On October 7, 2023 director Wendy Sachs was visiting her daughter at college when the messages began to fly in. Sachs recalls the moment quietly as she chats to The AJN following The Dor Foundation screening of October 8 – her film highlighting what has happened to the Jewish world, particularly college campuses, ever since.
But, she said, while October 7 was horrific, for her, it was what happened the following day that changed her.
“I saw what was happening around the world, here in Australia in front of the Opera House, in the streets of London, and of course, what was happening in New York’s Times Square, where Hamas was being celebrated as freedom fighters rather than being condemned as terrorists,” she explained. “It was the hostility and visceral, fanatical hate towards Israel right away, before Israel had even responded, meeting the silence of the world, of all the places and people who normally speak out.”
Sachs recalled not being surprised by the outbreak of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments following the Hamas-led attacks. She had seen the writing on the wall. She described seeing it in her own circles – people already had the view that “Israel had it coming”.
October 8, the film, is Sachs’ answer to that exact feeling.
Put simply, October 8 presents the facts. As Sachs and Nimrod Erez who edited the film explained, the aim of the documentary is to show the world what antisemitism looks like today.
“It has morphed into anti-Zionism. Delegitimising Israel is not a new concept, but it used to be a little more fringe and it has become very mainstream,” Sachs pointed out, explaining that she finds this incredibly alarming.
“I wanted to expose how we got to this moment, in this perfect storm, this Venn diagram of interrelated parts, from the bias coming from media and NGOs, which are the Good Housekeeping stamp of approval, so that penetrates down. And then what we’re seeing on social media, the propaganda campaigns and how that’s impacting young people. It has created this perfect storm.”
October 8 shares the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, social media and the streets of America through the eyes of several commentators, as well as college students who experienced the antisemitism and hate firsthand.
And while the film is set in the United States, Tahli Blicblau, CEO of The Dor Foundation said the parallels with what has happened in Australia are clear. Blicblau explained that divisions continue to play out across society, and while the Jewish community has deeply felt the divide, many from the outside community have very little idea of how bad the situation has become.
“We have to operate from a place of hope. And I believe in Jewish history. I know that Jews are not going anywhere.” Tessa Veksler
“This was about creating a catalyst for conversation. The film masterfully illustrates how modern antisemitism poses a threat not just to Jewish communities, but to society more broadly,” Blicblau told The AJN. “At times, it takes a moment like this to break through the noise, to spark the right conversations and ensure urgent issues like antisemitism remain on the national agenda.”
For Sachs and Erez, the film acts as crucial evidence.
“With all the darkness out there and the propaganda, and the feeling that we’ve lost the narrative and we’ve lost control, there’s so many lies. This film presents facts,” Sachs said. “It was really important to me to have real experts who were the most locked up people in their space. What we’re showing is the receipts; the evidence.”
Non-Jewish experts to feature in the film include Congressman Ritchie Torres, Mosab Hassan Yousef (otherwise known as the son of Hamas) and Douglas Murray, all of whom help move the needle for the non-Jewish world.
One thing the film helps to expose is the fact that the protests that engulfed the world have never gone after the Israeli government. Rather, they are going after the Jews. And this is how the production team shows that anti-Zionism is indeed antisemitism.
“If they had gone out on October 8 and screamed for two states, we would have no film, no issues, no argument,” Erez explained. “But they’re not. And part of what we wanted to expose is that this pro-Palestinian movement is anti-peace and anti-coexistence,” he continued, pointing out that the voices we’re now hearing in Gaza are echoing the sentiment. “Palestinian journalists are starting to say the quiet part out loud, which is that these demonstrations are not helping the Palestinians. They’re just emboldening Hamas.”
Sachs expanded on this, saying “it’s not about borders, disputes or land settlements. It very quickly becomes ‘death to Jews’. It’s an attack on the West, on democracy.”
“What we’re showing is the receipts; the evidence.” Wendy Sachs
For Sachs and Erez, the aim of the film is to find those who haven’t yet been turned completely, those in the middle, and expose them to the truth.
