YU Hosts Event Commemorating Oct. 7
On Sept. 30, 358 days after Simchat Torah — the earth-shattering day on which so many members of Klal Yisrael lost their lives and all of our hearts were broken — close to a thousand YU students, teachers and faculty joined in the Lamport Auditorium to commemorate Oct. 7. Upon entering, students were handed brochures and an edition of “One Day in October,” a book that features the heroic stories of 40 Israeli survivors of Oct. 7. Over the course of the night, current students, recent graduates and community leaders shared reflections on the past year.
According to Shalhevet Cohen (SSSB ‘25), the current BCSG President, the event had been in the works since this past summer. She shared with The Commentator that “there were many versions and revised versions of the program, and the final event was a beautiful and meaningful community commemoration.”
Song
Throughout the night the Y-Studs performed four times, beginning with the national anthem and concluding with “Hatikvah.” In between two of the speeches they led the crowd in Acheinu, which seems to have become an anthem of its own, giving Diaspora Jewry the words to express their longing for and connection to their brothers and sisters in Israel. The a capella group also sang the Mi Sheberach for our chayalim, whose tune is evocative of our strength as a military force. The words “m’gvul haLevanon v’ad Midbar Mitzrayim” carried deeper meaning as we just heard that day of our troops entering Lebanon, with the knowledge that our soldiers continue to fight in the South.
Personal experience
Before each speaker, a large screen displayed the next successive month of this past year, starting with October. Shalva Kaplan (SSSB ‘27) shared with The Commentator that she felt that the format of the event “gave appropriate spotlight to each month,” highlighting “just how much time had passed since Oct. 7” and demonstrating “that we need a quick yeshua and return of the hostages right now.”
Tomer Meir (YC ‘28), a current YU student and survivor of the Nova festival, spoke first. He was at the Nova festival when, at 6:29 a.m., he and his friends began to hear sirens and see rockets; what ensued was “mass panic.” His escape was unlikely and miraculous, and he owes his life to a Jeep driver and two Bedouins who let him jump onto the back of their car.
“When I look back at that long, terrible day, I think of the miracle of my survival,” Meir shared. Meir also said that he feels at home at YU, and he thanked a wonderful family who took him in: “I am a stronger version of myself, and I am still here.”
YU student Aaron Cohen was serving in the Golani Brigade in July, stationed on the border of Lebanon for five months of service. Every single day there would be blaring sirens, and he and his fellow soldiers would run into bunkers. “This was our lives … it was psychologically very draining,” Cohen said.
On July 23, Cohen’s friend Ben Brown was hit by a Hezbollah rocket and fell into a coma. He survived, but his recovery has been very slow. Cohen described the terror of finding his friend in such an injured state, and of the moment he found a sefer of Rav Kook lying open next to his friend Ben, splattered in blood.
Cohen has since returned to Israel to be a reserve soldier and is currently fighting in Lebanon.
Honoring those who are no longer with us
Giti Bendheim paid tribute to her two great-nephews, each of whom were killed in battle, and whose framed pictures stand next to her Shabbat candlesticks. On Oct. 7, Yosef Malachi Guedalia felt the call of battle and voluntarily went down to the South to help, going from house to house in Kfar Aza, eliminating terrorists and saving civilians, until he was killed by terrorists. His middle name, “Malachi”, fits his “angelic quality”; he loved the Torah, his wife, Israel and his people. On Dec. 3, Yosef’s cousin, Ben Zussman, was killed fighting in Gaza. He had already finished his military service and was excited to join the Shin Bet, but was compelled to join in combat even though he wasn’t mandated to. He wrote a letter to his family, which they received after he was killed, saying that he was so happy to serve his country, and that he refuses for them to wallow in sadness.
Gila Friedman (SCW ‘24) dedicated her speech to her cousin Maoz Morell who died on Feb. 19 after being severely injured in Gaza. Like his name, he embodied the phrase “Hashem Maoz Chayai”; Friedman described how he brought a watch, candle and Shnayim Mikra into Gaza, and during breaks he would pull out a sefer to learn. He was a fighter his entire life, in the sense that school didn’t come easily to him, but he was a driven and passionate person and he set goals for himself. Some of those goals were found in writing in one of his notebooks: 1. Be at the front of the unit. 2. Never complain. 3. Be able to help others. 4. Never give up.
