Across the United States, Jewish communities gathered on Oct. 7 at Jewish Federation-organized events in various locations around the country. The event for the Greater Washington Jewish community was held at The Anthem concert venue in D.C., where over 3,000 community members came together to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The Jewish Federation, Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and Washington Board of Rabbis organized the commemoration, in partnership with 100 sponsors. Among these sponsors was CESJDS, along with other Jewish schools in the area, many local synagogues and other Jewish organizations.
Though many Jewish organizations and institutions have held commemorations for Oct. 7 throughout the year, this event brought these separate communities in the Greater Washington area under one roof, to mark the day together.
“Caitlyn [history teacher Natalie Levitan’s daughter] and I would have the opportunity to assemble here at school, but my husband also wanted to participate in a community event,” Levitan said. “We wanted an opportunity to be with larger community members.”
Due to their co-sponsorship in the event, the JDS administration decided to cancel all after-school activities and close the building at 6:15 p.m. that evening in order to encourage community members to attend the event. Even though the event was on a school night, senior Zev Mendelson felt obligated to attend.
“I think it’s important to go and be a member of the community there,” Mendelson said. “…To me, it was important to think about the hostages and the people massacred on October 7th, and to be there for them.”
Upon entering The Anthem, attendees checked in and, in order to maintain high security, had to show identification and receive bracelets to confirm their registration. Before being seated among the three levels of the venue, attendees were encouraged to write blessings for Israel on paper flowers and pin them to a wall, creating a mural of flowers displayed at the entrance of The Anthem.
Throughout the two-hour event, choirs such as the Berman “Matanos” and University of Maryland’s “Rak Shalom” performed religious and Israeli music. Additionally, speakers such as Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, George Washington University students and Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog spoke about the war and antisemitism in the United States.
In addition to these speakers, JDS sophomore Elana Ernst performed an original poem about the hostages. The poem she performed was a part of a larger poem she began writing after the initial Hamas attack as a way to express her pain in words.
“[Writing poetry] was definitely my way of processing,” Ernst said. “I felt totally, totally powerless, like all of us did…I felt like the only thing I could do was write … It really did take me a very long time to find the right words … Then it sort of became something that I wanted to give to the world.”
After writing her poem last year, Ernst never found the right place to share it, even though she always knew she wanted others to hear it. When she heard that her shul, Ohev Sholom, was co-sponsoring this event, she asked Rabbi David Wolkenfeld, her rabbi, to see if she could perform her poem. After looking it over, the organizers of the event approved Ernst to perform her poem.
The event concluded with all members of clergy who attended joining together on the stage and leading the crowd in the song “Olam Chesed Yibaneh”, with their arms around each other. For Ernst, Levitan and Mendelson, this was a hopeful conclusion to a meaningful commemoration.
For Mendelson, this was also symbolic of the vast amount of people who came together, each rabbi representing their community.
“I think what really hit me was the number of people” Mendelson said. “… Showing how many people cared, how many people felt the same way, and how many people gave their time to go to this event … I just felt a great sense of community.”
