What had the makings of a day of major disruptions and potential violence at the University of Maryland’s campus in College Park, Md., went off peacefully.
But not without pain.
To mark the one-year anniversary of the massacre of 1,200 people and the taking captive of 251 others in southern Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on campus held what it called a vigil for the Gazan lives that have been lost during Israel’s war against the terrorist organization, prompted by the attacks and atrocities over its border. It managed to do so after persuading a federal judge to overturn the university’s restrictions on “expressive events” that day.
The protest of a few hundred students was limited to a barricaded area with no confrontations or counter-protests in sight.
Meanwhile, as the sun descended, some 1,100 people checked in to the vigil sponsored by the campus Hillel chapter—a mix of testimonials, rabbinic commentary, musical performances, verbal hugs from faculty and administrators, and, seemingly above all, a sense of community among those tightly packed into the front yard of the Rosenbloom Maryland Hillel Center, adjacent to a street cordoned off by police.
Both entry points allowed attendees to light candles. A row of miniature Israeli flags dotted the walkway to the left, with giant fabricated milk cartons bearing the photos of hostages still being held in Gaza—some dead and many presumably alive—around the raised stage at the front.
The tightly packed environment seemed oddly symbolic with few choosing to take advantage of emptier spaces in grassy areas to the back and right. Most attendees preferred to be as close as they could to each other, a reflection of the past year.
“It’s about finding the glitter and the struggles, and the community has really, really come together, both in terms of the support offered by the Hillel staff and other religious leaders here, but also by the other students and by people coming together, being there for each other,” Eitan Lundsider, a senior and computer science major, told JNS.
Lundsider said that some of his closest friends today are people he hadn’t met before Oct. 7 of last year.
“I am thankful that I’m in this environment, that I’ve been surrounded by these people through these unbelievably difficult times,” he told JNS. “And I’m just thankful that I can say I’m in a much better place now because of those people who are here for me.”
‘Not feel judged’
Speakers at Monday’s vigil included Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.); the university’s student affairs vice president Patty Perillo; religious leaders; and representatives from other Jewish student groups on campus.
I’m so pleased and proud to be here,” Hoyer, a staunch supporter of Israel, told JNS. “We have a large Jewish population here who have sustained a terrible, wrenching, traumatic loss, but who show a resilience and a commitment to Israel and to the principles that make our country great, in terms of acceptance of all people.”
Emma Steinhause, a junior majoring in operations management and business analytics, and the vice president of the university’s Jewish student union told JNS that she felt like Monday’s vigil gave her a chance to mourn and grieve with people feeling the same as her.
“I think this past year, that wasn’t always an option. I think a lot of the times we were surrounded by people who really weren’t willing to validate our reasons for grief,” she said. “So it was cathartic to have a night where we could just feel and not feel judged because of it.”
She said that looking out into the crowd from the stage, she “saw my friends, who are like family to me. I felt lucky to be a part of it, even though I wish it never had to happen to begin with.”
Einav Tsach, a junior marketing and journalism major, said he felt supported by Maryland’s university administrators at a time when many college campuses across America have become hotbeds for anti-Israel, antisemitic and anti-American activity, often supported by the campuses’ powers-that-be.
“I feel extremely fortunate to be at a place where, at the very least, the administration is making every single effort to hear what I’m going through and hear what I’m experiencing, and to understand how they can help us,” Tsach told JNS. “Obviously, nothing’s been perfect and that’s why we continue to hold the relationship, and we continue to hold it close. But we are very, very fortunate to be at a place where we are heard and we are seen, and we hope it continues that way.”
From the stage on Monday, Perillo said “my heart hurts for all the pain you have experienced. I know that this day has such deep meaning to each and all of you.”
She lamented that the college years of those affected by Hamas’s slaughter on Oct. 7 “will be shaped by being here in this moment in time and our history. I wanted different for you. We wanted different for you.”
Jeffrey Herf, a retired Maryland history professor, told those assembled that he organized a group of 35 faculty members to support students who report future cases of antisemitic activity on campus.
On stage, he wrestled with the fact that, following his retirement in 2023, no faculty member remains at the university who has published works on the history of antisemitism “not only in its Christian and then Nazi forms and right-wing forms, but also in its left-wing and Islamist—not Islamic—but Islamist forms.”
He asserted that conditions came about after “hundreds of decisions over the past 25 years” that went into forming a faculty “not offering courses to you about the sources of the antisemitic hatred that burst into full view on Oct. 7.”
‘A broken heart’
Eytan Pomper, a first cousin of 23-year-old Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered by Hamas in Gaza along with five others in August, spoke at the vigil. The center announced that it would write a sefer Torah—a Torah scroll—in honor of Hersh, with his family’s blessing.
Ayelette Halbfinger, a 2003 University of Maryland alumnus, told JNS she sat in the Hillel center immediately after last year’s Simchat Torah holiday ended—while Israel was still counting its dead—to plan a vigil.
She said that at that time, she was “sitting in a room with a bunch of students who had been thrown into student leadership positions without knowing what was coming their way. They were students new to campus leadership, to these organizations, and none of them expected for this to happen, and they have more than stepped up to the plate.”
“Being able to plan an event of this scale, of this magnitude, that is so meaningful and so impactful, with such an incredibly powerful tone of respect, of silence, of grief and of honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Israel, so that the nation of Israel worldwide has a place to call home, is incredible,” said Halbfinger.
Rabbi Ari Israel, executive director of the Hillel chapter at the university, told JNS that he hoped Monday’s vigil sent a “message of resilience, hope, unfortunate suffering and recognizing the pain that exists, that is here and is present.”
Israel said to attendees on Monday that “there’s nothing greater and more whole than a broken heart.”
And to JNS he added that a broken heart “will be not just repaired, not just rebuilt, but with the love that you saw tonight and all the energy that fills those gaps, we will be greater, even though right now we’re certainly broken and in pain.”