Northwestern and Cornell stage survivor play on Oct. 7 attacks amid campus antisemitism

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York will stage a live reading of “October 7,” a play built from survivor testimony of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, with performances scheduled for Oct. 6 at Northwestern and Dec. 8 at Cornell.

The productions aim to turn abstract headlines into personal stories and come as campuses confront rising antisemitism and debate over Israel‑related speech.

At Northwestern, the play will be presented by the Unreported Story Society in Cahn Auditorium, directed by Jeff Gurner, and uses interviews conducted by Irish journalists Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. It will feature word‑for‑word survivor accounts.

“Hearing survivors’ testimony performed word‑for‑word turns Oct. 7 from an abstraction into human beings, and that’s something every student needs to encounter,” said Noah Oxfeld, a senior at Northwestern. “This is education at its most honest and its most necessary.”

Student Yali Koch called the production “a great medium for helping people understand the human impact of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7, presenting a more complete picture of the conflict and hopefully fostering more productive conversations.”

Northwestern recently settled a $75 million federal case over alleged anti‑Israel discrimination, ending an agreement with anti‑Israel protesters after a November 2025 settlement with the Trump administration, though the university admitted no wrongdoing.

The same reading will be staged at Cornell on Dec. 8. Jewish students note that the campus has allowed an antisemitic student to return and that recent events featured chants such as “from the river to the sea” and praise for a “student intifada,” which Jewish leaders say call for Israel’s erasure and incite violence.

Organizers hope the play will give students a fuller picture of the conflict and encourage more informed, productive conversation on campus.