About 1,300 people passed through metal detectors Monday evening as they entered the Jewish Community Center of St. Louis in Creve Coeur, gathering to commemorate the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks even as a Saturday demonstration by people holding swastika flags in Town and Country put attendees on edge.
At the back of a large auditorium, photos of victims and survivors from last year’s Hamas attacks on Israel were displayed on easels. There were 18 of them — the number in Judaism that represents life.
Organizers from the Jewish Federation of St. Louis did not publicize the location of its event and released it only to people who registered in advance.
“We need to be around, and not let them win and not let fear guide us,” said Gay Gordon of Chesterfield, whose children advised her that it could be unsafe to attend. “I said, you know what, I have to do this.”
The hourlong program included remarks by leaders of the Jewish community, a few songs and some prayers. No explanation was needed for the heightened security. Jewish, Muslim and Arab American communities around the U.S. have experienced increased threats since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
There was little discussion of the war in Gaza or U.S. policy toward Israel at the event.
"It's not the time to really argue or to talk about the politics or decisions that the Israel government may or may not have made, or if United States is being as supportive or not supportive enough," said Rabbi Brad Horowitz, chief Jewish engagement officer at the center.
"Really, today marks the one year and really is the time to think about those we've lost, and to think about those people who are still in captivity right now who are suffering.”
A year of turmoil
When Hamas fighters staged the surprise attack on Israel last October, it set off a year of military, political and humanitarian responses that have reverberated around the world and sparked outrage and action in the St. Louis region.
On the morning of Oct. 7, Hamas fighters from Gaza crossed into southern Israel, inflicting brutal attacks that killed more than 1,200 people — including young people who had assembled for an all-night music festival — and taking 251 people hostage. It was the deadliest attack on Israel in its 76-year history.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since then has killed more than 40,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, many of them women and children rather than only the Hamas fighters and leaders Israel cites as its targets — though with basic social services all but broken down after a year of war, an exact death toll is difficult to determine. Hamas operates from within a system of underground tunnels located beneath population centers, rather than conventional military bases or political headquarters that could be more readily targeted with fewer resulting civilian casualties.
Among the dead are humanitarian workers providing aid to Gazans, doctors and other medical professionals caring for the wounded and members of the press documenting the ravages of the ongoing war.
Hamas rocket strikes into Israel have largely been repelled by Israel’s air defense system.
A United Nations commission found that Hamas committed war crimes during its Oct. 7 attack and in indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli population centers; it also found that Israel has committed war crimes in its ongoing war in Gaza, including by hampering the delivery of food and other humanitarian aid, and illegitimately targeting civilian centers like schools and hospitals. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, nations may not target civilians in war and may not attack a civilian facility unless it is clearly being used as a military asset.
The Israeli government and Hamas leadership have each proposed and rejected various cease-fire plans over the past year.
From around the globe, war hits home
The widening war in Gaza has sent ripples through civic life in St. Louis, affecting its politics, spurring protests on college campuses and beyond, and inspiring heated conflicts between artists and arts organizations that have aimed — and often failed — to avoid offending people on all political sides who are embroiled in the ongoing tensions.
Few of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza — about 100 of whom are still detained and alive, according to Israel officials — have been freed.
At some vigils, the fate of Israeli hostages is top of mind. At a remembrance event last October at the Jewish Community Center in Creve Coeur, organizers made available blue ribbons to raise awareness of and show support for the hostages. One month after the Oct. 7 attacks, two Olivette residents staged a gathering at Shaw Park that was part vigil, part art installation.
Hundreds of people milled quietly around dozens of tables that were set as if for a festive Shabbat meal. The tables were covered in white linen and topped with place settings, plus loaves of challah and individual red roses. But instead of hosting dinner guests, each seat was adorned with a flier displaying the photo of a hostage.
One of the organizers, Israeli-born David Palatnik, has extended family members still in Israel. He said the empty Shabbat meal was one way to show support from so far away.
“It’s difficult because I don’t feel I’m doing enough,” he said at the time. "You live there in the U.S., so you have to keep on going with your life. You have work. You have school. You have everything going on, but you know — it just doesn’t stop.”
Locally built weapons for a Middle Eastern war
While a national debate over U.S. military aid to Israel raged, a local angle attracted the attention of activists.
Boeing won a $2.2 billion contract from the U.S. Air Force in 2020 to build weapons known as small diameter bombs at its facility in St. Charles. Boeing sold small diameter bombs to the Israeli government as recently as 2021.
Locally, Boeing also builds four types of fighter jets and various types of military ordnance. Since signing the five-year contract, Boeing has increased its regional workforce by 14%, with 2,000 additional employees pushing the tally to 16,000 local workers. In April, Boeing purchased GKN Aerospace St. Louis, whose 550 employees produce parts for fighter jets.
