely enough to eat. No prospects for the future for the children there. The peace talks stalled completely, and Gaza was expected to live under siege. Without an outlet to the world. No, airport, no harbor, no imports, no exports, no future whatsoever. On top of that, they were bombed systematically every few years and their infrastructure was destroyed. So, they had very little to risk or lose,” Amireh said.
Rabil said that despite what has happened since the Arab/Israeli conflict began, “there is no excuse” for carrying out the Oct. 7 attack.
Levey said the Oct. 7 attacks ended assumptions that Israel’s standoff with Hamas would would go on for years. He said Israeli intelligence services, the army and the government bear some blame in Hamas’ ability to carry out the attacks.
“The greatest responsibility is with political echelons, which failed to formulate any kind of strategy over the past two decade,” Levey said. “Many of the military decisions were formulated at the political level. Intelligence failed to identify some of the key evidence in developments and the Army should have had more troops there.”
Howard Singer, who with his wife, Jill, housed a family of survivors of the October attacks in their California home, said Americans need to remember that several dozen Americans were among the kidnapped.
World has let Israel down
“And we did not send soldiers in there to rescue them,” Howard Singer said. “In fact, a good portion of them is now dead. The world has let Israel down, and in my humble opinion, so did the U.S. government. “
Israel’s counterattacks into Gaza are a response, not an aggression, he continued.
“This wasn’t something Israel wanted,” Howard Singer said. “Israel hadn’t been in control of Gaza for 20 years. It’s all Iran, sending weapons to Hamas, and now Hezbollah and the Houthis. It’s Iran, but no one seems to understand that.
Nadia Haddad, who was born in Lebanon but now has a real estate company in Las Vegas, agrees that Iran is a huge hinderance to peace.
“I don’t know why Iran is joining the conflict, but Iran is creating the conflict,” said Haddad, who is an Arab Christian. “We think that what Iran is doing is in its own interest. It has nothing to do with Palestine. They’re trying to make a deal with the with the U.S. for their own.
CommunityWire reporters Brandon Blanco, Vanessa Bonilla, Daniel Braz, Noah Gulley, Dara Karadsheh, Mariaregina Mendoza, Tatenda Mukurazhizha, Allie Litzinger and Jaya Williams contributed to this report.
‘Hugs and tears that seemed to last forever’
UM alumni welcome Oct. 7 attack survivors to their San Diego home
Howard Singer embraces his daughter, Jaclyn, during an emotional moment. Photo credit Jaclyn Singer.
Although his daughter had been home from Israel for several years, Howard Singer could not get it out of his mind that the Oct. 7, 2023, attack at Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak was exactly where she had been stationed when she volunteered to serve with the Israel Defense Forces.
The kibbutz, a Jewish community settlement close to the border fence with the Gaza strip, was one of the areas that Hamas militants infiltrated in a vicious surprise attack. Six security team members and one IDF soldier were killed. Hamas captured seven hostages from the settlement.
“I don’t think the world understands how horrific things were,” said Singer, whose daughter, Jaclyn, was part of the IDF from 2012-2014. During her military stint, she was assigned to a family that served as her home base when she was not with her combat tank unit. She spent part of each week with them, a husband and wife and their two small children.
“They became so tight that it was like Jaclyn had a second mother,” Singer said.
Hiding in bomb shelter
Jaclyn Singer during her time with the Israel Defense Forces. Photo credit: Jaclyn Singer.
On the night of the attack, Jaclyn’s family was armed and hid in a bomb shelter of their home, not knowing if or when they would face the terrorists. Located at the back end of the kibbutz, the house never came under attack. While her host family survived the attack, they had to leave the kibbutz because it wasn’t safe anymore, Singer said.
The Singers– Howard, a retired vice president at IBM who grew up in Miami, and Jill, a former Miami Herald reporter – both graduated from UM in the 1970s. They raised three children in West Kendall and later settled in San Diego County. They did not hesitate to track down Jaclyn’s host family and invited them to stay with them in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
The family’s two girls, now teenagers, were traumatized, Singer said.
“When they entered our home, there were hugs and tears that seemed to last forever,” said Singer, adding that there was a genuine sense of homecoming since he had met the family when he visited while his daughter was stationed there. That visit also was not without trauma.
“We experienced rocket fire from Gaza,” Singer said. “We were on her kibbutz and had under 30 seconds to run to the bomb shelter. We were running as we saw the explosions and the terrifying sound. That is how Israelis live.”
A break from chaos
While in California, the family had a break from the chaos and turmoil in Israel. The girls were especially upset, Singer said.
“It was so sad,” he said. They just wanted to stay in the room and rest and sleep because they knew they were secure.”
