Candlelight vigil commemorates hostages taken, lives lost in Israel

As the Israeli national anthem played at a candlelight vigil on Saturday night, Jewish community members stood and sang along. Julie Paris described the Jewish people as “resilient.”

“This event, to me, means community,” Paris said. “It means keeping the focus on the victims, and that’s what it’s really about. Bringing our hostages home, every single one of them.”

A display of 1,500 electric candles arranged in a Star of David formation illuminated the tent in Schenley Plaza on Friday and Saturday night as Jewish students and community members celebrated the start and end of Shabbat through song, food and drinks. The candles were placed to “commemorate the victims who have lost their lives in Israel,” according to an Instagram post from Chabad at Pitt.

On Oct. 7, Palestinian militant group Hamas killed “around 1,200” people in Israel, according to a spokesperson from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and took about 240 people from homes, military bases and a dance party as hostages, some of which are children. In response to Hamas’ attack, Israeli forces have killed more than “10,000 Palestinians” according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, with over 40% of deaths being children under the age of 18.

At the dinner on Saturday, Paris, who is the mid-Atlantic regional director for the Israel education organization StandWithUs, called the event “important.”

“Being able to bring light, as we see here with this beautiful star, at the time when the world feels so dark, is something that we can all come together and unite around,” Paris said. “Where we see darkness, we want to bring light because that’s our strength.”

Last weekend, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh set up a display of empty Shabbat tables to honor the hostages Hamas took. Sofia, a Jewish senior at Pitt who requested partial anonymity for “safety reasons,” said she helped organize the table display and “spearheaded” the effort to create the candle display.

“[The table display] was really, really beautiful,” Sofia said. “It really inspired me to put together a memorial for the innocent Israelis, foreign nationals and Israeli soldiers that were murdered by Hamas.”

Signs behind the candle display offered a description of the Oct. 7 attack, quotes from Hamas leaders and statistics about recent anti-Jewish hate crimes around the world. By providing this information, Sofia said she was trying to “raise awareness” for what has happened in Israel.

“I can’t go talking to every single individual person and tell them, ‘Hey, this is my perspective,’” Sofia said. “But my hope is that, when people see this, they can see how the Jewish community is hurting.”

Shmuli Rothstein, a rabbi and director of Chabad at Pitt, said he helped fund the candle display. Rothstein said although Hamas’ attack made him feel fear, “Whenever you’re hit hard, it brings out something positive.”

“The past few weeks, we’ve been bombarded with requests for mezuzahs, which is the Jewish scroll you put on your doorpost, people coming by to say prayers…people I didn’t even know before coming out, which I think [is] a beautiful thing and a very appropriate thing,” Rothstein said.

Ilan Gordon, a junior exercise science major, attended the event and said he has family in Israel as well as friends “fighting on the frontlines.” Gordon said he wants to make sure people don’t forget about Oct. 7.

“The Jewish people are really hurting right now,” Gordon said. “We are showing the world that we are there for our brothers and sisters in Israel, we are there for the Jewish people, and we are always proud and we will keep praying and fighting until all hostages are home.”