Updated 6:10 p.m. Nov. 20

It’s become a painful but purposeful weekly ritual for many American Jews and Israeli expats since Oct. 7: attending vigils, rallies and prayer services that call for the release of the hostages in Gaza and that stand in solidarity against antisemitism.

On Nov. 18, local members and leaders of other religious communities showed up to demonstrate their support, too.

At San Mateo’s St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, 10 leaders from local Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Methodist, Lutheran and Unitarian communities participated in a multifaith solidarity vigil and Havdalah service organized by the Peninsula JCC. The Peninsula Multifaith Coalition and Peninsula Solidarity Cohort both helped with outreach.

More than 350 people attended the evening gathering.

“The idea that we embrace our friends and neighbors in the non-Jewish community is critically important,” Jordan Shenker, CEO of the PJCC, told J. “We need to get together with people we don’t necessarily always talk to. It’s not insignificant that we are sitting tonight in a church, not in a synagogue. We chose that very specifically.”

The Rev. Paul Arnoult of St. Bartholomew called it an honor “to provide a space we can all come together” in for prayers of peace and for those held hostage by Hamas.

The tone of the gathering was somber as Israelis who live in the Bay Area described the harrowing hours of Oct. 7 for their family members when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking an estimated 240 hostages.

Adi Hayun Perez, a San Francisco resident and Bay Area regional director for the Israeli American Council, told the story of how her sister and brother-in-law, Tal and Roi Hadar, along with their three young children, survived the massacre of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, less than two miles from Gaza.

The family hid in their mamad (safe room) for more than 10 hours until heavy smoke began to fill the room after their home was set on fire, Perez said. She was communicating with them on WhatsApp throughout the ordeal.

“In a courageous, split-second decision, they left through the windows,” Perez said. They spotted an IDF jeep and jumped in. Soldiers covered the children’s eyes as they drove out of the kibbutz, so they wouldn’t see the bodies of neighbors and extended family members who had been murdered.

“My sister and her family were the only ones who survived that day from her neighborhood,” Perez said. Of the 400 Kfar Aza residents, at least 50 people are known to have been killed that day and some 20 are believed to be hostages. Even six weeks later, the numbers are still shifting.

A group of faith leaders, holding flyers with the names and faces of several of the hostages, read testimonies describing the last moments of contact with their families and friends.

They also read passages from a “locally woven prayer of comfort,” with each faith leader reading passages from the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, the Quran and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed and St. Francis of Assisi.

“Nachamu nachamu ami. Comfort, find comfort, my people,” read one verse in Hebrew and English, from Isaiah 40:1.

The mayors of Menlo Park, Foster City and San Mateo spoke at the event — all three are Jewish. They expressed their outrage and sadness over the antisemitism they’ve encountered in their own cities since Oct. 7.

“I’m tired. I’m sad. I’m tired of feeling sad all the time,” said Jen Wolosin, mayor of Menlo Park. “This is a very hard time to be Jewish.”

Wolosin described the conversations she’s had with constituents, many of them parents whose children are getting targeted at school with antisemitic jokes, slurs and gestures from classmates.

“We’re all feeling incredible anxiety,” Wolosin said. “It means so much to come out here to the light, to feel the warmth of people having our backs.”

Amourence Lee, San Mateo’s mayor and the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, told the room that she recently received hate mail at her home address from a white supremacist group that encourages followers to target homes with antisemitic fliers and Zoom-bomb public meetings to express hate.

“Jewish leaders are standing strong and tall together in the face of antisemitism,” Lee said. “We are all being called to lift the Jewish community. … Tikkun olam is our shared mandate with all of you, to create a more just community.”

The vigil concluded with Havdalah blessings led by Rabbi Laurie Matzkin of PJCC, accompanied by Jewish musician Saul Kaye and clergy from three Peninsula synagogues, all co-sponsors of the event.

”The songs, the prayers, as well as the storytelling — somebody put a lot of thought into that,” said Ross Weir, 72, a congregant of St. Bartholomew and a board member of the Peninsula Multifaith Coalition.

The list of 19 co-sponsoring clergy and houses of worship included the Rev. Stefanie Etzbach-Dale, a Unitarian Universalist leader who is also Jewish; six faith leaders from Methodist, Lutheran, United Church of Christ and Catholic churches; Imam Sabahat Ali of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Silicon Valley; and Nurdin Kaparov, a Muslim with the Pacifica Institute and a board member of the Peninsula Multifaith Coalition.

Matzkin emphasized her appreciation that the Peninsula Multifaith Coalition and Peninsula Solidarity Cohort supported the PJCC by reaching out to leaders across faiths to participate.

“We are you,” Joanie Taylor, 83 and a parishioner of St. Bartholomew, said in reflecting on the multifaith gathering. “We’re all family.”