October H8te explores the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, social media, and American streets following October 7.

Documentary filmmaker Wendy Sachs puts on screen what so many of us have been shouting for over a year now about the skyrocketing antisemitism in the US and how anti-Zionism is just another form of antisemitism. The film received an Oscar-qualifying release in early November. Hopefully, a wider release for October H8te will come in due time. Maybe once more people watch, they will start waking up to the current reality and stand side by side with the Jewish community. We cannot just depend on the likes of U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) or U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) for their allyship. We need more allies to be vocal! I also feel for the Jewish students who have to deal daily with the hatred on campus. No Jewish student should have to face intimidation on campus simply because of being a Jew.

In order to understand October H8te, one must understand the reality of October 7. Sachs talks with Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Irit Lahav about her October 7 experiences. Her experiences play out while we see videos and text messages from the awful day. While many Israelis were dealing with the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack, many Jewish-Americans were celebrating Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in shul. A lot of us would come back online to news of antisemitism celebrated on our very streets. Far-left–or illiberal–organizations were celebrating the attacks in the streets of New York and elsewhere. We learn about some of these organizations throughout the documentary and honestly, it’s hard to describe an antisemitic organization as being far-left when the reality is so much more complicated. We don’t know where they get their money, other than they are probably tied to terrorist organizations.

October H8te features no shortage of talking heads. I hate having to use that word but this documentary’s strengths are in the sit-down interviews weaved in with the archival footage. Some of them have way too brief appearances. It’s certainly a challenge that comes with getting such an important film in front of audiences. The film’s 100-minute run time is just enough to hit on the pertinent information while not losing the audience’s attention. Anyway, a number of the experts offer commentary that adds another layer of understanding to antisemitism. It goes without saying that antisemitism comes in various forms. The most recent form of antisemitism is anti-Zionism. Repeat after me: anti-Zionism is antisemitism. I cannot stress this enough.

There are people in this film who I know for a fact that I do not agree with politically. However, our Judaism is what unites us all, despite any political disagreements. You don’t have to look far to find Jews who have been very vocal about antisemitism during the past year. Unfortunately, the silence from Hollywood was particularly deafening–Debra Messing speaks to the sad reality. The very Hollywood types–not to mention other organizations–who show up for all the causes did not show up when it came to the most barbaric attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Jewish students who spoke up on campus found themselves on the receiving end of hate from their fellow students. People would put up posters of the hostages, only for antisemites to tear them down. It’s infuriating. How can people be so hateful?

If there’s someone familiar with Hamas from the inside, it’s Mosab Hassan Yousef. People would do themselves a big favor by listening to him. He’s been particularly vocal over the last year. While leftists and others are chanting “globalize the intifada,” he tells us exactly what it means. The word might mean “uprising” but what it really means is violence and chaos. Do we really need this on the left? No!

A lot of what’s covered in the film will be especially familiar to anyone who followed Jewish activists on social media after October 7. Everyone shares the same videos. A number of the viral ones–positive or negative–are in the film. I know that I recognized plenty of them from the encampments earlier in 2024. One of those clips is from Mandana Dayani’s speech to the UN. It is purely a coincidence that my viewing of the film came on the one-year anniversary of the UN Special Session on the Sexual Assault and Violence Against Women on 10/07. There are many brief clips from the various antisemitic encampments on college campuses. Most of them are from the New York and Los Angeles area campus even though things were very active in Chicago.

If not for what happened at Columbia, many of us might not know who Shai Davidai is. His speech went viral in a video last year and he’s been one of the most prominent professors to be actively fighting against antisemitic hate, especially during the encampments. Unfortunately, the last year has seen Columbia unable to do its job in protecting both Jewish faculty, staff and students from antisemitic intimidation. The fact that they banned him from campus speaks terribly on Columbia’s part. And yet, the video of his speech–recorded during a rally on October 19, 2023. is the rawest he’s ever admitted to being. On the other side of the coin are the Jewish students like Tessa Veksler, Noa Fay, Talia Dror, and Talia Khan. I applaud them for their activism and not giving up in the face of hate. They are our future Jewish leaders.

We cannot even discuss this film without bringing up the college presidents testifying in front of Congress. On the one hand, there is no denying that the university presidents performed very badly. These presidents were missing the moral clarity that was expected of them–when people call for the genocide of Jews (and they are doing so frequently), it should never require a context! When one understands the Arabic language, they would understand that the chant is calling for the erasure of Jews from the land. Meanwhile, some of the Republican congress members doing the questioning were all talk and have not followed through on meaningful action. Both parties have approached campus antisemitism very differently. Where are the Republican efforts to address and solve the problem. Firing college presidents are not enough. Antisemitism and Israel should not be used as wedge issues, let alone as a political weapon.

Rep. Daniel Goldman’s (D-NY) does not appear on camera in the film but one solution to combatting antisemitism on campus is passing his bill, the Showing Up for Students Act. The Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education does not have enough funding to be able to do its job. There are different rules for Title VI as opposed to the First Amendment. There are examples of hate speech that violate Title VI but would otherwise have protection under the First Amendment. In fact, the GOP previously cut funding for the only federal office that has the ability to address campus antisemitism. Where is the justice in that?

A film like this could not have its coverage about the UN and not have UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer offer his thoughts. UN Watch is the organization that typically brings the receipts regarding the UN and its antisemitism. One could easily make an entire documentary about UN Watch and its efforts alone.

Antisemitism has a presence all across the political spectrum. As U.S. Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt comments, it is a horseshoe. Jewish readers will already know this but the far-left and far-right are united in their hatred of Jews. This has been covered so well in previous documentaries I’ve watched, including Antisemitism. I see left-wingers calling out right-wing antisemitism all the time and rightfully so. It’s infuriating to see left-wingers give a free pass to the antisemitism coming from the left. Or the illiberal left, as U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman called them during DNC sideline events this summer. For instance, there is a lot of transphobia right now. Unfortunately, as an Orthodox Jewish transgender woman, a wide number of LGBTQ/trans spaces are no longer safe or welcoming to Jews. What does it say when we are no longer welcome or safe in formerly safe left-wing spaces?!?

If October H8te isn’t the best documentary of the year, it’s the most important documentary of the year.

DIRECTOR: Wendy Sachs
SCREENWRITERS: Wendy Sachs, Inbal B. Lessner, Nimrod Erez
FEATURING: Debra Messing, Michael Rapaport, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Ritchie Torres, Kirsten Gillibrand, Deborah Lipstadt, Dan Senor, Noa Tishby, Jonathan Greenblatt, Oren Segal, Mandana Dayani, Hen Mazzig, Shai Davidai, Jonathan Schanzer, Einat Wilf, Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, David Wolpe, Blake Flayton, Hillel Neuer, Emily Schrader, Bari Weiss, Ashager Araro, Eyal Yakoby, Irit Lahav, Noa Fay, Sheryl Sandberg, Talia Dror, Tessa Veksler, Shabbos Kestenbaum

October H8te played its Oscar-qualifying run November 1-7, 2024. Further distribution and release plans have not been announced. Grade: 5/5

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