Trauma, disappointment, and concerns about the future. Israelis in Poland after October 7, 2023

Sapir Librowski-Sher has been living in Poland since 2018. She first came as a high school student on a school trip to the extermination camps. Ten years later, she returned as an adult – then she understood that this is her place on earth.

– As soon as I arrived, I simply felt at home – she says. – I had the impression that I carried memories from Poland, although I was aware that it was not my own memory. My grandfather was from Poland, and my grandmother was Lithuanian.

After returning to Israel, she resumed her studies, but the thought of Poland did not leave her in peace. Although she had family and friends there, after finishing university she decided to move to the land of her ancestors.

– I didn’t come to Poland for work or love. The reason was Poland, simply – she explains.

Finding a legal way to emigrate took her nearly three years. In Warsaw, she began learning Yiddish, joined a choir singing songs in that language, and also the Jewish Community Center (JCC). In her free time, she privately teaches Hebrew.

In Poland, she values safety, order, public transportation, and the lack of air raid alarms. She likes the Polish landscape – villages and fields.

– When I look at Polish nature, I think about how my grandparents’ childhood looked. That moves me.

Librowski-Sher is strongly connected to the cultural heritage of Yiddish, especially its communal, feminist, and emancipatory dimension. She has a tattoo on her hand with the inscription “סאָלידאַריטעט” – “solidarity,” and “שוועסטערשאַפט מוז זיין” – “sisterhood must be.”

On October 7, 2023, she was in Warsaw. When she woke up, her phone was full of notifications about bomb alerts in Israel. In previous attacks on Israel, such notifications usually quieted after a few minutes. That day, her smartphone kept vibrating nonstop.

– Hour by hour, I realized the scale of the events. At one point, the information about the kidnappings appeared, and that seemed the most terrifying to me. No one knew how long the hostages would remain in captivity. I saw that the Israeli government was aiming to prolong the war at the expense of the safety of the hostages and the lives of people in Gaza.

In the first days, she found solace in words of support from Polish friends. Over time, compassion gave way to distrust. At Jagiellonian University, someone hung a sign saying “Jews to gas.” Protests demanding the termination of cooperation with Israeli research institutions appeared. Librowski-Sher considers these demands stupid and dangerous.

– The university is one of the few spaces in Israel where truth is still sought and critical thinking is developed – she explains. – If we close this channel of dialogue, it will be harder to ever reach an understanding. Moreover, boycotts rarely prove to be an effective way to resolve conflicts. If someone opposes Netanyahu and his government, they should direct their opposition precisely at them, not punish people who have no influence on the course of the war.

Attempts to talk with friends often ended with a break in contact.

– I asked my former accordion teacher what the Palestinian flag on her profile picture meant. My non-confrontational question was a definitive end to our acquaintance. It frustrates me that people see the conflict as a football match, where you support one side or the other. Meanwhile, we are talking about a tragedy of millions of people suffering because of bad decisions made by men in power.

At that time, she was the only Israeli in her workplace. Members of the Academy for Palestine organized numerous demonstrations shouting anti-Israeli slogans. During the protests, Librowski-Sher did not feel safe. An important factor was that she served in the IDF. The demonstrators implied that everyone who had served in the Israeli army was responsible for its crimes.

– If I hadn’t gone to the army, I would have ended up in prison. People born in safe and peaceful Poland have no idea what dilemmas Israeli citizens face.

Librowski-Sher still loves Poland and does not intend to leave it. She shows Israelis around Warsaw: she sees her mission as showing that there is an alternative to polarization.

What is really behind the pro-Palestinian movement in Poland?

Guy (name for editorial use) was born in Israel but has been living in Poland since he was three years old. His family has no Polish roots – ancestors came to Israel from the Czech Republic and Hungary, and his parents emigrated to Poland for work. When asked whether he feels more Israeli or Polish, he answers without hesitation: “I am simply a Warsawite.”

Like Librowski-Sher, he most values safety and the quality of public services in Poland. He also likes Polish culture – Poles are more reserved in daily interactions than Israelis, and conflicts over trivial reasons are less common here.

He learned about the attacks on October 7 from an app informing about bomb alerts in Israel.

On the same day, media began publishing photos of burned kibbutzim and murdered bodies. Guy was shaken. He was worried about his loved ones. Over time, the war increasingly affected his surroundings. Demonstrations against cooperation with Israel were organized.

Guy declares himself an opponent of war and a supporter of coexistence. Together with Librowski-Sher, he tries to create a space for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in Poland. The project has not yet been launched due to a lack of volunteers – many Israelis in their environment react with hostility to any defense of Palestinian rights.

He is not surprised by solidarity with Palestinians, but he is disturbed by slogans directed at Israelis as such and those relativizing Hamas’s crimes. He particularly disapproves of slogans like “From the River to the Sea” – which he sees as a call for ethnic cleansing of Israeli Jews.

His ancestors escaped from Europe to Palestine before anti-Semitic persecutions. Today, Israel is home to his sisters and their families, who have no other place on earth. Guy wonders whether those protesting in defense of Palestine can also see their perspective.

He tried to find an answer with friends. On October 25, 2023, he wrote to the offices of parliamentary groups PO, Modern, Greens, PSL, New Left, and Poland 2050, as well as to media including Polsat and TVN. He emphasized his opposition to Israel’s war policy and his attachment to coexistence. To this day, he has received no response.

Only at the end of July did he contact representatives of the New Left and the party Razem via Facebook. MP Joanna Wicha met with him through an online messenger. Meanwhile, Chrystian Talik from Razem assured that his party cares about distinguishing between the state of Israel and Jewish individuals living in Poland. The date and form of a possible conversation are still being arranged.

When asked what must happen for violence between Israelis and Palestinians to cease, he answers without hesitation:

– Israelis and Palestinians must have equal rights. Israeli Arabs are treated in many ways as second-class citizens. This situation does not foster understanding between nations.

Guy hopes that the first step will be a change of the Israeli government after the upcoming elections. However, he does not believe that simply removing Netanyahu will be enough. There is also a need to fight racism – in Israel and beyond. In his opinion, it can start with small gestures.

He is concerned about the hostility towards migrants and minorities in Poland. Sometimes he wonders whether Poland and Europe have not found themselves in a situation reminiscent of the 1930s.

“We felt as if the Holocaust happened again”

On October 7, 2023, the largest and bloodiest attack on Israel in its history took place. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was carried out by Hamas, with the participation of fighters from other groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as some residents of the Gaza Strip who are formally unaffiliated with any organization. To breach the Israeli border fence, the attackers used explosives, bulldozers, and rams, and entered Israeli territory by motorcycles, trucks, boats, and paragliders.

The attack affected over twenty localities along the border, Israeli military bases, and the Nova music festival near Re’im. Almost immediately, false and unverified reports circulated, which outside Israel created the impression that the scale of violence was exaggerated, and in extreme cases, questioned the very attack itself.

UN Commission of Inquiry stated that approximately 1,200 people were killed in the attack, including 809 civilians and 314 soldiers, and 215 people were abducted to Gaza. The commission documented two cases where Israeli fire likely killed Israeli civilians. According to UN findings, in the kibbutz Be’eri about 34% of the buildings were completely destroyed. Among the victims were also 40 children, of whom about a quarter were under ten years old. The Report by the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict also indicates justified grounds to assume that sexual violence, including gang rapes, occurred during the attack. Testimonies from Israeli women and men who survived captivity in Gaza also speak of the use of rape as a weapon. Human Rights Watch classifies this as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

For many Israelis, October 7 became a moment of great crisis of trust in the authorities. Israel was supposed to be a safe haven for those fleeing anti-Semitic persecutions. Meanwhile, it was on its territory that the bloodiest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust occurred. There is a widespread feeling that the government failed, or even deliberately allowed the catastrophe to happen. This feeling is reinforced by the recently revealed information by Israeli Haaretz that Netanyahu was warned ten days before the attack by the President of the United Arab Emirates. According to the same newspaper, the IDF implemented during the attack the so-called Hannibal Directive, aimed at preventing the taking of hostages. The doctrine involves opening fire on own citizens, which has fueled conspiracy theories that the Israeli army is responsible for most of the victims.

– We were in shock – says Michal Fridman, who on January 26, 2026, moved with her family from Geder to a small town in Lower Silesia – An unimaginable tragedy happened. We felt as if the Holocaust happened again.

On the day of the attack, Fridman’s husband was called up for military service as a reservist. Before October 7, she had never thought about leaving Israel.

– We have two sons. If we had stayed in Israel, they would have been drafted into the army and probably ended up in combat units – she says. – I don’t want my children to go to the front line. I don’t want to bury my eighteen-year-old child. If they were in combat units, the chance they would return would not be high.

Fridman stopped believing that there is any future in Israel. And if there is, it is only a future full of violence, endless wars, and constant threat. She also hopes that the situation might improve after the upcoming elections. But does changing the government alone mean that life in Israel will become normal again?

– You could build an even higher wall around Gaza. But it wouldn’t protect us from drones or rockets. Many of Israel’s neighbors simply hate us, and there will always be someone trying to kill us. Here in Poland, no one wants to hurt us.

