Earlier this week, AMC Theatres released a documentary, directed by production veteran Wendy Sachs, titled “October 8.” The film tells the story of the dramatic rise in antisemitism in the United States after the horrifying Oct. 7 attack that led to the Gaza war.
The documentary features political, organizational and news commentary personalities; an array of remarkably articulate college student leaders who have stepped forward with courage, pride and dignity to assert and defend their Jewishness and support for Israel in hostile campus environments; and popular personalities like actress Debra Messing, former Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, and businesswoman and social leader Sheryl Sandberg. It also features eyewitness testimony about the Oct. 7 attack and chilling footage of pro-Hamas rallies at campuses and in cities around the country.
The documentary highlights the disturbing connection between Hamas and the wave of U.S. campus protests since Oct. 7 and traces the decades-long planning and orchestration that led to the protest activity. It even documents the Hamas influence in word choices for chants, taunts, signage and other public commentary by the organized campus “protesters.” The film makes clear that the wave of anti-Israel college protests didn’t just “happen” or spring up spontaneously. They were carefully planned and very purposefully implemented.
In one segment of the film, senior leaders of Hamas are heard strategizing more than three decades ago, in a 1993 meeting at a hotel in Philadelphia that was monitored by the FBI, on how to infiltrate U.S. media outlets, universities and research centers. The plotters recognized the need to coordinate the language they would use to make Hamas and its terror agenda more palatable to American progressive audiences. In the words of one participant: “We must address them from a position of rights and justice, and at the same time chose our words well.”
The film features several instances of antisemitism on college campuses, including mobs of anti-Israel students at UCLA creating “Zionist Free Zones” where Israel supporters were barred from entry; pro-Palestinian students and activists threatening Jewish students at Cooper Union who had to lock themselves in a library to avoid attack; and Jewish students at Cornell being told not to leave their dorms due to threats to their physical safety.
In another segment, the film points an accusatory and disappointed finger at international human rights groups, women’s rights organizations and equality movements that were stone silent about the Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7 and literally ignored documented evidence of rape, mayhem, torture and murder by the marauders.
That conspiracy of silence and fear of association with any public condemnation of Islamic Jihad and virulent antisemitism spilled over beyond the Middle East and college campuses.
It also found a home in Hollywood, where Sachs and supporters struggled to find distributors for the documentary and were unable to get any major movie festival to even include their film.
We applaud the commitment of Sachs, the inspiring college warriors who took a principled stand against hate and provocation, the courageous commentators who helped defog the moral obfuscation of much of the anti-Zionist campaign, and those who have supported the development and production of “October 8.”
If you miss “October 8” at the theater, be sure to watch it when it is streamed. And make sure you encourage others to do so, as well.
remarkably articulate college student leaders who have stepped forward with courage, pride and dignity to assert and defend their Jewishness”??
Except Zionism is a Protestant-majority movement on & off campus. What are the Rights of nonJewish Zionists on campus??