'October 8' exposes rise of anti-Jewish hate on college campuses

Wendy Sachs wasn’t shocked to see Hollywood ignore the anti-Semitism spike in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.

The author and filmmaker learned firsthand how the industry recoiled at that bitter truth.

'It’s not a political film. ... This is truly about how anti-Semitism has mutated over time. It’s about Islamic extremism vs. democracy.'

Sachs, whose previous films include the feminist political documentary “Surge,” pitched agencies on a film capturing anti-Jewish hate over the last year-plus.

“Everyone passed,” Sachs told Align. “There’s an allergic reaction in Hollywood to this kind of film. Anything adjacent to Israel or Jews, unless it’s anti-Israel or an attack on the Israeli government ... anything at all sympathetic to Oct. 7 is radioactive.”

No other viewpoint

Case in point: The pro-Palestinian film “No Other Land” won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film earlier this month.

The indie film scene is no better, Sachs claims.

“It’s absolutely nuclear when it comes to any kind of sympathy for Oct. 7,” Sachs says.

She told herself she’d never make another independent film again, knowing how arduous that process can be.

Sachs saw video of pro-Palestinian protesters celebrating Hamas and the terror attacks and had a change of heart. When 31 student groups at Harvard University blamed the assault on Israel, not Hamas, she “felt like the world had lost its mind.”

“We had never experienced anything like this before, a modern-day Kristallnacht,” says Sachs, recalling the Nazis' brazen attack on Jewish neighborhoods in November 1938.

Sachs’ “October 8,” opening nationwide tomorrow, shows how swiftly the anti-Israel protests erupted following Hamas’ terror attack that killed 1,200 citizens and took 251 hostages.

The title, sadly, says it all.

The donor-funded “October 8” features Jewish student leaders, who were harassed and hunted in the weeks following the attacks. We also see endless protests that quickly turned violent and a stunning silence from human rights groups.

We also meet two exceptions to the Hollywood rule regarding anti-Semitism.

'Completely betrayed'

“I felt completely betrayed by Hollywood,” “Will & Grace” alum Debra Messing, an executive producer on the film, says in the documentary. Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport weighs in, too.

“Hollywood celebrities speak out about so many differing things ... you should be ashamed of yourself for not saying anything about the [Israeli] hostages,” Rapaport shares mid-film.

Stars like Messing, Rapaport, Patricia Heaton, and John Ondrasik are the rare celebrities to speak out on these matters. Sachs thinks she knows why an industry addicted to addressing societal ills has gone virtually silent on anti-Semitism.

“People are afraid their careers will take a hit. They don’t want to be canceled or lose work over this,” she says. “The risk they feel is too great.”

The documentary could have taken a partisan slant. Consider how the Biden administration did little to confront anti-Jewish hate flowering nationwide.

Sachs took a different path.

Entrenched bias

“It’s not a political film. ... This is truly about how anti-Semitism has mutated over time,” she says. “It’s about Islamic extremism vs. democracy.”

The documentary explores the media’s entrenched, anti-Israel’s bias, perfectly captured by the New York Times. The Gray Lady rushed to blame Israel for a 2023 Gaza hospital bombing, taking Hamas’ word in the process.

“The New York Times, NPR, and the BBC ... criticize Israel in a way they don’t with any other country,” says Sachs, a self-described New York Times’ subscriber since her college days. The hospital incident highlights “how much rot there is the media,” she adds.

Sachs has shown her film at several college campuses, screenings that required more than just the usual audio/video gear.

“I don’t think other films have to worry about security,” she says of the heavy police presence required to screen “October 8” on campuses.

'We can't do it alone'

Sachs’ film may strain for an apolitical spirit, but she approved of the Trump administration’s recent crackdown on Columbia University for failing to protect Jewish students.

“If it were any other group like African American students being harassed or targeted ... there would be outrage, and there would be action,” she says.

Sachs sees some hope moving forward, including the brave Jewish students highlighted in the film, who fought back against the hate.

“The Jewish community is not alone ... we worked hand in hand with the African-American community in the past,” she says. “We need to do it again.”

Other groups can help, as well.

“The Iranian and Persian communities really understand what extremism looks like,” she adds. “[Jews are] the minority of the minority here in America, less than 3% of the population. We can’t do it alone.”