Rye Mayor Josh Nathan marked the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel at the City Council's Wednesday, Oct. 7, meeting. He used the moment to recall how the community rallied around its Jewish residents and came together across faiths.

Nathan told the council that Rye residents reached out to one another in the days after the 2023 attacks, particularly to Jewish neighbors, asking how they were holding up, the Rye Record first reported.

He recalled synagogues, churches and the Wainwright House hosting interfaith gatherings to mourn and stand in solidarity.

"I certainly was glad to be living here at that time, and to realize that people I didn't know very well were so warm and reached out, and just expressed their thoughts," Nathan said.

The mayor also credited the council itself for unifying in the aftermath. Nathan described the body as sometimes "fractious" but said members "rallied behind my predecessor," former Mayor Josh Cohn, to issue a public statement on the attacks. Nathan called that step "relatively unprecedented" for a local government weighing in on international affairs.

He framed the response in broad terms, saying the attacks struck at "democracy, Western ideals, humanism" and affected "people of many faiths in Israel and abroad."

Rabbi Daniel Gropper of Rye Community Synagogue also addressed the Oct. 7 meeting. Gropper reflected on the lasting trauma of the attacks and their impact on Jewish communities across the United States, then led those gathered at City Hall in a prayer honoring the people killed, followed by a moment of silence.

At a one-year anniversary memorial service at the synagogue in October 2024, nearly 250 people attended, according to the Rye Record. Gropper unveiled a memorial plaque honoring "our brothers and sisters" who died. Then-Mayor Cohn, state Assemblyman Steve Otis, Rye Town Supervisor Gary Zuckerman, council members William Henderson, Jamie Jensen and Sara Goddard, and local clergy attended that service.

Rye residents Todd and Lisa Kantor were in Jerusalem on Oct. 7, 2023, and spent time in a bomb shelter during the attacks before flying home. Todd Kantor spoke at the 2024 memorial.

The exact text of the council's 2023 statement on the attacks was not detailed at the Oct. 7 meeting.