As a Jew, I feel less safe than ever, but now we must share Gazans’ agony

World

Middle East

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Opinion

Ilana Laps Psychotherapist, educator October 19, 2025 — 4.30pm

Any moment now, international journalists will enter Gaza , and their photographs – raw, wrenching, undeniable – will burn into the collective human psyche.

The Jewish psyche, already shattered since October 7, must brace for another rupture. What comes next will remake our legacy as a people. As a psychotherapist steeped in intergenerational trauma, I believe this to be a moment of historical importance, one that invites us to preserve our humanity.

For Jews, the trauma of October 7 will endure: Hamas’ live-streamed carnage and bloodlust, innocents slaughtered, hostages who felt like our own kin. Friends and strangers here who cheered, condoned or said nothi