North Shore Representatives Reflect On Anniversary Of Oct. 7 Attacks, Attend Memorials
SKOKIE, IL — Members of Congress representing Chicago’s north suburbs are marking one year since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel at local memorial events.
U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) and Brad Schneider (D-Highland Park) issued statements reflecting on ongoing violences spreading across the Middle East and touching lives throughout Chicago and the suburbs.
While Schneider’s statement suggested the war will not end short of regime change in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Schakowsky emphasized the need for de-escalation prevent a potential regional war.
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Last year’s Hamas-led attacks killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage in the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust and the largest number of Israeli military casualties since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The following 12 months have seen the Israeli military carry out strikes in Gaza, assassinate its opposition’s leadership in Beirut and Tehran, and this month, send forces into southern Lebanon, from which Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel.
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As violence continues to spread across multiple fronts, the Jewish community gathered at vigils in Northbrook, Highland Park and Skokie to mourn, honor the victims, and demand the release of the more than 100 hostages believed to remain in Gaza.
Although their boundaries shifted slightly following the latest redistricting, studies have found the 9th and 10th congressional district of Illinois to have the largest numbers of Jewish adults in the state and among the top 15 in the nation. As of 2020, 12.2 percent of adults in the 9th District, which is represented by Schakowsky, were Jewish, as were 15.2 percent of those in the 10th District, which is represented by Schneider.
Schneider, a co-founder of the bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus, said in his statement he was awoken by a call from his son around 6:30 a.m. on the day of the “barbaric, genocidal attack,” which had been underway for about eight hours.
“‘Israel is at war, turn on the TV,'” his son told him.
Schneider said it was clear immediately that these attacks were more significant than previous ones during the 14-year Israeli blockade of the Hamas-led Gaza Strip.
“We soon realized that Israel was fighting an existential war against not only Hamas, but Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq, and central to it all, the regime in Iran,” he said.
“In the days and months since, I have twice visited Israel to bear witness to the sites of the atrocities and have regularly met with survivors and their families to personally hear their stories.”
Schneider has worked with Republicans to make sure Israel, as the U.S.’s “closest friend” in the Middle East, has the resources to “defend itself, secure its borders, protect its citizens, and return the hostages, including all Americans,” he said.
The U.S. has spent at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel in the past year, surpassing a previous record set in the late 1970s, according to a report from Brown University.
“At the same time, I have met with people from our government, as well as from Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and others, to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid is delivered into and throughout Gaza for as long as it takes to defeat Hamas,” he said.
Schneider, who attended a memorial at Port Clinton Square in Highland Park on Sunday evening, encouraged everyone in the community to honor those killed on Oct. 7 and remember those who sacrificed their lives to save others that day.
“Let us also redouble our efforts to open a path, envisioned by the Abraham Accords, to a more secure and peaceful future for all the peoples of the Middle East—both Israelis and Arabs—free from the terror and nihilism of the Iranian regime and its proxies,” he said. “We all want the wars to soon end, but they will only end when those committed to peace stand up to and defeat those seeking nothing more than domination, death, and destruction.”
Israeli officials said a total of 728 soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since Oct. 7, with another 56 killed by friendly fire and accidents, according to the Times of Israel.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, has attributed nearly 42,000 deaths to Israeli military operations. And about 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel stepped up a campaign of airstrikes last month, according to the Associated Press.
Schakowsky said her top priorities were to immediately bring the hostages home, end the violence for good and bring peace and justice to both Israelis and Palestinians. The last year, she said, has been unbearable.
“My heart aches for all those who were killed on October 7th and their loved ones who mourn their loss; for the hostages and their families who have endured an incomprehensible year of suffering, and in some cases, even death; and for the thousands of innocent Palestinian families caught in the ensuing war that have lost those dear to them, fleeing homes and communities turned to rubble, living in fear and struggling to survive,” Schakowsky said.
“Just last month, the Chicago community came together following the devastating news that Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a young man with a bright future ahead of him who was taken hostage by Hamas, was killed,” she said, noting that his parents are from Chicago and his grandmother and aunt are her constituents. “They have endlessly stepped forward to make their voices heard, tell Hersh’s story, and advocate for the safe return of every hostage.”
Golberg-Polin’s family is expected to appear at a community memorial Monday in Skokie, along with Schakowsky and survivors from the Nova Music Festival — where more than 250 people were killed when Hamas gunmen attacked concert attendees.
“It is time for the Netanyahu government and Hamas leadership to reach a final deal. Right now, the Middle East is teetering on the brink of a catastrophic regional war that would put millions more in danger,” Schakowsky said. “The U.S. and our allies cannot allow this to happen. The human cost of this war is staggering, and it must end now.”
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