The High Holidays will mark a particularly emotional time for Baltimore’s Jewish community. This year, the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will mark one year since the deadliest single day for the world’s Jewish population since the Holocaust.

The October 7 attack on Israel touched all aspects of our local Jewish community and, for many, shook our confidence in Israel as our worldwide place of safe refuge.

All of us have first-hand relationships with people impacted by the attack. Friends and relatives who were killed or taken hostage by the terrorist group Hamas, those whose lives were upended in communities to the north or south of Israel that became unsafe to live, or those who were called up to active duty as Israel literally fights for its survival against its Iranian-backed enemies.

We have mourned together as a community, for all of the innocent victims who have lost their lives due to the actions of Hamas — both Israelis and Palestinians. We have prayed for the safe release of the hostages, including Americans, who are being held in underground tunnels and other unimaginably difficult conditions.

As a Baltimore Jewish community, under the leadership of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, we have raised millions of dollars in humanitarian support for Israeli communities, particularly our sister city, Ashkelon, which has frequently come under heavy bombardment from Hamas. Many of us have made trips to Israel to show our support, to volunteer to help and to simply better understand the sheer devastation and viciousness of the attack.

We have treasured the many partners who have reached out in support over the past year as we struggled with this ongoing trauma — elected officials, leaders of other faiths and neighbors and friends who have seen the horror of what Hamas has done.

Yet at the same time, we have encountered an unprecedented surge in hate against the Jewish community during the past year. National statistics show there was a 400% increase in antisemitic acts after the Oct. 7 attack.

Signs calling for the release of hostages have been vandalized in front of our synagogues and Israeli flags have been stolen from homes and businesses. Our neighbors have found swastikas on street signs and sidewalks in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.

And the challenges faced by Jewish students on our college campuses have been non-stop. Tent encampments featuring chants calling for the destruction of Israel. Pro-Palestinian student groups calling for Jewish professors to be barred from teaching classes about the Middle East. Students coming home from prayer services being harassed and threatened.

Here in Maryland, we are fortunate to have a strong system of Hillels on five of our larger campuses, and we have worked hard to support them to ensure the students experience the joys of Jewish life and not just the antisemitism and hate.

We know that Israel’s war against Hamas — and, increasingly, against Hezbollah — has prompted intense political debate in our country. We are pained by all of the lives lost.

Hamas has controlled Gaza through fear and violence for nearly two decades, and it has intentionally built its tunnels and military apparatus into civilian population structures.

If Hamas is removed from power in Gaza, we know that one of the biggest beneficiaries will be the Palestinians who suffer every day under Hamas rule and who are continually put at risk by how Hamas militants operate within schools, hospitals and neighborhoods.

Misguided calls for our colleges and universities to divest from companies doing business with Israel will do nothing to end this conflict, nor will calls for the United States to stop supporting its long-time ally, the only democracy in the Middle East.

For those who call on Israel to unilaterally lay down its arms, we ask this question: If a terrorist group in Canada came across the border and killed thousands of American citizens, and took hundreds more hostage, what would we expect of our U.S. government? Would we call on our military to stand down and let the terrorists hold onto our innocent hostages? How can we ask Israel to do anything different?

As a Baltimore Jewish community, we want peace — the release of the hostages, the ending of innocent lives being lost and a promise of security and safety for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

On these Jewish High Holidays, as we commemorate one year since the worldwide Jewish community’s 9/11 and reflect on the collective trauma since the attack, that is our prayer for Israel and the region.

Howard Libit is executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council.