Customarily, Simchat Torah is one of the most joyous days of the Jewish calendar, highlighted by exuberant dancing around a Torah. Jewish leaders say the joy will return during this week's celebrations, even as Jews recall that last year's Simchat Torah overlapped with Oct. 7, the day some 1,200 people were killed and 250 kidnapped in the Hamas attack on Israel.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of Union for Reform Judaism, reflected on the inevitably that the celebrations coming on Wednesday and Thursday will include “an overlay of pain and loss and mourning.”
