Hundreds of candles lit the stage of the Saban Theater in Los Angeles last week, as some 2,000 Jewish and pro-Israel Angelenos packed together for “LA Remembers 10/7,” an event marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks in southern Israel.
Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, told the nearly sold-out crowd that “antisemitism has absolutely no place in L.A.”
Moran Atias, an Israeli actress, emceed the event, which featured more than 30 speakers, including music executive Scooter Braun, singer Raviv Kaner and actress Mayim Bialik. Footage from the Hamas attacks was also screened, and Eden Contez sang “Hurricane,” which Eden Golan performed earlier this year at the Eurovision Song Contest.
“There is no doubt about who we are as a nation,” Bialik told the audience. “Israel is the land of the Jewish people now and forever.”
Atias said from the podium that everyone remembers exactly where they were on Oct. 7. She had arrived in Israel three days before the assault, she said. Immediately after Oct. 7, she met with affected families in the area, she said.
Noah Farkas, a rabbi and president and CEO of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, also addressed the crowd. A year prior, he spoke at a vigil on Oct. 10 at Stephen Wise Temple in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
“One year ago I welcomed you to a house of mourning,” he said. “Tonight, I welcome you to a different house. One year on, we remember with sadness and sorrow, but we also remember with strength.”
Jonathan Dauer Zalomek, an active member of the L.A. community and a self-described “staunch Zionist,” told JNS he echoed Farkas’s sentiment.
“I’m wounded but preserving like never before,” he said.
Despite Farkas’s remark, mourning was very present.
Atias led a candle-lighting ceremony, with each of the seven candles dedicated to a different group of people affected by Oct. 7: fallen soldiers, hostages, civilian heroes, foreign nationals, women and victims of sexual violence, first responders, and police and the 1,200 people murdered.
Other leaders, including Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), and Bishop Juan Carlos Mendez of the Los Angeles Southern Baptist church Centro Cristiano Bet-El lit candles.
A group of local rabbis and cantors then led the crowd in the mourner’s Kaddish, followed by the song Acheinu (“our brothers”).
‘Word takes on new meaning’
In “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, a giant clock counts time to the exact minute since the hostages were kidnapped, a reminder that they have yet to come home.
In Los Angeles, a reminder was front and center on stage. Eitan Gonen’s daughter, Romi Gonen, was abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. Recounting the story of his daughter, who turned 24 in captivity, Gonen spoke through tears, his head held high.
“Romi is a superhero,” he told the audience. “Romi will return home alive.”
Maayan Snapir told attendees about her grandparents, Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz, two of the oldest hostages whom Hamas took captive on Oct. 7.
Yocheved was released during the hostages-for-prisoner exchange in 2023. Her family was still in Eilat and had to be flown via helicopter to the hospital. Snapir was already nearby and was the only one already there when Yocheved arrived.
“She couldn’t really see, and she asked me, ‘Who are you?’” Snapir told the audience. “I said, ‘Maayan,’ and she started to cry.”
Snapir explained that Yocheved saw Oded fall after being shot and presumed that he was dead. She only learned that her husband was alive when another released hostage, who heard their story, mentioned that she was held with Oded.
“Alive, alive,” Snapir told the audience. “That word takes on a new meaning.”
Snapir told JNS that she felt a “mix of feelings” sharing her story but was “honored.”
“It felt like a big hug from the Jewish community,” she told JNS.
At the end of her speech, Snapir echoed the cry of “Bring them home” but added something extra.
“Bring them hope, so we will have a better world to bring them home to,” she said.