In the year that has passed since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and 250 taken hostage, TV producer Jamie Geller has been documenting the growth that has sprung from much darkness. Her new documentary, October 7: Voices of Pain, Hope, and Heroism, tells the stories of five families whose lives changed forever on the day Hamas forces infiltrated Israel.
Geller explained how the project came about in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Feeling almost comatose after “the shock and the trauma” of the Oct. 7 attacks, Geller explained that she also “felt the strength of [her] grandparents’ stories of survival” through the Holocaust. Her grandparents’ tenacity helped her come to an important realization. “Whether we’ve been exiled from Israel, whether it was the Spanish inquisition, whether it was the Holocaust,” the most important part of the Jewish history of trauma is that “we got to rise from the ashes again,” Geller explained.
Geller set about gathering stories from Oct. 7 that would highlight the Jewish “strength of spirit.” It was an “emotional, intense roller coaster,” she said, but the result is “the most important thing … [she] has ever produced.” Geller hopes viewers will come away empowered “to lift up the world around [them].”
I believe they will.
In just 75 minutes, Geller packs a punch through 15-minute interviews with five heroes from a cross-section of Israeli society who managed to effect positive change amid unimaginable tragedy. Each of their stories speaks to the narrative of resilience that ties together the Jewish experience.
Julia Kupershtein tells a story of unassailable faith. After passing hard days waiting for word about her “magical” son Bar, who remains in Hamas captivity, Kupershtein found some purpose in the pain by starting Bar’s Tefillin, a program that ensures a hostage’s yarmulke, prayer book, and tefillin, leather straps that bind Torah verses to the wearer, are in continual use during the hostage’s captivity.
Israel Defense Forces retired Maj. Gen. Noam Tibon’s story of his nine-hour journey to help his son, daughter-in-law, and two small grandchildren escape their home in terrorist-infiltrated Nahal Oz demonstrates the interconnectedness of the Jewish community. On his route to their kibbutz, Tibon went off course multiple times to help innocent Israelis who crossed his path and to engage Hamas terrorists. Tibon saved multiple lives by the time he found his family miraculously unharmed. “I am so proud that I didn’t leave anyone behind me,” he told Geller.
Iris Haim’s is a tale of finding hope in pain after her son Yotam was taken hostage to Gaza and somehow escaped captivity only to be killed by IDF forces who mistook him for a terrorist. Devastated by pain after learning about Yotam’s death, Iris made peace with the legacy she feels Yotam would have wanted. “Our enemies are using these divisions against us,” she explained. “Speak in honor to each other and listen without hate. This is, I think, what Yotam wanted me to do here.”
Jen Airley’s faith journey after losing her son, Sgt. Binyamin Airley, who died while fighting in Gaza, also speaks to the search for hope after tragedy. Geller provides space for Airley’s immense sorrow but also shows how Airley’s Jewish faith helped her recognize that Binyamin “knew where he was going” when he chose to fight and die for Israel. “Some things God just says, ‘I know better than you,’” Airley explains. “And this is one of them.” Geller also highlights the retreat center the Airley family created, Binyamin’s House, where soldiers and others who experienced trauma can receive therapy and engage in Torah study.
Finally, Alon Mesika provides a blueprint for rebuilding the Jewish community, which he was inspired to do after losing his beloved first son Adir at the Nova Music Festival. At first, Mesika planned to donate a single diamond ring to any IDF soldier preparing to get engaged while on leave from battle. After his first recipient was killed just two weeks before his impending wedding, Mesika donated more than 100 additional rings to IDF soldiers. Now, his goal is “to build new homes in Israel for these couples. That’s how we win: building homes in Israel.”
As I spoke with Geller about her powerful documentary, I voiced a rhetorical question that has weighed heavily on my heart while covering the staggering antisemitism facing Jews around the world: Why do the Jewish people have to endure such hate?
Geller took the opportunity to reframe my perspective. “The Jewish people don’t ask, ‘Why?’ But we ask, ‘What was the reason this happened, and what can we do to make things better?’”
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This question is at the heart of each story within Geller’s excellent documentary, which challenged me to think of my own role in finding purpose in the midst of growing chaos and intolerance emanating from the Middle East conflict.
I unequivocally recommend all audiences view October 7: Voices of Pain, Hope, and Heroism. It is not a primer on the tragedy of Oct. 7 but a stirring reminder of our charge to make something from the pain of the losses we face.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News and the host of The Afghanistan Project, which takes a deep dive into nearly two decades of war and the tragedy wrought in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.