Lafayette College has no events scheduled for the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks of 2023, which marked the start of the war in Gaza.
The empty calendar marks a stark change from last year, when the campus hosted a service for refugees and several memorial and reflection events. The college’s Film & Media Studies department also hosted a film lecture as part of its Palestinian Film Series.
Rabbi Alex Malanych, the assistant director of religious and spiritual life, wrote in an email that the religious life office was not sponsoring any events because Oct. 7 is the first day of the Jewish holiday Sukkot.
“There will be opportunities for communal reflection and remembrance in the Lehigh Valley later in the month,” Malanych wrote. “But, of course, anyone who is looking for space to reflect or someone to process with can be in contact with myself or Chaplain Alex Hendrickson at any time.”
Originally slated for Oct. 7 this year was a double-feature Palestinian film screening organized by the Film & Media Studies department; the event was rescheduled at the request of Provost Laura McGrane.
McGrane did not respond to requests for an explanation of the rescheduling.
The event, now scheduled for Oct. 24 at an off-campus location, was slated to screen two films centered around the lives of Palestinian children: Khadijeh Habahsneh’s “Children Without Childhood” (1980) and Mai Masri’s “Frontiers of Dreams and Fears” (2001).
“The series programming team remains unwavering in our commitment to bringing these essential and urgent Palestinian films to communities across the Lehigh Valley,” event organizer and professor Nandini Sikand wrote in an email.