Although Fridman sometimes misses contact with other Israelis and few opportunities to speak Hebrew, she does not even think about returning. An additional advantage of living in Poland is the culture: people are kinder and a bit more relaxed than in Israel. She is currently waiting for a permanent residence card, and her husband is working towards obtaining a professional driver’s license. Michal is not afraid even of a Russian attack: she feels that after what she experienced in Israel, nothing can scare her anymore.

“I wish I could mourn what happened then”

In the following weeks of the war, the feeling grew that the government prioritized “ultimate victory” over the lives and safety of hostages. For critics of Israel’s state policy, the conduct of military operations became yet another proof that Israel does not have moral superiority over its enemies.

Among them is Barak Heymann, who moved to Warsaw with his partner and children in 2025. He makes documentary films and works at Collegium Civitas. He is also the chairman of The Road to Recovery, an organization that helps dozens of sick Palestinians access necessary medical aid in Israel every day. He learned about the Hamas attack from a Palestinian friend living in Gaza.

– She wrote that she hopes everything is okay with us, that she worries and prays for us – he recalls.

The attack itself was not entirely a surprise to him. As he says, the continuation of “Israeli apartheid regime” must have eventually provoked a reaction. He agrees that the causes of the current catastrophe should be sought long before October 7: in Nakba and decades of Israeli occupation.

– If you humiliate a person for years, use violence against them, trample on their face, and do not let them breathe normally, it’s hard to be surprised that at some point they will look for an opportunity for revenge, or even to kill their oppressor – he summarizes Israeli policy towards Palestinians.

Heymann claims that Israel is not interested in achieving peace, and that the continuation of the occupation and the blockade of Gaza make further acts of violence only a matter of time. He fears that if Israel continues ethnic cleansing, October 7 could happen again.

– It saddens and angers me that because of genocide committed and still being committed by Israel in Gaza, the trauma of October 7 has in a sense been erased. It hurts me deeply because I would still like to mourn what happened then, because it was terrible and unforgivable.

Heymann feels a certain shame about his identity that only intensified after October 7. Sometimes he wears a T-shirt with the inscription “Disgusted to be Israeli.”

– Israel is my most beloved place in the world. But I am ashamed of what the state and the military do, and I am ashamed of all Israelis who refuse to oppose it.

In Poland, Heymann does not encounter anti-Semitism, but because of his views, he is sometimes excluded by compatriots living in Poland. Although he feels a strong bond with his homeland and misses it very much, he is not sure whether he will return there permanently, partly because of the political atmosphere. Recently, he visits Israel once a month.

– At the beginning of 2024, I had to leave my home in Israel for a week and delete my Facebook account – he says. – To this day, I haven’t returned to the platform because far-right groups on Telegram published my data just because I expressed solidarity and compassion for Palestinians in Gaza. They posted my name and surname, phone number, address, house and face photos, and even my ID number.

Karolina Polak, who has been living since 2024 in a city in eastern Poland, also believes that the tragedy of October 7 cannot be discussed separately from the suffering of Gaza residents.

– October 7 was and remains a huge shock for me – she says. – Since then, I have attended three funerals of friends who died in the war, including my classmate from middle school. I can only imagine what the residents of Gaza feel now, which the Israeli army almost entirely destroyed.

Polak values life in Poland mainly because she can support herself on one salary – which, given the current living costs in Israel, would be a miracle. She also appreciates Polish culture and the standard of living. After October 7, she has not encountered many signs of hostility, partly because she only reveals her Jewish identity to close friends. Once, during a house party, it came out that she is from Israel. The rest of the evening was spent telling anti-Semitic jokes. Since then, she prefers not to tell everyone where she is from.

Although she feels good and safe in Poland, she still thinks about returning to Israel. She left her family, friends, and beloved dog there. She does not lose hope that her homeland will return to normal someday. She believes that for that to happen, changes in education are needed – education that teaches empathy and openness to other cultures, and also shows what prejudice and hasty generalizations can lead to.

– Many children in Israel are told from a young age that every Arab living in Gaza is a terrorist – she says. – That he was born to kill Israelis. But that is simply not true.

– It has long been known how to prevent tragedies like the attack on October 7 – adds Librowski-Sher. – Unfortunately, political leaders still ignore warnings from texts by Hannah Arendt, Erika Mann, or the Milgram experiment. That’s why I am not sure whether the future will bring better changes. For changes to happen, we must continue to consistently oppose evil. Whether we are talking about terrorists from Hamas or Israeli settler terrorists.

The post Trauma, disappointment, and fears for the future. Israelis in Poland after October 7, 2023 first appeared on Krytyka Polityczna.