Rabbi Zalman Mendelsohn’s bright orange running shoes gleamed in streetlights as he danced and sang underneath the antler arches on Jackson’s town square on Oct. 13.
“They’re the weirdest shoes, my kids hate them,” he told the crowd, “but I’m going to dance with these weird ones.”
The leader of the Chabad Jewish community bought them weeks earlier in anticipation of this moment, which he’d prayed for the past two years. Mendelsohn and about two dozen others were celebrating the release of all living Israeli hostages less than a day earlier, and mourning the death of many others throughout the two-year war.
They hugged and wept, sang and danced. They felt it was an apt culmination of their monthly gatherings in the same spot, rallying Teton County support for Israel.
“We never gave up on that faith,” Mendelsohn said. “Not this town, not this community. We stood here month after month.”
As of Oct. 20, an Israel-Hamas truce continued to hold despite both sides reporting breaches.
At the town square last week, Mendelsohn commended God, Pres. Trump, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli armed forces for bringing home the 20 living hostages while mourning about 2,000 Israeli soldiers and civilians that have died, according to the Israeli government.
Josh Kleyman is a leader with another, more mainstream Jewish group with more members, the Jackson Hole Jewish Community. Jackson Hole has the largest population of Jewish people per capita of about 2,000 across the Cowboy State.
At the celebration, Kleyman spoke to the group through tears. They were also celebrating Simchat Torah, a two-day holiday.
“I had a bit of an outpouring of emotion just because of recognition that two years ago, on the same Jewish holiday, is when the atrocities of October 7th occurred,” Kleyman said.
He’d been praying for those in the war as well, including all lives lost in Gaza, but stopped short of speaking for the motivations of the Jewish community as a whole.
“This is a super, super tricky time and has been a super challenging two years,” he said in a later interview. “It’s hard to ask any individual that’s representing any group to speak on the group as a whole.”
In interviews, Jewish Jacksonites have shared a range of views, including primarily celebrating the release of Israeli hostages. Others celebrate the release of uncharged Palestinian prisoners as well.
Most are mourning the innocent lives lost on both sides, fighting the narrow views they feel politics push.
One Jacksonite shared a sentiment of her morning prayer: “The soul of every human is good.”
Leaders of both the Jackson Hole Jewish Community and the Chabad Jewish Center of Wyoming say they have felt supported in the valley during the war. That’s despite an uptick in reports of antisemitic incidents in Wyoming and across the nation last year.
The pastor and some members from the Christian church Tribe have joined interfaith gatherings, like this one.
“To have the support of friends and the community in both times of hardship, in times of joy and also in demonstration of strength, means a lot,” Kleyman said.
Jackson Hole for Free Palestine is a group of less people, about 30. Around half have been meeting at least once a month on the town square as well, though at different times than the Jewish Community.
Dan Sheehan helps lead the group and said they’ve grown steadily the past two years.
“I do think our action, for the little that it’s done, has moved the needle slightly on what is acceptable to make visible, whose grief is acceptable to share in small towns like this,” Sheehan said.
But Sheehan said a few nonviolent public confrontations and the silence of local political and religious leaders on the topic of Palestinian suffering has led them to not feel the same community support as the pro-Israel monthly gatherings.
“There was certain moments when it felt less safe than others to attend,” he said.
After two years of war, polling shows 60% of Americans view the Israeli government unfavorably and a rising share think they are “going too far,” according to the Pew Research Center.
Sheehan said the group aims to raise a voice for the Palestinian people in the Cowboy State. He says he’s emailed the state’s congressional delegates backing Israel.
He doesn’t know of any other group doing so.
“Wyoming is a sparsely populated state,” he said, “Jackson Hole is a resort town. It’s not particularly political. It doesn’t have a huge Arab, Muslim [or] Palestinian community.”
He and the group have focused on reminding people that Teton County residents, as American taxpayers, are all “complicit” in Palestinian suffering by taxpayer dollars sent to help fund the Israeli government.
That means being “complicit in genocide,” Sheehan and one UN commission have said. The Israeli government rejects that report.
Jackson Hole for Free Palestine has not seen eye-to-eye with the Jewish Community’s gatherings, protesting at one event that brought a former Israeli spokesperson to Jackson last year.
He said the plight of the Palestinian people has been often reduced to “you either are a faceless victim of this quagmire conflict or you are a terrorist.”
The group did not immediately plan an event following the release of hostages.
“The main thing to be grateful for is an end to the relentless bombardment of the region and a return of hostages, both Israeli and Palestinian, to their families,” Sheehan said.
Over 67,000 Palestinians have died, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, with over double that number left wounded.
Sheehan is still wary about the future.
"As is the case with so many ceasefires in the past, hoping for the best and expecting the worst,” he said.
He’s planning to ramp down monthly gatherings if the ceasefire holds. Instead, the group is calling local businesses to ask for their divestment from Israeli ties and selling t-shirts to raise money for a national Palestinian aid group.
Rabbi Mendelsohn, the Jackson Hole Jewish Community’s Kleyman and their respective Jewish communities in the valley are also cautiously optimistic a truce will last.
“I don’t know. I am hopeful that this leads to a pathway for peace for our people, peace in the region. That’s my hope,” he said.
Kleyman said his group doesn’t have plans yet for any similar rallies as they’re exiting their holiday season.
