This Monday, Oct. 7, marks one year since an attack that forever altered Jewish history. One year since 1,185 innocent people were brutally murdered by the terrorist group Hamas. One year since 251 hostages were kidnapped and brought into Gaza. The next day, Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.

For Jews in Israel and around the world, the shock and horror of the Oct. 7 attacks was made worse by the antisemitism that followed almost immediately. Here in western Massachusetts, our schools, synagogues, and communal spaces had to bolster security to ensure our safety. We have endured bomb threats, hate-filled calls, antisemitic slurs, and physical violence. Misguided cease-fire resolutions, passed by city councils across western Massachusetts, did nothing but fuel misinformation and hatred against Jews.

Our children and college students have faced bullying and hostility, in some cases by their own teachers or professors. Most recently, 500 people signed a petition urging Northampton High School to cancel an antisemitism training for teachers led by Project Shema. The organization had been carefully vetted and selected for its ability to address antisemitism without taking a specific stance on Israel, Palestine, Zionism or anti-Zionism.

So many of us have been made to feel unsafe, have seen long-standing friendships and allyships ruptured, seemingly beyond repair. Tragically, many Jews have begun to question whether their once-thriving and vibrant Jewish community — rooted in western Massachusetts since the 1870s in Northampton and even earlier in other parts of the region — remains secure.

History has taught us the dangers of staying silent. Like many others across the United States, the Jewish community here in western Massachusetts gathered, first to mourn our fallen brothers and sisters in Israel and to provide support to those in need. Then, we mobilized.

One of the first things we did was to contribute to the Jewish Federations of North America’s Israel Emergency Fund. This national campaign has so far raised over $850 million to help stock medical supplies for first responders, provide food and shelter for the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis, and begin the long process of rebuilding what was lost.

This year, Oct. 7 falls between the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiest in the Jewish calendar. This is a time when we are instructed to reflect on the past year as we seek to be inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming year. It would be tempting to use this moment to close the book on this dark chapter in Jewish history. But the work is not done.

We must continue to do what we’ve been doing for the past year: praying, writing letters, hanging posters, wearing yellow or blue ribbons or dog tags, lighting candles, participating in “runs for their lives,” hosting the families of hostages, and leaving open seats at our holiday tables. All these acts express our longing for the return of the hostages, for the restoration of that part of our hearts that was taken from us.

As Yom Kippur approaches, we must place a bookmark in the book of the past year, but return to it again and again until this war ends, and the hostages come home. Even as we continue to look back, we must also look forward. The Jewish story is still being written, and we are the ones who will continue to write it. We have no choice but to go forward.

Molly Parr is a Northampton resident and 1st vice president and development chair of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts.