October 7 and the “Pumpkin Spice Latte Problem”

A panel from the comic/essay "Haunt­ings: Look­ing Back at Fall 2023" by Abby Horowitz. The image shows two adults (rendered as black-and-white outlines) looking at three children in military-esque Halloween costumes. The caption reads: "We began a loop around the parking lot, trying to look like we belonged. We couldn' t escape our sense of dislocation, though; the shadow of war followed us the whole time." One adult says "AM I BEING RIDICULOUS IF THIS MAKES ME REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE?" The other adult answers "UM I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S THE MILITARY UNIFORM OF SYRIA..." A thought-bubble above the children reads "JEEZ THESE JEWS ARE SENSITIVE." https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/hauntings-looking-back-at-fall-2023

The thing that I most connect with in this comic is that the Jews look like ghosts. I identify with that, as I’ve often felt like a ghost here in my Homeland. I guess the big change for me since October 7 is that before I felt like a ghost passing largely unnoticed or unacknowledged. That was sometimes annoying, but usually fine. Or, at least, I was used to it, which made it seem fine if I didn’t think about it too much.

Now I feel like some portion of the population has noticed us and decided we need to be exorcised and banished, while another portion has noticed us and wants us to summarize 3000 years of history in seven words or less and then explain what the hell is up with a bunch of other ghosts in some other country who we don’t even know, while a third portion have noticed us and insist we aren’t ghosts at all—just pale “regular” people who should get over whatever unpleasantness happened in the 1930s and 40s in Europe, or last October, or last week, or last night, or tomorrow, because it’s all the distant past and in our heads and maybe didn’t even happen or certainly isn’t or wasn’t or won’t be as bad as we say it was/is/will be.

But the biggest portion look at me and say “You’re a ghost? I had no idea you were a ghost!”

‘cause I don’t look like a stereotypical ghost.

But I am a ghost.

I’ve been a ghost this entire time.

A panel from the comic/essay "Haunt­ings: Look­ing Back at Fall 2023" by Abby Horowitz. The image shows two adults (rendered as black-and-white outlines) looking at three children in military-esque Halloween costumes. The caption reads: "We began a loop around the parking lot, trying to look like we belonged. We couldn' t escape our sense of dislocation, though; the shadow of war followed us the whole time."

One adult says "AM I BEING RIDICULOUS IF THIS MAKES ME REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE?"

The other adult answers "UM I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S THE MILITARY
UNIFORM OF SYRIA..."

A thought-bubble above the children reads "JEEZ THESE JEWS ARE SENSITIVE." 

https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/hauntings-looking-back-at-fall-2023