Thousands from across the Greater Washington area gathered at The Anthem in Southwest D.C. to commemorate one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
The event, organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and sponsored by dozens of local Jewish organizations and synagogues, featured a night of Israeli music, prayer and speeches encouraging remembrance, resilience and hope for the future.
The event began with the singing of the Israeli national anthem and a performance by Rak Shalom, a Jewish a cappella group from the University of Maryland, followed by an introduction by Rabbi Gilah Langner of Kol Ami – The Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community.
Speakers included Ambassador Michael Herzog; Gil Preuss, the CEO of JFGW; Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington; Sarah Hurwitz, an author and former White House speechwriter; local rabbis; shlichim and students.
“We are gathered 3,000 strong in person and many thousands online. We are gathered to mark a year no one could’ve imagined,” Preuss told the crowd.
He added that it is the duty of the Jewish community to collectively remember and process the pain, grieve together and honor the people killed on Oct. 7: “‘Memory,’ after all, is a Jewish verb.”
“We look back so that we can better carry our people forward,” Preuss said. “We observe the upcoming yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death of 1,200 innocent men, women and children by calling us to take responsibility for their memory. I recently came across an interpretation of Jewish thought that says that when we lose a loved one, we become their representative in the world. This year, we have lost many loved ones, which means we are now called on more than ever to be a credit to their names.”
Preuss also mentioned the rising antisemitism the local community has experienced since Oct. 7, adding that the many emotions affect the entire Jewish community.
“Oct. 7 will forever be etched into the collective Jewish consciousness,” Halber said at the event. “We will forever mourn the deaths of our brothers and sisters so brutally and mercilessly taken from us, but we refuse to let them be defined by how they were slaughtered. Rather, we choose to remember who they were as people and the light they shine on their families and communities.”
The event was somber and reflective of the past year — organizers showed a Federation-sponsored mini-documentary showing footage of the destruction from Oct. 7.
Mollie Bowman, the managing director of Living Links, a national organization to engage and empower descendants of Holocaust survivors, expressed the importance of mourning together.
“Tonight, even if we haven’t met, I know you,” Bowman told the crowd. “I know it could’ve been me and you dancing together at the Nova festival. … Even though I never met them, I know your grandparents and their bomb shelter in Haifa — they are my grandparents, too.”
“I know your cousin who hung her mezuzah on her dorm room doorpost and was forced to answer for the actions of a government thousands of miles away — she is my cousin, too. I know your friend from camp still held hostage in Gaza — he is my friend, too. Your heartache is my heartache, and your fear is my fear and your grief is my grief. And so we show up for each other.”
Herzog thanked both sides of the United States Congress and the American people for their support of Israel.
“My brothers and sisters, in these dark days, we can draw strength and hope from the history of the Jewish people that always managed to rise from the ashes and build anew, and from the amazing resilience of the Israeli society that shined in its darkest moment,” Herzog said at the event. “We draw strength from the solidarity among the Jewish people.”
Preuss spoke to the importance of bringing the Jewish community together in difficult times.
“There’s so many divisions that exist in Israel, in this country and in the Jewish community on so many topics, but [we] come together on Oct. 7, to be as one community, to remember the people who were murdered, to be together and look forward to what we can do as a community,” Preuss told the Washington Jewish Week.
He added that he hopes attendees leave the “Marking Oct. 7 Together” event motivated to take action.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, spoke about his experience emigrating to Israel from Connecticut in 1981. Dekel-Chen, who raised his four children and four grandchildren in Kibbutz Nir Oz, described Israel as a “magical place” and said he is now a “refugee in his own country.”
He called for the safe return of the 101 hostages still held in Gaza, including his 35-year-old son, Sagui Dekel-Chen.
“Military action alone cannot free our loved ones,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen told the crowd. “Every additional hour without an agreement is an hour stolen from the lives of the hostages and from their families.”
Rabbi Marc Israel of Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville attended the event to show his support for the Jewish community, the hostages and their families and the people of Israel.
“It’s important on a day like this that we all stand together,” Israel told the Washington Jewish Week.
Helene Marcus Casper, who attended the event from Potomac, said that it’s been a “very long year” since Oct. 7 and she felt the need to show up for her community.
“I think we all are supporting each other, grieving together, coping together and we all need to do that together,” Casper said. “And I don’t know how much of the outside community is aware of what’s going on, but I think it’s important also to show solidarity.”
After nearly two hours of speeches and musical performances, Langner invited all clergy members from the audience onto the stage for a closing prayer of peace.
“At a time of war, remember that the ultimate goal is one of peace,” Rabbi David Wolkenfeld of Ohev Sholom Congregation said at the event. “May it be your will that you should eliminate wars and bloodshed in the world and extend the great and wondrous peace to the world.”
Braden Hamelin contributed reporting to this article.
