Maya Bajayo
Maya Bajayo moved to the United States from Israel in 2012. She is the founder of the Denver chapter of Run for Their Lives.
October 7th changed me significantly. Before the Hamas terrorist attack, I was sitting idly on the sidelines. Today, I really consider myself to be a type of activist, starting with the founding of Run for Their Lives. I am involved in the community on a broader scale, and I have met so many different people and familiarized myself with different organizations, many of which I didn’t even know existed before October 7th.
It has also become really important to me on a personal level to get involved and to get my family involved. When my daughter left to start college this year, I encouraged her to join Hillel on campus. I would not even have thought to do that two years ago.
I lived in Israel for 37 years and it is intense. I grew up in Jerusalem with bombings. That is your reality from day one. When we moved here, I liked the peace and quiet. In Israel, you can’t live without watching the news. Here, you can sit in your car and listen to the radio without constant news alerts.
But I am still Israeli and Jewish and strongly connected to Israel. October 7th shook me to the core—I can’t even describe it in words. I realized that it doesn’t matter where you live when you are part of something bigger. That is why I can no longer sit on the sidelines.
Barry and Gay Curtiss-Lusher
Barry and Gay have been active in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Colorado since the early 1980s and in the national ADL for the past 25 years. They were in Tel Aviv on October 7th.
Gay Curtiss-Lusher
I am sadder, wiser, and more cynical than I was before October 7th, and I don’t like that about myself. I have had to do a lot of work in therapy dealing with my heartbreak and rage because I know that anger isn’t healthy for anyone.
I was scared to be in Israel on October 7th, but I was more scared the day after—October 8—when I saw how we had been abandoned by our civil rights comrades in arms. The Black Lives Matter movement, the Women’s movement, the Gay Rights movement—their immediate response was appalling to me. I knew in that moment that the whole world order had changed. First, I was stunned, then I was angry, and my anger has persisted to this day.
Since October 7th, I have changed my philanthropy, which in the past was more community-based. Now I know that no one else is going to help the Jews. We have to help each other.
With my children and close friends, I am very honest. We talk about where we will go if we have to flee this country. I am reminded of living in Germany in 1934. I love my country, and I love being an American. Before October 7th—and October 8—it never occurred to me that I would have to leave America because of my religion.
Barry Curtiss-Lusher
I have felt more vulnerable since October 7th, and that feeling of vulnerability persists today. Recently, we were traveling in Europe, and we felt like we had to be more careful about what we wore, what we said, and what we did. We feel more vulnerable wherever we go, and that is sad.
Even before October 7th, we saw that antisemitism was rising rapidly, but after October 7th, it became a tsunami, an explosion of hatred. What we are dealing with is really Jew hatred. I am angry to see people whom we considered to be allies and friends turn their backs and walk away. Not everyone—but an awful lot.
As the American Jewish community, we have meaningful connections to Israel. It is part of our identity. Many of us may not agree with Israeli government policy. We may not agree with how they are prosecuting every step of the war. But it’s frustrating when the rest of the world does not make a distinction between Jews in the American Jewish community and the Israeli government and their policies.
The ADL has been operating on a whole new level of intensity since October 7th, because things have gotten worse and stayed at that intense level. Regardless of the progress we thought we had made over generations, to now be more vulnerable and fearful after October 7th is shocking and depressing.
Elliot Stein
Elliot Stein traveled to Israel with JEWISHcolorado’s Young Adult Division (YAD) Ramat HaNegev Exchange Program in May 2025.
I have always felt a strong connection to Israel throughout my life. In the past two years since October 7th, I am even more passionate in my belief that what Israel is doing is positive and noble and beneficial to the protection of a Zionist state.
October 7th has increased my interest in learning about the history of the conflict in the region. I’m sure I was taught the history in Hebrew School, but if you learned it 15 years ago, it just becomes background noise. Since October 7th, I have a better understanding of the gravity of the players and the historical timeline from countless hours of reading, learning, and listening to podcasts. I would not have done that if October 7th had not happened.
From the very start after October 7th, the discourse on social media seemed to be anti-Israel. That anti-Israel rhetoric has spilled into anti-Jewish rhetoric. As the war continues, the rhetoric has become incredibly dangerous. It’s created divisiveness between Jews and non-Jews and internally within the Jewish community and to me, that is sad to see.