Singer, who declined to release the name of the family, said the father of the family relayed some of the atrocities that took place during the attack.
“The Israeli government did a very poor job of letting the world know what Hamas did to the women and children before they killed them,” Singer said. “What’s even more hurtful is none of the big women’s organizations in the U.S. came out to say how horrible it was that Hamas attacked women and children. I’m disappointed that, like, Michelle Obama or Oprah, no one came out to say, ‘How could you attack women knowing this?’”
Jaclyn’s host family stayed for a week and then they moved to be with other families of Americans who had served in Israel, Jill Singer said.
“And now they’re in temporary housing in a safe part of Israel,” Howard Singer said … “If you can say there’s a safe part of Israel.”
Singer said the girls have missed a year of school because the school was located on their kibbutz, which was heavily damaged.
“They’re still very afraid to go back because they live so close to Gaza,” Singer said. “They’re scared to go back and worry about what they are going back to.”
Oct. 7 rescuer and survivor: ‘What we saw that day was pure evil’
The faces of Israeli hostages are displayed during ‘An Evening of Heroes’ on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. The Sunday, Oct. 6, event at the 305 Club in Kendall, was one of several services held in South Florida. Photo credit: Tatenda Mukurazhizha
KENDALL – After firing thousands of rockets into Israel, the Islamic Palestinian nationalist militant group Hamas ravaged Gaza border communities, killing entire families, raping women and taking hostages on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli residents Menachem Kalmenson, his brother and a nephew did not stand by.
After hearing the news of the ongoing attacks, they rushed from their West Bank homes to Kibbutz Be’eri, a desert communal settlement located close to the eastern border of the Gaza Strip. For 16 hours straight, the trio entered the kibbutz, knocking on doors and rescuing dozens of terrified residents.
But the next day in the mid-morning hours of Oct. 8, Kalmenson and his brother Elhanan were ambushed by a Hamas terrorist; Elhanan was killed.
“I lost my brother in my own hands,” Kalmenson told a somber audience gathered Sunday, Oct. 6, in Kendall for a commemorative service of the terrorist attacks in Israel. “But we know they didn’t fall without reason. There is a cause we are fighting for and knowing that gives us the strength to endure all the pain.”
‘An Evening of Heroes’
“An Evening of Heroes” commemoration, held at 6 p.m. at the 305 Club events venue, attracted about 150 people who heard Kalmenson and others talk about the atrocities of the Oct. 7 attacks, which took the lives of 1,200 people, including residents of Kibbutz Be’eri and other villages near the Gaza Strip and young attendees at the Nova Music Festival. Of the 250 people kidnapped by Hamas, 100 are believed to remain in captivity in underground caves in Gaza.
During the ceremony, the names of the hostages and others missing in the conflict were read aloud, among them:
“Matan Angrest, 22,
Amiram Cooper, 85,
Karina Ariev, 20,
Sahar Baruch, 25”
Throughout the evening, speakers reflected on the lives lost and the courageous efforts of those like Kalmenson who stood against violence.
‘We are still at war’
Rabbi Yossi Harlig of the Chabad of Kendall & Pinecrest, one of the event organizers, spoke passionately about the ongoing struggle faced by Israelis and Jews worldwide. He emphasized that the fight was not only against terrorism but also against hatred and ignorance that have persisted for generations.
“We are still at war,” Harlig said. “But this war is not just for the Jews in Israel, it is for humanity.”
The event also underscored the need for continued support from global communities, including local efforts. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava emphasized the importance of civic leadership in bridging divides and promoting unity.
“The only way to combat hatred is to make connections that reveal the humanity in each of us,” said Levine Cava, acknowledging the persistent misunderstandings between communities and nations, particularly over conflicts related to land and identity. “We must start from an early age to educate, live together, and heal the divisions that have caused so much suffering.”
The human cost of conflict
Kalmenson, whose efforts with his brother and nephew were recognized in April when they were awarded Israel’s “Civil Heroism” prize, said the attack serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of the conflict.
“What we saw on that day was pure evil,” Kalmenson said. “If we don’t stop it in Gaza and Lebanon, it will spread, not just to Israel, but to America and the West.”
David Schifflinger, who attended the West Kendall event, said he was inspired by Kalmenson and the commemoration itself.
“It gave me a lot of courage and a lot of unity,” Schifflinger said. “And basically, that where we are, you know, as Jewish people. It’s all about unity. It’s all about peace.”
The ceremony and hundreds like it held in South Florida and across the world were designed to unite the Jewish community and its allies in a show of solidarity, honoring victims and celebrating the bravery of survivors and heroes, event organizers said.
