Three years after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks, 2,000 gathered at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on Wednesday evening to commemorate the victims and honor those who survived.
“We light this candle in memory of the hostages who never came home,” Maya Regev, who was kidnapped with her brother on Oct. 7 and was liberated the following month, told attendees.
“May their memories forever be a blessing,” she said, as she lit a memorial candle.
Modi Ephraim, the newly appointed Israeli consul general to the Pacific Southwest, drew applause when he told attendees that the recent High Holidays were the first in three years that there were no hostages in Gaza.
“I know that everyone here never stopped fighting for their release and recovery,” he said. “On behalf of the State of Israel, we are deeply grateful.”
StandWithUs organized the memorial with the American Jewish Committee’s Los Angeles office, the Israeli-American Council, Temple of the Arts, Jewish Journal and the Israeli consulate.
In addition to Regev, two survivors of the Nova festival, Rom El-Hai and Lee Sasi, addressed attendees. The event also featured musical and dance performances and a candle-lighting ceremony.
Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUS, also spoke, as did Rabbi David Baron of Temple of the Arts, American Jewish Committee regional director Kimberley Plotnik, Israeli-American Council CEO Elan Carr and Jewish Journal publisher and editor-in-chief David Suissa.
“Tonight, we honor the memory of those slaughtered on Oct. 7 and those who have fallen since,” Noa Tishby, an actress who is a former Israeli special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization of Israel, told attendees.
“We will never forget them or the broken hearts of the families that mourned them,” she said.
Suissa, of the Journal, fought back tears as he oversaw the candle-lighting ceremony.
“I hope I can get through this,” he said.
El-Hai, the Nova festival survivor, told attendees that his love for music festivals comes from how free he feels on the dance floor.
When the terror attack began, he and his friends ran east. Crouched behind a bush, he told a relative on the phone he was safe, although that was far from the truth.
While hiding, he and his friends heard what they thought was Hamas gunfire. They found safety.
El-Hai concluded by unraveling a rainbow-colored flag with the word “Nova” on it and wrapping himself in it. “We will dance again,” he said, as he left the stage.
Sasi, the other festival survivor, described herself as an “818 girl,” referring to the area code for the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, where she is from.
She told attendees that she went to the Nova festival with her uncle Avi Sasi, who was killed in the attack. She, her uncle and others hid in a roadside bomb shelter. Her uncle threw himself onto a grenade to protect those around him, she said.
Josh Steinberg, who lives in Pico-Robertson and works at a social justice-oriented Jewish nonprofit, told JNS that he attended the event because he continues to feel anger over the way Israel’s critics mischaracterize the country’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.”
“When I heard this event was happening, I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend an evening with like-minded people who care as much as I do about Israel,” he told JNS. “It’s important we take the time to mark what happened on Oct. 7. Otherwise we’ll eventually forget.”
George Tesler, 72, a resident of Beverly Hills, also attended.
“I’m here because I’m a Zionist,” he told JNS. “I have family in Israel, and I know what it would mean to them to hear that 2,000 people came out tonight to mourn the loss of life on Oct. 7.”
“It’s unfortunate that we live in a world today, where saying you denounce Hamas is construed as some kind of political statement,” he said. “But it feels good to be around other people who are just as proudly Zionist as I am and are just as bothered by the useful idiots who are out on the street supporting the terrorists.”
“I’m glad I came,” he told JNS.