I feel so strongly that this is a fight between good and evil. The evil came in and the good has had to fight it off through military action. October 7th has made me even prouder to be on the side of Israel with the belief that the protection of a Jewish state is a valiant and necessary objective.
Heather Kletzky
Heather Kletzy is a freshman at Emory University. She grew up in Denver, attended Denver Jewish Day School from Kindergarten through 12th grade, and traveled to Israel on the Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour (IST) in 2024.
I grew up at DJDS and Israel was an important part of my education, but it was more of a concept than it was a part of my life. October 7th happened during my junior year, just as I was starting to look at colleges. I found that there was a huge amount of antisemitism on college campuses with everyone hating Israel. I felt like the whole world was attacking me for being Jewish. I realized that I could not think clearly about choosing a college if I didn’t go to Israel and see for myself what was happening.
Before October 7th, I planned to spend my next summer as a camp counselor. After October 7th, I became the last person to sign up for IST that year. In Israel, I felt like I was seeing everything in 4K because everything was clearer. I realized that Israel was a living, breathing organism. I got a first-hand look at the complexities in the country that you hear about on the news.
I came back to the U.S. and realized that my life would now revolve around my Zionism. Every choice I would make would demonstrate my love for my Jewish community and Israel. When I started applying for colleges, it became easier. I knew that I needed to go to a school that supported Jewish life and Israel.
When October 7th happened, Emory already had a strong coalition of Jewish students. Instead of running away, they became super passionate about Jewish life. We have Palestinian advocates on campus, but they have only made the Jewish presence stronger. At our first Shabbat this year at Chabad House, we had 375 students there! That is amazing.
Noam Dahary
Noam Dahary was the Shaliach at the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center from 2011-2013. He works for BBYO, overseeing Israel programs and content internationally. He is the husband of Rabbi Kolby Morris-Dahary at Har Mishpacha in Steamboat Springs.
I have been an Israel educator for my entire 20-year career, so Israel is more than my personal life. It is also my professional life. October 7th has made a difference for me in three ways—personal, professional, and communal.
Personally, I feel more than ever like I am a stranger who belongs neither in Israel nor in Colorado. I wasn’t in Israel for October 7th, so I wasn’t part of a historic moment, and I couldn’t join the fight, so I feel detached and guilty. But in the U.S., I feel that no one understands events through my Israeli lens. My world was shattered on that day, but in Steamboat, everything was the same. Today, I still feel like I am both a stranger and deeply connected to two places.
Professionally, I feel an even greater responsibility to guide our community members, especially the younger generation, in understanding the context for October 7th and the war. I have a responsibility to give them the tools to hold multiple truths at the same time when we talk about the experiences of October 7th and the war in Gaza.
Finally, on a communal level, I did not predict how sensitive the conversation about Israel would become. On October 7th, it was black and white who was right and wrong. But now the conversation has become much more sensitive. I have greater concern today than I did two years ago about the unity of the Jewish community-at-large and in Israel.
Micah Zucker
Micah Zucker is a senior at Smoky Hill High School where he started a Jewish Student Connection (JSC) Club during his junior year. Last summer, he traveled to Poland with the Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour (IST).
October 7th forced me to pay attention in a way that I had not done before. As an American Jew and because of where I am geographically and in terms of history, I felt mostly comfortable being Jewish. It was rare to experience antisemitism in my daily life. I was not really tuned into what was happening in Israel. I didn’t grapple with the big questions.
After October 7th, I felt that it was the duty of the Jews of the diaspora, as ambassadors, for Israel to pay attention. Initially, I dove into tons of research. I turned on notifications from newspapers (which was a mistake), I watched videos, and I took in massive amounts of information. I really became obsessed. I found myself always in defense mode, being angry and having hypothetical arguments in my head. I felt like my people and my nation were under attack, and it was my responsibility to defend them.
Eventually, I began to feel like I was drowning in information. I realized that while it is my duty to remain informed, I don’t have to devote my entire life every day and all the time to understanding as many perspectives as possible. I realize now that I am allowed to have a nuanced relationship with Israel. It is my job to be my authentic self, and I don’t have to stick up for the truth all the time with everybody.
This really hit home when I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau on IST. As I walked in along the train tracks entering Auschwitz, I felt intimidated and uncomfortable. But after I had been there and borne witness, I walked away feeling liberated. I could read a million books about the Holocaust, but when I went there and gained perspective instead of just knowledge, I realized this doesn’t have to take up as much of my mental energy as it has. The same is true for Israel.