“We must continue to live our lives and show love to one another,” Rabbi Harlig said, calling for unity among all people. “Only by coming together can we bring an end to hatred and build a world where love triumphs over division.”
Thousands of lives lost but crisis continues
Resolutions, exit strategies and two-state solutions seem elusive
Although negotiators seek to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas, it is difficult to find Arab or Jewish sentiment – expert or otherwise — that says a deal can be negotiated.
Long-term and short-term plans have been floated, dismissed and brought, but as in years past, conditions and circumstances seem to stand in the way. Ask anyone on either side of the conflict if peace is possible in the near future, the answer can basically be summed up this way: ‘No way, but I hope so.’
Mona Gemayel: ‘If we want to resolve the problem in the Middle East, we have to create a nation for the Palestinians.‘
“We’re still talking about the same problem that has not been solved for 75 years,” said Mona Gemayel, a 52-year-old Arab American salon owner who has family in Gaza. Gemayel insists that an end to the conflict has to include a separate nation for the Palestinians. Palestinians, she said, will continue to find ways to make their voices heard and their situation understood.
“If there is no country for the Palestinians, this is going to keep repeating every 10 or 20 years because there will always be a group trying to fight for Palestine, no matter what,” Gemayel said.
Anas Amireh, co-founder of Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition in South Florida, agrees.
‘We have faith in God’
“It’s just common sense that you cannot have peace and still occupy an entire people, an entire population, an entire nation,” Amireh said. But, like, I know just from talking to my circle of friends, most of them are thinking of where do we go from here? What happens from here? What’s next? So, it’s depressing, but we have we have faith in God.”
Zach Levey, Israel Institute visiting professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder: ‘Neither Hamas nor Israel seems much interested in a comprehensive cease-fire.’
Professor Zach Levey, Israel Institute visiting professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, said the conflict continues in part because Israel has “no coherent exit strategy.”
“To have an exit strategy would involve addressing substantively the demand for a Palestinian state and that is not something the current government will countenance,” Levey said.
Amireh said the Israel Defense Forces’ goal of going after Hamas leadership is untenable and an “excuse to commit genocide” on Arabs in Gaza and Lebanon.
“When Jewish extremists protest and march, they don’t chant death to Palestinians,” Amireh said. “They have been chanting since 1948: ‘Death to the Arabs.’”
Israel’s goal to further decimate the numbers of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders stands in the way of a peace deal, Levey said. Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group.
“These deaths change little in the short term,” Levy said. “Israel is determined to continue to destroy Hezbollah’s capacity to do harm, and neither Hamas nor Israel seems much interested in a comprehensive cease-fire given the conditions that each rival would attach to such an agreement.”
Leaders should negotiate
Hani Bawardi, associate professor of history at University of Michigan-Dearborn: ‘Killing the leaders is like saying we reject you as a people, and we intend to kill all of you.’
Hani J. Bawardi, an associate professor of history at University of Michigan-Dearborn, said wars typically reach a threshold of violence that makes it necessary to pause or end the violence to aid the afflicted.
“The leaders are the ones who rein in their people and negotiate with the other side,” Bawardi said. “Killing the leaders is like saying we reject you as a people, and we intend to kill all of you.”
The killing of the head of Hamas’ political arm was clear signal that Israel intends to kill as many thousands as it can until U.S. elections ran their course, he said in reference to Hamas Yahya Sinwar, the key figure behind the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Israel Defense Forces killed Sinwar in October.
Ismail Haniyeh, another top leader of Hamas, was killed in Iran in July. That same month Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s most senior military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon near Beirut.
Israel has right to defend itself
University of Miami alumnus Howard Singer, whose daughter served with the Israel Defense Forces, said Israel has the right to defend itself and to go after its enemies.
“Its fight to stop terrorists, whose only intent is to destroy Israel and the Jewish people, truly goes beyond Israel,” Singer said. “By wiping out terrorists, Israel has taken on the job of protecting the world.”
Meanwhile, the plight of Arab Christians gets lost in the Jews vs. Arabs conflict, Gemayel said. Arab Christians have to face the same destiny as non-Arab Christians.
“If Israel is attacking Lebanon, Israel is attacking all religions in Lebanon. So unfortunately, Christians keep paying the price,” Gemayel said.
Robert Rabil, political science professor, Florida Atlantic University: ‘I really would like Israel to live in peace and the Palestinians to live in peace well.
The ultimate goal should be peace, said Robert Rabil, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University.
“So mainly what I wish is that this conflict will get settled soon,” said Rabil, who has a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. “I really would like this to end, and I really would like Israel to live in peace and the Palestinians to live in peace well.”
Reporters: Daniel Braz, Noah Gulley, Dara Karadsheh
