NR | 1h 40m | Documentary | 2025
When Americans learned of the Armenian genocide in 1916, they raised over $110 million in early 20th-century dollars (well over $3.4 billion when adjusted for inflation) for relief efforts. Yet, perversely, after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, universally acknowledged as the largest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust, large crowds took to American streets, especially college students, to demonstrate on behalf of the perpetrators, rather than the victims.
Since then, hate crimes in the United States targeting Jews exploded, but some of society’s most powerful and best educated chose to look the other way. Concerned students, scholars, and civic leaders examine the root causes and potentially dire implications of this increasing Jew-hatred in Wendy Sachs’ documentary, “October 8.”
For those in denial, Sachs establishes the sheer brutality of the Oct. 7 terrorist operation through harrowing eye-witness testimony. Over 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were abducted as hostages.
Surely, any decent person would condemn this barbarity. Yet, actress Debra Messing, the film’s executive producer, discovered otherwise. She recalls the painful feeling of betrayal when her friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry refused to sign her statement of solidarity with the victims.
There are many celebrated scholars and commentators in “October 8,” but few Hollywood celebrities. At one rally for the hostages held by Hamas, actor-comedian Michael Rapaport self-deprecatingly observed how sad it is that he is their biggest headlining star. Israeli actress Noa Tishby also successfully broke through into American film and television; but her defense of Israel’s democratic pluralism in the media (including this film) might get her blackballed from further Tinseltown roles.
There are also only two prominent names from Congress, the most notable being Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who informs viewers: “There is no issue on which I face more harassment and death threats than on the subject of Israel.” To her credit, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) also pointedly criticizes so-called women’s groups for their reluctance to condemn Hamas’s weaponized sexual assaults on Israeli women.
Hate Crimes
Indeed, the stakes are dire, as Sachs’ experts establish with grim statistics. Over 1,100 hate crimes targeted Jews in the latest available reporting period, while “the next highest group was under 150.” The epicenter of the Jew-hatred explosion are elite universities, where so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) never applies to Jews or Israelis.Sachs’ authorities and witnesses present the big picture with a compelling parade of alarming case studies. The heart of “October 8” consists of the shocking testimony of Jewish students who faced hatred, contempt, harassment, death threats, and even outright violence, at a time when they were reeling from the enormity of the Oct. 7 atrocities. For instance, instead of empathy, former UC Santa Barabara student body president Tessa Veksler’s fellow students responded to Oct. 7 with an attempt to recall her from office.
Hamas Propaganda
The film’s experts in extremist political movements identify shadowy foreign roots and funding sources of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the mysterious organization spearheading much of the campus chaos. Chillingly, they highlight suspicious parallels between SJP messaging and Hamas propaganda. There is the frequent use of the word “flood” in their protest announcements, echoing Hamas’s official codename for the October terrorist operation, “Al-aqsa Flood.”
“October 8” thoroughly documents the corruption of academia, media, and NGOs. Human Rights Watch, whose callous disregard for Israeli victims, forced Danielle Haas to resign in protest after 13 and a half years of service. It also features a wealth of incisive but hard-to-pigeonhole intellectuals like Douglas Murray, Bari Weiss, and Dr. Einat Wilf.
Nobody is more knowledgeable of Hamas than Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the organization’s co-founders. Yousef explains why he became an American citizen and an outspoken critic of its violent ideology and tactics.
For a film produced as a timely response to the current spike in extremist hate, “October 8” is quite cogently constructed. It’s sober, measured, and comprehensively damning.
The viscerally personal nature of so much of the collected testimony should truly haunt audiences. The fact that so much of it comes from young students enduring violent hatred on campus is deeply, profoundly disturbing.
It’s hard to argue with the documentary’s conclusions, unless viewers share the violent prejudices Sachs and company expose. Highly recommended for all viewers of good conscience.