Leora Muskat (SCW ‘25) dedicated her speech to the six men whose bodies were recovered by the IDF on Aug. 20: Alex Dancyg, Yagev Buchshtav, Chaim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell and Avraham Munder. She shared a little bit about each of their stories and returned some dignity to people whose lives were so brutally taken from them.
Moments of strength and unity
Eden Lippe (SCW ‘25) traveled to Israel this past January with the Sacks-Herenstein Stronger Together Solidarity Mission. The Herensteins dedicated a Torah in honor of Roi and Ariel Guri, two brothers who were killed protecting Ofakim on Oct. 7. Eden described the profound experience of dancing and singing with strangers during the Hachnasat Sefer Torah in which her group participated in Ofakim.
Rabbi Doron Perez joined over video and described the devastation of learning in March that his son Daniel had been killed on Oct. 7. He said that despite the devastation, he believes that all of the hope and prayer for Daniel that had been outpoured from the wider Jewish community had not been in vain; Daniel has a grave, which is something that not all families of victims can say. Rabbi Perez thanked the YU community for continuing to be on the front lines of defending Israel and encouraged everyone to stand up for the Jewish destiny.
Shalhevet Cohen spoke of an uplifting moment, the day of June 8 when four hostages were miraculously rescued by the IDF: “Hodu L’Hashem Ki Tov Ki L’Olam Chasdo.” She described the open miracles displayed by the IDF and that despite all of the travesty of this past year, she has “never been prouder to be a Jew.”
Call to action
Sam Weinberg (YC ‘25), current YSU President, spoke about the Israel advocacy and activism that YU participated in this past year. He spoke specifically about the rally at Washington in November, describing it as “the single largest Jewish gathering in American history.” As a member of YUPAC, he and hundreds of YU students traveled to Washington on several occasions to lobby for Israel. He urged members in the crowd to become involved in Israel activism as well.
Tehila Bitton (SCW ‘24) dedicated her speech to the three soldiers who were killed on May 28 — Amir Galilov, Uri Bar Or, and Ido Appel. She then went on to note that people these days often refer facetiously to Israel as a “dor post-tromati” — the post-trauma generation. In this vein, she helped to found an organization called Ben Adam, designed to help Israeli children move past their trauma. She described a young boy named Yonatan, whose Ben Adam tutor called to check in when a series of strikes were sent towards Yad Binyamin where Yonatan lives. Yonatan’s family “found a new strength knowing that they are not alone.” Tehila urged the crowd to find people who need help, a cause worth fighting for, and “go be their champion.”
Concluding remarks
Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz concluded the speakers of the main event with the month of September. He gave a mashal of the Dubner Maggid for the Yamim Noraim; imagine that a truck drove around at the end of Neilah with a list of community members coming to collect all the people who are not destined to live through the upcoming year — imagine how much stronger, how emotional, our tefillot would be. If we had seen the name Hersh Goldberg-Polin on that list last year, we likely would not have thought twice. But over the course of this past year we grew in unity; we gained the capacity of loving people who had previously been strangers. When we heard on Sept. 1 of the murders of Hersh, Eden, Ori, Alex, Carmel and Almog, we were devastated. What changed, said Rabbi Lebowitz, was this: “we became bigger.”
YU President Ari Berman concluded the event by talking poetically about Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” and how it has served as a beacon of hope for so much of our history. He weaved in defining historical moments in his speech, describing Czech Jews singing “Hatikvah” at the entrance of gas chambers and Israelis wrapped in flags and donning gold medals singing “Hatikvah” after Olympic wins. He thanked YU for being his family.
A personal note
This event, along with an event I attended on the evening of Oct. 7, serves for me as a personal reminder of the power of speech and community. The goal of the speakers was not to glorify or whitewash the past year, or even to give a framework or context for a war which is ongoing. Rather, the event was a reaffirmation of our values; it was a moment for us to stand side by side, to articulate our commitment to Israel, and allow ourselves to experience together the intense emotions that have defined our past year.
May we merit a year of peace and security, a year in which Hashem protects our chayalim and brings home our hostages and to experience the ultimate redemption b’mheira b’yameinu.
Photo Caption: Tomer Meir addressing the crowd at YU’s commemoration of Oct. 7.
Photo Credit: Ezra Rosenfeld
