The Central New Jersey Jewish community, and beyond, convened on the evening of Monday, Oct. 7 for a special candlelight vigil in remembrance of the over 1,200 kedoshim murdered and more than 250 kidnapped on Oct. 7. The Highland Park police estimated that the vigil, sponsored by Central NJ Stands With Israel at the corner of Second and Raritan Avenues, attracted well over 400 people but the number was likely even higher.
Highland Park Councilman Matthew Hale, one of the planners of the event, said, “I bought nearly 300 candles to give out. Not only were they all taken, but there were almost twice as many people here without them.” Attendees brought Israeli and American flags, hostage lawn signs, homemade signs, hats, shirts, dog tags, pins, nd other items showing their support.
The program began with a welcome by event co-planner Michael Gordon. Acknowledging that the actual yahrzeit of the event has not happened, “The English date of Oct. 7 has developed a life of its own and is acknowledged the same way as 9/11 or Dec. 7.”
The theme of the event, Am Yisrael Chai, was printed on posters given to attendees to be placed in windows or on lawn signs. A billboard with the same theme will be up on the main street in Highland Park for the next month for all to see.
Rabbi Meir Lipschitz, assistant rabbi of Cong. Ohav Emeth in Highland Park, was in Israel last year on Oct. 7. He heard the sirens going off while walking to the synagogue and noticed that he and his family were the only ones on the street. Returning back to their rented apartment, they decided to try to return to the synagogue when the sirens stopped.
Lipschitz shared with the attendees that services were interrupted by “more and more sirens and we ended up having to say Hallel in the building stairway. It was an interesting moment saying the liturgy for ‘Hashem to save us’ while sirens were going on outside and we were unaware of what was happening.” What was striking to him was how Israelis reacted to events and how Americans did. Israelis went about their business the following week, while Americans stayed hunkered down indoors. In some ways, being in Israel was better for his family. His older son was not exposed to the horrific images of carnage that inundated social media in America. And, in some ways it was worse. His younger son reacted to events by sleeping under his bed at night. “We had the ‘luxury’ of being able to go back to the United States and ‘normalcy.’ I can’t understand how my cousins get through the day with three children called up for military service.”
He shared that the unity seen in Israel and the coming together of all types of politically and religiously diverse Jews was momentous. The minyan he went to did not say a prayer for the state of Israel or the IDF until Oct. 7, when it became routine. “I see the crowd here is also diverse, but we are here to stand together and support our brothers and sisters. We need to stand together and respect our differences while working together and supporting each other.”
Gordon returned to add that everyone has had different reactions to Oct. 7 and their own ways to support Israel. “As long as we all do something, the unity is our ‘superpower.’ Hamas saw our disunity and hoped to capitalize on it for their benefit. They did not expect the intense unification of the Jewish people,” he said.
Hale then spoke about how hard it is to describe what happened without the word “horror.” And despite the horror that was Oct. 7, we all had a small hope that maybe the world would see the barbaric acts and support the Jews this time. We found tangible ways to help Israel by volunteering and sending pallets of all kinds of goods. “Way faster than we could have ever imagined, the hope of world support turned to horror as thugs on subways hunted Jews, college presidents hemmed and hawed about the definition of antisemitism. A mother of a 5-year old was told to stay away from playgroup as they were no longer welcome due to the events in Israel, college students were called racist for stating their support for Israel, and even middle schoolers are exposed to antisemitism,” he added.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s mother said that “hope is mandatory and is built in our DNA.” The only way horror goes away is to replace it with hope and share it as widely as possible to enact world change.
The next speaker was Rabbi Esther Reed, chief experience officer of Rutgers Hillel, who noted that many people have only heard of the anti-Jewish activities and events at the university, but don’t hear the good. They don’t hear about the many Jewish and pro-Israel events that are held, like the one held earlier that day commemorating the events of Oct. 7.
The final speaker was Highland Park Mayor Elsie Foster, who helped arrange the event. She noted she just arrived from the commemorative event at Rutgers Chabad. Stating that “all our hearts are broken,” she read Psalm 130, as it provided solace to her.
The event ended with co-organizer Josh Fine’s recitation of Kel Maleh Rahamim, listing the places devastated on Oct. 7, recitation of psalms and group singing of Acheinu, Hatikvah and Am Yisrael Chai, led by Avi Maza.
Dr. Mini Verter of Highland Park shared that “The miracle of Oct. 7 was the unity displayed by Jews of all walks of life, as presented here at this event as well.” Highland Park residents
Steve and Ann Sheryl came to the event, with Steve stating that the “past year has been very difficult, both from the Oct. 7 attack itself and the increasing shifting of blame to Israel. That is why we thought it important to come out tonight — to be part of a gathering supporting Israel.”
For more information about this event or future ones, email [email protected].
