For Noam Milman, coming to the large gathering at Rutgers University of students commemorating the Oct. 7 anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel was personal.
Not only was the sophomore biomedical engineering major born in Israel and still has friends and family there — some of them serving in the IDF — but she knows the Tenafly resident who is one of the 101 hostages still being held.
“I was in the same scout troop as Edan Alexander,” said the Demarest resident, adding she was thinking of him on this sad day.
They were part of Shevet Mezada, the Israeli Scouts of Tenafly, part of Tzofim Tzabar, the Israeli Scouts of North America. “I feel it’s very important to come to these events as much as possible,” said Milman.
The vigil on the heavily trafficked Voorhees Mall on the main campus in New Brunswick was organized by student groups at Rutgers and featured artwork, exhibits such as an empty Shabbat table for the hostages, large posters with images of the hostages and others proudly proclaiming support of Zionism.
Maya Brisman, president of Rutgers Jewish Xperience, said the involved groups booked the highly coveted spot in May. “We’ve been doing a lot of hard work as a unified group,” she said. “The groups have been meeting and organizing and came together to plan this in unity and to bring our people home.”
Kelly Shapiro, co-founder and president of Students Supporting Israel, said although the vigil officially began at 5 p.m. the exhibits were already on display at 11 a.m. “Hundreds of students came by,” said Shapiro. “We had a lot of foot traffic.”
Among others who Shapiro said made an appearance was Rutgers President Dr. Jonathan Holloway, who was given a tour of the various exhibits.
Students draped in American and Israeli flags and many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Free the Hostages,” “Curb Your Antisemitism” or just a defiant “Zionism,” chanted prayers for those being held and in the IDF. They sang Hatikvah and other songs, including Matisyahu’s uplifting “One Day.” When a small group of about five protesters began to shout obscenities and wave Palestinian flags the students began to loudly chant “Am Yisrael Chai.” The protesters were eventually chased away by Rutgers police. However, none of the many other students who passed had any negative reaction.
After the vigil, students left on a silent march up College Avenue, encountering no negative reaction, as a Rutgers police vehicle blocked side streets and rode alongside them as they made their way to Rutgers Chabad to hear Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, speak.
The vigil also featured Aaron Bours, an IDF reservist originally from Great Neck, Long Island who was badly wounded fighting in Gaza and told a harrowing tale of coming under fire, having his commanding officer get shot and killed, and being hit by sniper fire while futilely trying to rescue him. Later, after being evacuated to Sheba Medical Center, doctors narrowly avoided having to amputate his leg.
Bours, who still walks with a cane, said he had planned to go to college in the United States and “become a doctor or lawyer like every good Jew, but I fell in love. I fell in love with Israel.” He joined the Gavati unit, where he was a master sergeant, “to defend the Jewish people.”
Bours was working in high-tech for an Israeli company and on a business trip to Las Vegas when the war broke out. With his Delta flight home canceled, he felt helpless. After eventually joining his unit and entering Gaza they went into tunnels and homes, finding weapons and munitions.
“We went into 20 houses and 19 of them were connected to terrorism,” said Bours, but it was outside a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that his unit came under heavy fire. “I tried to shoot back but it was like shooting at ghosts,” he said. “They would just go back to their tunnel positions.”
Bours took cover but felt compelled to go out and try and bring his heavily bleeding commanding officer to safety. “I felt something hit me and realized it was a sniper bullet so I started to crawl and got hit in both legs and by rocks that had been weaponized by the flying bullets,” said Bours, who has had surgeries and endured a 10-month recovery.
While Israelis are struggling, they appreciate the tremendous global support they have received from both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities, something he himself has seen while traveling.
“It is unbelievable to see our Jewish communities, and of course our allies, come together,” said Bours.
Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.