“Ninety-nine per cent of people in the world have never met a Jew. They don’t know anything about our history. They don’t care. Their lives are complicated enough without thinking about us. So we just have to reach those people before the opposition does,” Erez explained. The aim is to do this through individual outreach. Every Jew brings a non-Jewish friend.
“The haters are going to hate. But there are a lot of people in the middle who just don’t know very much. We can win them over … there are many small victories that can be put together into something major, that we’re working on one-by-one.”
Blicblau reiterated this thought, saying every attendee from each screening The Dor Foundation organised left empowered to make a difference.
“Every attendee left as an ambassador, united in our mission to empower Australians to stand up against antisemitism and all forms of hate. We brought together key opinion leaders from education, business, media, government and philanthropy and their continued leadership in driving awareness and broadening the reach of this film is now central to our strategy. We’re already in active discussions with key opinion leaders across four states who are ready to host private screenings,” she said.
Importantly, the film is purposefully not political. Rather, it’s laser-focused on one specific problem, and while its intended audience is non-Jews, for the Jewish community, it validates a lot of what the global Jewry is feeling.
“Every attendee left as an ambassador, united in our mission to empower Australians to stand up against antisemitism and all forms of hate.” Tahli Blicblau
“There are a lot of real eye-opening moments in the film that we’ve tried to make teachable for young people,” Sachs explained. Facts like Jews make up just 2.4 per cent of the US population yet face 55 per cent of hate crimes.
For the production team, the film is affirming for the younger generation, validating their experiences while also highlighting their courage.
“These incredible young people who testified before Congress, endured a lot of harassment and hate on their campuses, stood up to their professors, rallied their fellow students, showed maturity and poise; that’s really powerful,” Sachs said.
“An unintended consequence of the film is that it serves kind of like a Jewish communal primal scream; it’s like a rallying cry,” Erez said.
Perhaps the biggest rallying cry is from the Jewish students featured in the film themselves, who fought for their rights to feel safe and secure on their college campuses. People like Tessa Veksler and Talia Khan.
The bullying and harassment against Veksler got so bad that she faced a recall vote as student government body president at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“At the end of the day, if you look at my story and you strip away the fact that it happened because I’m Jewish, it’s just bullying,” she told The AJN, explaining that October 8 humanises the Jewish experience on campus.
“Even if you look at the four Jewish female students in the film, each of us are different,” she said. “One from the former Soviet Union, one is black and Jewish, one is Iranian and one is half-Muslim half-Jewish. All four of us have one thing in common, and it’s what we went through and, and also how we rose to the occasion.”
Khan emphasised this point. “Jews aren’t a monolith. We don’t all think the same, we don’t all look the same, but we’re all affected. And it’s our responsibility, whether we like it or not, to speak up and fight back.”
Which is what both women, as well as many others on campuses around the world, have been doing.
Like Sachs and Erez, both Veksler and Khan dismissed the idea that the film is political.
“This is about plain antisemitism,” Khan said. “It’s about right and wrong.”
Throughout the film, though, despite the antisemitism and harassment on campus, hope shines through. Sachs said she is optimistic about the young generation holding the torch.
“This film is for them, and I think for them it’s affirming. For young people, I think it’s inspiring,” she said.
It’s a sentiment carried by both Veksler and Khan.
“One of the benefits we’ve seen of this whole horrible situation over the past almost two years is that Jewish communities are tighter than ever,” Khan said. “It’s an honour to be one of the voices, one of the representatives of everything that’s happened on campus. One of the silver linings of this is being able to meet more proud Jewish people and allies of the Jewish people, because that’s what we need.”
Veksler said she has a lot of hope for the future.
“My biggest concern is that some of the most radical anti-Jewish, anti-Israel people will eventually be eligible to run for office. And the one thing that helps me sleep at night is that I know so many young, emerging Jewish leaders that will beat those people in an election very easily,” she laughed.
“We have to operate from a place of hope. And I believe in Jewish history. I know that Jews are not going anywhere. We go through waves of antisemitism and nothing is going to change. If anything though, now we have a home state, and that’s not going anywhere.”
October 8 is now screening at select cinemas around Australia. Buy tickets.
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