By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
This year’s High Holy Days will be marked by a sense of grief and remembrance unusual to this period of the Jewish calendar until now. 
Three days after the end of Rosh Hashana marks the first anniversary, by Gregorian reckoning, of the Hamas invasion of Southern Israel that killed 1,180 people, wounded 3,400 and saw 251 hostages taken into Gaza – 65 have since been confirmed as dead and 100 are still in captivity. 
Portland’s Jewish community will mark this solemn anniversary with a Memorial gathering Sunday, Oct. 6 at 7 pm at Congregation Neveh Shalom in Portland. The event is co-sponsored by almost every synagogue and Jewish organization in Portland. 
“Our community should take the time and the space to gather, to remember what happened as well as what’s happened over the past year,” Jewish Federation of Greater Portland President and CEO Marc Blattner said. 
The event will feature remarks from Rabbi Michael Cahana, Senior Rabbi of Portland’s Congregation Beth Israel, Rabbi Eve Posen, Associate Rabbi at Congregation Neveh Shalom, and Rabbi Jonathan Seidel of Or HaGan in Eugene, the immediate past chair of the Oregon Board of Rabbis, as well as a performance by Israeli musician Micha Biton. 
“The massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. October 7 has changed the lives of Israelis, Palestinians and Jews around the world in ways we have yet to fully realize,” Rabbi Cahana said. “On the evening of Oct. 6, 2024 - at a time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - we will gather the Jewish community of Portland and Southwest Washington to mourn the dead, pray for the return of the hostages and pray for peace, safety and dignity for all.”
“Each week since Oct. 7, 2023, I have prayed with my community ‘Acheynu kol beit Yisrael,’ - Our siblings, all of the House of Israel - because we are all one people,” Rabbi Posen said. “Coming together as community reminds each of us that we are not alone, that we are connected and strengthened when we gather together and see each other. As the world continues to other and alienate Jews, there is comfort and strength in uniting in our grief and our hope. That’s what we’ve done since Oct. 7 and that’s what we’ll do on Oct. 6.”
Biton lived with his wife and children in Moshav Netiv Ha’asara near Gaza, where they spent 14 hours huddled in their saferoom on Oct. 7. His guitar was one of the few items he grabbed from his home before being evacuated with his family to Tel Aviv.
“The crisis is so deep,” Biton told The Times of Israel late last year. ”We’re trying to learn to live anew.”
Registration is required, free and available online at jewishportland.org/oct7memorial.