An estimated 2,000 people gathered on Oct. 7 for an “evening of remembrance, resilience and hope for a brighter future” at The Anthem, a music venue in the Wharf neighborhood in Southwest Washington, D.C.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Washington Board of Rabbis co-sponsored the evening event, which marked the one-year anniversary since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel.
“This event was about holding space as a community, so we could all come together to mark one year since this horrific attack,” Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, told JNS.
“While we may have differing opinions on many items, we can unite in our mourning and our hope for a brighter future ahead for Israel and the Jewish people,” Preuss added.
Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC, told JNS that “the unrelenting pace” has been the biggest struggle at his organization over the past year.
“Trying to advocate for Israel and fighting against antisemitism in all of its manifestations has been a herculean challenge for the Jewish community,” he said. “It doesn’t look like it is going to lessen in the future.”
Jonathan Dekel-Chen—the father of Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen—who criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day at an apolitical American Jewish Committee memorial event, addressed the crowd at the music venue.
“One year ago, our beautiful, unique way of Jewish life was taken from us. We are refugees in our own country,” Dekel-Chen said.
The father wondered aloud if his “beautiful 36-year-old son Sagui” knows that loved ones await him, or that his daughter Shachar was born two months after Hamas terrorists kidnapped him.
Although he had brought politics into his prior remarks at the AJC event, Dekel-Chen said on Monday evening that “politics should not matter.”
“The only thing that matters is getting Sagui and all the other hostages home,” he said.
“As an evacuee and someone who has lost their home, I can speak for tens of thousands in Israel in the deepest of appreciation for the Federations’ work,” he added. “Your solidarity and compassion and generosity have carried us through incredibly-dark times.”
In his public remarks, Halber, of the JCRC, said that the victims of Hamas’s attack are people, whose identities are more significant than the evil done to them.
“We refuse to let them be defined by how they were slaughtered,” he said. “We choose to remember who they were as people and the light they shined onto their communities and families.”
“We owe it to them, to their families and to ourselves to remain resilient and not to let this savage attack define who we are as a people,” he added.
Among the other speakers and presenters at the event were members of the co-ed Jewish a cappella groups Rak Shalom (University of Maryland) and Matanotes (Berman Hebrew Academy), cantors, Jewish leaders, authors and students.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the United States and brother of the Israeli president, was a surprise speaker at the event, who was not listed on the program.
Herzog described some of Israel’s military wins. “Last year on Oct. 7, Hamas launched 4,300 rockets into Israel,” he said. “On Oct. 7 of this year, Hamas launched four.”
The Jewish state is weakening Hamas’s axis of terror, he added.
“We can always see some victories amid the big tragedies,” he said.
Michaela Kapen, of Northern Virginia, attended the event. She told JNS that she spent last year studying in Israel.
“I witnessed firsthand the war and developed a deep connection to our land,” she said. “I felt that it was important to show up last night to fight for our hostages and feel a sense of unity among our people.”