On October 7, 2023, I woke up to a nightmare that I still haven’t fully processed. Hamas, a terrorist organization long entrenched in the geopolitics of the Middle East, launched a coordinated attack on Israel that left 1,200 people dead in a matter of hours, most of them civilians, many of them young attendees at the Nova Music Festival, a celebration of peace and harmony. Among the dead were dozens of children, their lives stolen in an act of barbarity unparalleled in recent history. In addition to the massacre, 251 hostages were abducted, their fates hanging in the balance as they endured starvation, torture, and the looming specter of death. Today, 59 of them remain captive.
For me, and for so many in the Jewish community, the attack was deeply personal. It was the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and yet, in the days that followed, the world did not rally in support or grief, not even my friends, colleagues, or acquaintances (not even of this posting). Instead, the familiar patterns of blame emerged, as if the murder of innocent people, of my people, was something that required justification. Within hours, the rhetoric turned against us, and the very existence of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, became the scapegoat for its own slaughtered citizens.
Wendy Sachs’s new documentary, October 8 (Hate), is essential because it captures what so many of us have been trying to say, trying to scream, into an unhearing world. This is not a film for those of us who already understand Israel’s existential struggle. It is not for those who have long recognized the creeping tide of antisemitism disguised as activism. No, this is mandatory viewing for everyone else. For those under 30 who have absorbed the world through the algorithmic prism of social media, for those whose understanding of geopolitics has been shaped by digestible slogans and viral misinformation, this film is an urgent, necessary intervention.
Through searing interviews with journalists, survivors, and students, October 8 exposes the insidious ways in which Hamas has manipulated global media and social platforms to frame its campaign of terror as a fight for liberation. It lays bare the disgusting euphemistic language, ‘Free Palestine’, that cloak calls for Israel’s destruction in the guise of social justice. It documents, with chilling clarity, the explosion of antisemitic violence in the United States, particularly on college campuses, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations have increasingly mirrored the ideological fervor of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.
The footage is harrowing: violent protests in Times Square, professors at elite institutions refusing to condemn antisemitic rhetoric, student activists parroting Hamas propaganda as if it were gospel. The documentary does not merely highlight the gross ignorance of these young Americans, it reveals the systemic failures that have enabled it. University presidents, when pressed before Congress, could not bring themselves to categorically denounce calls for genocide against Jews. These same figures, Sachs reminds us, would never hesitate to condemn the lynching of a Black man by white supremacists. Yet when it is Jews who are murdered, when Jewish women are raped, when Jewish children are abducted, the world equivocates.
The cultural silence is deafening. Hollywood, that perennial beacon of progressive activism, has remained conspicuously mute. When an event was organized to spotlight the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S. after October 7, only Debra Messing and Michael Rapaport, hardly the industry’s A-list, were willing to lend their voices. As they wryly note in the film, there is a hierarchy of causes in Hollywood, and Jews, once again, find themselves at the bottom. This, despite the harrowing reality that 18 months later, Israeli hostages remain in captivity, their suffering met with indifference.
The media, too, has failed. The New York Times notoriously misreported an Israeli bombing of a hospital in Gaza, a claim that was later revealed to be a self-inflicted strike by Hamas. The retraction, when it came, was perfunctory, buried beneath the weight of its initial falsehood. More recently, 60 Minutes aired an interview with a hostage survivor, only to cast doubt on his account of being starved. Even more egregiously, the program falsely reported that Israel had broken a ceasefire, an assertion that could not have been further from the truth.
The ignorance is not limited to newsrooms. Actress Rachel Zegler, Disney’s Snow White, took to social media to parrot pro-Palestinian rhetoric so inflammatory that studio executives had to intervene personally. The antisemitism is no longer lurking in the shadows, it is bright, it is loud, and it is celebrated in certain circles. And the most frightening part? It is being embraced by a generation that claims to champion justice while standing shoulder to shoulder with those who call for the annihilation of Jews.
October 8 is not just a documentary, it is a wake-up call. It is a sobering, infuriating, and ultimately tragic examination of how young Americans have been radicalized by a terrorist organization masquerading as a resistance movement. It methodically dismantles the illusion of moral equivalency, exposing the reality that this is not a conflict with two sides of equal standing. There is no nuance in genocide. There is no moral high ground in justifying the slaughter of civilians.
For me, the film only reaffirmed what I’ve known all my life: the world does not rush to defend the Jewish people. We are always expected to justify our survival. We are asked to explain our grief. And now, even as hostages remain in captivity, even as the scars of October 7 remain fresh, the world continues to turn a blind eye.
The message of October 8 is clear: antisemitism is wrong. That should be an uncontroversial statement. And yet, in today’s world, it is anything but. This film is a necessary corrective to a dangerously distorted narrative. It is required viewing for those who believe themselves to be on the right side of history, but who have, in their ignorance, found themselves marching in step with its darkest forces, many of which are considered my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, and that’s extremely upsetting.
WRITTEN BY: BRYAN KLUGER
BRYAN KLUGER, A SEASONED VOICE IN THE REALM OF ENTERTAINMENT CRITICISM, HAS CONTRIBUTED TO A WIDE ARRAY OF PUBLICATIONS INCLUDING ARTS+CULTURE MAGAZINE, HIGH DEF DIGEST, BOOMSTICK COMICS, AND HOUSING WIRE MAGAZINE, AMONG OTHERS.
HIS INSIGHTS ARE ALSO CAPTURED THROUGH HIS PODCASTS; MY BLOODY PODCAST AND FEAR AND LOATHING IN CINEMA PODCAST; WHICH LISTENERS CAN ENJOY ACROSS A VARIETY OF PLATFORMS.
IN ADDITION TO HIS WRITTEN WORK, KLUGER BRINGS HIS EXPERTISE TO THE AIRWAVES, HOSTING TWO LIVE RADIO SHOWS EACH WEEK: SOUNDTRAXXX RADIO ON WEDNESDAYS AND THE ENTERTAINMENT ANSWER ON SUNDAYS. HIS MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO MEDIA AND CULTURE OFFERS A UNIQUE, IMMERSIVE PERSPECTIVE FOR THOSE WHO SEEK BOTH DEPTH AND ENTERTAINMENT.
