On Oct. 28, just days after Simchat Torah when the Jewish community commemorated the first yahrzeit of the Oct. 7 massacre, the Consulate General of Israel in New York and the Israeli-American Council (IAC) hosted a memorial ceremony at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue which was attended by over 600 guests.
Addressing the crowd were Mia Schem, who was abducted by Hamas from the Nova Festival and released 55 days later as part of a hostage deal; Ayelet Samerano, mother of Yonatan, HY”D, whose body was seized by Hamas terrorists; and Avi Harush, father of the late Sgt. Rif Harush, HY”D, who fell fighting Hamas in Gaza.
Schem, who spoke in Hebrew with her mother standing by her side, painted the scene of sheer joy at the Nova festival before the “[t]he sound of music turned into screams.”
Schem recalled how the terrorists shot her in the hand and dragged her by the hair while they screamed with joy as they took her to Gaza. She recounted the horror of not receiving medical treatment or pain relief, and the lack of food and water. She described spending five days in a cage without air or light with five other young women who were also being held captive.
Schem poignantly stated that while her body was in New York, her heart remains captive in Gaza with the young women still being held by Hamas, and that she will not rest until every single hostage comes home.
As video of terrorists dragging Yonatan’s lifeless body to a white vehicle played on a large screen behind her, Samerano stood silently. When the video concluded, she stated that it was an UNRWA worker who kidnapped her son.
Of the pain Samerano lives with daily, she stated: “My son is in exile. Our hostages are there. It’s been a whole year that I am waiting for good news. I have no day. I have no night. I have no knowledge. I have only faith and prayer.”
Harush spoke of Jewish unity: “In these difficult days that we, as a people and as a nation are going through, I think it would be good for us to see the virtues of each and every one of our friends, rather than their shortcomings, and to let no hatred arise between us. The people of Israel especially now must be united.”
The stories told represent not only the devastation of the past year, but the pain that the Jewish people continue to endure.
As noted by Elan S. Carr, chief executive officer of IAC: “It would have been unbearable enough if we gathered here tonight on this most terrible anniversary to remember and mourn over tragedies that occurred in the past … But alas we are not here to mourn over events that occurred to us in the past because today, one year later, the state of Israel is still fighting for its very right to exist.”
Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, spoke of Israel’s unwavering resolve in its fight to defeat evil. “We are fighting our enemies — who are the whole world’s enemies — on seven fronts. We are not giving up or slowing down. We will defend our people — from Tehran to Yemen, from Rafah to Beirut.”
Akunis also recognized the difficulties Jewish communities in America have faced. “This past year has been difficult for Israel, we have cried and mourned as one family. But it has been incredibly challenging for the Jewish communities here, in the United States as well … Since the mass immigration of Jews to America in the 19th century, we never saw antisemitism such as this. The pictures we see from campuses today bring to mind 1930s Europe.”
Most importantly, though, Akunis emphasized that “[t]he international community must put Hamas under pressure to release [all of the hostages] and until then, must support Israel in its battle for justice!”
As the ceremony ended with a choir singing Hatikvah, Schem was quietly singing along.
If Schem can have hope, so can we all.
Judith Falk is the creator of the Upper West Side Shtetl Facebook group. You can follow her on instagram @upperwestsideshtetl. She is a lawyer by day and a former legal reporter.
