On October 6, Temple Israel Center in White Plains hosted ‘Community Commemoration; One Year Later,’ coordinated by AJC Westchester/Fairfield, JAFI, UJA-Federation and Westchester Jewish Council.
Tara Slone-Goldstein, past chair of UJA-Westchester began, “Over the past year, we have met with and embraced so many heroes, people who survived the unthinkable, who rescued others, who lost loved ones, whose resilience gives us strength and hope. As we stand together tonight, the people of Israel draw immense strength from the power of our collective energy.”
Governor Kathy Hochul, representing the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, told the story of her visit to Israel as the first elected official to travel to not just Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but to the Gaza Envelope just days after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. “I walked through homes once the place of joy and celebration … I was in the safe rooms, paid for by the government to make sure if there ever was an attack, families could be gathered and they had food stored there. Those safe rooms became rooms of terror; places where young women were raped and mutilated.
“Man’s inhumanity against man is so chilling,” she continued. “We thought it was left in the history books of the Holocaust, and said we would never forget. The innocent children were torn from their parents’ arms and murdered in front of them. The stories that I heard made me think, yes, it happened again in our time, in our so-called civilized time. A barbaric group of terrorists, don’t call them anything but terrorists, because that’s what Hamas is.”
Hochul noted, “I was called out by a reporter who said, ‘Why are they calling them a terrorist group?’ I said, ‘Because they are.’ I knew my facts. There may be deniers, people in our own state, who do not acknowledge what happened that day. I went for one reason; I witnessed with my own eyes and provided moral clarity when I returned, to stand up to those who would say that was deserved because they did this or that. There’s nothing on earth that can justify what I saw and the searing pain so many still live with today.
“I came back from that journey shocked,” Hochul added. “I realized people protesting on our college campuses were not protesting what happened in Israel but protesting Israel itself. My heart is full of anger, frustration and thoughts of hope. I will keep hope alive with all of you to stand together and never forget those 1,200 people and the hostages still held, including several Americans, including Omer Neutra from Long Island. I met his relatives while I was there; I have met his parents many times. I can’t imagine what it is like.”
Congressman Mike Lawler also described his trip to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu who played 21 minutes of raw, unedited video footage of the barbaric terrorist attack.
“I watched in horror as Hamas terrorists brutally beheaded, butchered, burned, maimed innocent women, children, babies. I watched the father trying to protect his two young sons, only to be killed by a grenade, to watch these two young boys run back into their homes and have a Hamas terrorist come in after them, open a refrigerator, take out a soda and drink it as if nothing happened.
“The part that stood out the most to me was not the visual,” Lawler said. “It was the audio of a young man calling home to his parents in Gaza saying, Mom, Dad, I just killed 10 Jews with my bare hands. He repeated it over and over and over and his parents praised Allah. That level of hatred is taught in schools in Gaza and the West Bank. Disgracefully, it is funded by the United Nations and UNRWA. Sadly, that level of hatred is being taught here in America. It’s being taught at our college campuses and universities and our K-12 schools. It has to stop and it has to stop now.
“Let’s be clear, anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” Lawler remarked, “The only way for there to be peace, the only way for this conflict to end is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages and release them now. I will stand by Israel every step of the way, I will not relent, I will not yield, I will not back down.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer reflected on his experience in Israel on a trip he took with other Westchester leaders. “It was that jarring experience. We tried to understand the motivation that made people do this, that made them hang-glide into a kibbutz and just murder other human beings, babies, women, senior citizens.
“If anybody thinks that [Hamas’] ambition ends with the destruction of Israel, it [does] not. It is simply the destruction of Western values,” Latimer said.
The event also included a multimedia presentation from Israeli Artist Gilad Segev. The Project Heros Oct. 7 commemoration program honors the courageous individuals who played a pivotal role in saving lives.
Westchester native and lone soldier Natan Davids said, “At 5 I started Schechter; at 13 my bar mitzvah at Westchester Jewish Center; at 15 staff at Camp Ramah, instilling in me a strong Jewish identity and a love of Israel. At 18, I deferred Binghamton for a gap year in Israel. My friendship with my Israeli peers inspired me to enlist as a lone soldier. I could not stand by and ask people to give their blood, sweat and tears for the country that I too would call home. I served in the combat unit from 2015 till 2018. I chose to remain in Israel. I got a degree. I got a job. I even got an Israeli wife.” Davids described his day on Oct. 7 and the days, weeks and months that followed, “filled with fear and chaos, there was also courage.”
Wendy Lubkin, regional president of AJC Westchester/ Fairfield, concluded the event by asking participants to act, “Your action, your advocacy can protect Jews here, around the globe and in Israel.”