Some of Boeing’s output in St. Charles has gone toward the $17.9 billion in military aid the U.S. has directed to Israel since the start of the war, which has now widened with Israeli airstrikes on Beirut, the densely populated capital of Lebanon. Israel has also expanded the fighting to the West Bank, nominally governed by Palestinians but over which the Israeli military asserts security control.
In November, about 75 protesters rallied in front of the St. Charles manufacturing plant and temporarily blocked vehicle access.
"We are trying to prevent workers from going in and making literal bombs that are being used to bomb hospitals, to kill children, to displace and to end bloodlines,” said Mahreen Ansari, a demonstrator who traveled from Kansas City.
A month after that protest, a coalition of student groups at St. Louis-area universities called for leaders of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis University and Washington University to divest from Boeing and disallow the company from recruiting new employees at on-campus hiring fairs.
Representatives from the UMSL Middle Eastern Students Association, SLU Muslim Students Association and Resist, SLU Middle Eastern Students Association, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Muslim Students Association and Occupy SLU signed the letter.
“I am an Afghan refugee, I've come to the United States as a refugee and as a result of these types of wars from Afghanistan,” said Sahar Hussaini, a sophomore and advocacy chair of the SLU Muslim Student Association at the time. “I understand how stressful it can be for Palestinians and people that are going through the same thing and somehow close to what I've been through.”
A statement from SLU said the university recognizes and respects students’ right to voice their positions, including concerns about university and corporate relations.
UMSL officials said in a statement at the time that they are saddened by the violence in the Middle East and that the school is “committed to protecting the rights of each member of the campus community to express their views and engage in respectful dialogue and debate.”
More divisions on campus
Beyond the Boeing connection, protests against Israel’s conduct of the war — including widespread destruction of civilian areas throughout Gaza — embroiled St. Louis-area college campuses toward the end of the spring 2024 semester, at the same time similar protests at Columbia University in New York, the University of California-Los Angeles and other schools grabbed headlines nationally.
Police arrested 12 pro-Palestinian protesters at Washington University on April 13 — then arrested 100 demonstrators two weeks later when students attempted to set up an on-campus encampment in solidarity with similar protests at other schools. University leaders temporarily closed down the campus to people who are not students or university employees and enclosed the grounds with temporary fences.
Critics of the protests said some of the chants heard there and slogans written on signs were antisemitic or went beyond criticism of Israel’s ruling government to call for destruction of the state.
Many students and faculty who supported the demonstrations said Washington University officials were not enforcing on-campus safety but rather were targeting political speech they disagree with or think could attract negative attention from supporters of the school.
“A lot of people are now culpable in carrying out this plan, and it's incredibly damaging,” said Michael Allen, a senior lecturer at Wash U who was arrested at the protest and suspended, about the university’s aggressive response to protests.
“If this kind of abuse of faculty and students happens quietly and is just brushed under the rug, Washington University becomes a really toxic, dysfunctional family. These things need to be aired and acknowledged so we can heal,” Allen said during a May episode of St. Louis on the Air.
There were no arrests at a pro-Palestinian march at St. Louis University in May.
Supporters of Israel also took to the streets. The Jewish Federation of St. Louis organized a University City march in December, St. Louis Friends of Israel held a November rally in St. Charles, and many Jewish people from St. Louis traveled to Washington, D.C., for the March for Israel in November.
Jewish organizations also held events to support the Israeli hostages and included special Oct. 7 remembrances during holidays dedicated to the founding of Israel and the remembrance of the Holocaust. About 800 Washington University students staged a vigil at their school.
Overlap of the personal and the political in the arts
The war in Gaza spilled into local disputes over art and performance, with some Palestinian supporters saying their voices were silenced.
The Craft Alliance changed and then removed a June exhibition meant to be the culmination of an 11-month term by its two artists-in-residence, Dani Collette and Allora McCullough.
Colette and McCullough described the show, titled “Planting Seeds, Sprouting Hope,” as anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian. Without alerting the artists, curators removed a bowl illustrated with a keffiyeh print and several pieces into which were carved the words “Land Back.”
Curators also removed title cards reading “Indigenous to Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Craft Alliance Executive Director Bryan Knicely said he considers the latter slogan a call to violence that was flagged as offensive by a Jewish volunteer, though its meaning is disputed.
Craft Alliance leaders shut the exhibition down after one weekend, complaining of “antisemitic slogan[s] and imagery” that called for “violence and the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.”
“To accuse us of being antisemitic because we want to support freedom for innocent civilians is absurd,” McCullough said at the time.
To some decision-makers in the arts, critics argued, any expression of Palestinian culture is now interpreted as a politically pointed message.
Members of Canaan Wellspring, a recently formed dance group that performs the Palestinian folk style dabke, thought they were booked to perform at the Clayton Art Fair in September. Then festival reps fell out of contact and eventually said all the performance slots were already filled.
“The group was absolutely not targeted in any way because they're Palestinian. There was definitely a question about the nature of the group — whether its focus was political or artistic,” said Suzanne Dalton Kearins, chair of the art fair’s board of directors. “We have a responsibility to our audience, to our artists, to our sponsors, to all of our stakeholders, to make sure we ensure a very family-friendly event,” she added.
Many of Canaan Wellspring’s performers are children, and the only message in its performances is a celebration of Palestinian culture and community, said the troupe’s manager and dance coach, Hanan Hamed.
“It's like they're asking us to not exist. That's what I'm hearing. It's just as simple as that. I think it's just a way to erase a culture and erase its people,” Hamed said shortly before the art fair.
Gaza on the ballot?
The comments of at least one St. Louis elected official drew intense scrutiny from players in national politics. In her initial statement about the Oct. 7 attack, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, linked the Hamas attack with ensuing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, saying she mourns all loss of civilian life. She added that a lasting peace in the region will come only “by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
Bush became a leading voice in Congress pushing for a cease-fire and sharply criticized the Israeli government. Her reference to Israeli “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza drew a public rebuke from more than 30 leaders of St. Louis-based Jewish organizations.
In a letter, they wrote: “The 60,000 Jewish members of the St. Louis community deserve an apology for her lack of decency, disregard for history, and for intentionally fueling antisemitism and hatred, especially at a time when law enforcement in America is recording an all-time high in violent attacks against Jews.”
Bush’s critics also said she failed to adequately condemn the actions of Hamas. Days before her 1st District Democratic primary showdown with St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, Bush cautioned against a rush to judgment about Hamas.
“Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes. But do I know that? Absolutely not,” she told the New York Times. "I have no communication with them. All I know is that we were considered terrorists,” Bush continued, “we were considered Black identity extremists, and all we were doing was trying to get peace. I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know."
Her activism against the war and on behalf of Palestinians drew the attention of the powerful pro-Israel political action group AIPAC, which poured millions of dollars into the race, most of it for anti-Bush ads.
Bell won the primary election and is heavily favored to win the seat in November, as the St. Louis- and St. Louis County-based 1st Congressional District historically leans heavily Democratic.
Bush said in November that she’d already “condemned Hamas over and over again” and maintained that she was finding fault with the actions of Israel, not of Jews generally.
“I fight for all of humanity, be it Israeli or Palestinian or Black, white, in whichever country — I fight for every single person,” Bush told St. Louis Public Radio in November. “I have been the same person this whole time. My stance on Israel and Palestine and my stance on not wanting to support and fund human rights abuses from any country's government has been the same for years,” she added.
Finding, and losing, friends and allies
Support for Israeli hostages held by Hamas and reverence for the memory of those who died in last year’s attacks are all but universal in St. Louis Jewish circles. But views diverge from there. Groups like Jewish Voices for Peace and the Progressive Jews of St. Louis have participated in and sometimes organized protests against Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and in favor of Palestinian liberation.
American Jews have felt pressure over the past year to choose between two sides — one that can seem insufficiently supportive of Israel and one that “can seem too warmongering,” said Rabbi Daniel Bogard of the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis.
“For generations, Israel was the thing that brought American Jews together, and today, oftentimes Israel is the most divisive issue in the American Jewish community,” Bogard said in an interview a few days before the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. “Jewish professionals are often terrified to speak about Israel — or to not speak about Israel, to say the wrong thing. And it often feels like no matter what we say, it is the wrong thing,” he added.
To many Palestinian Americans in St. Louis, there is less internal conflict within the community, but frustration abounds that empathy for Gazan civilians in the broader world can seem to run short.
At a Friday vigil in Webster Groves at Eden Theological Seminary, people lit candles to mark the year of bloodshed in Gaza. It was a somber night filled with music, poetry and tears.
Attendee Nida Mutan has struggled to cope with the death and destruction in Gaza — and to understand how others in the region seem willing to ignore the Israeli military's attacks on civilians in heavily populated areas.
"It feels very, very crazy and almost like I’m living two different lives when everything I'm seeing on my phone and the spaces I’m surrounded in are like 'organize, rise up, fight against the genocide,'” Mutan said, “and then at work it’s just very tame.”
Ulaa Kuziez contributed to this report.
