Thousands of Northern California Jews convened at synagogues, JCCs and grassy fields under the stars on Monday to grieve the immense loss of life and the suffering visited upon Israel one year ago, when the country experienced the worst terrorist attack in its history.
“How do we remember something we cannot stop thinking about?” Rabbi Nico Socolovsky said to a packed sanctuary at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos.
With an estimated 101 hostages still held in Gaza and as a brutal war rages in and around Israel, feelings of grief and uncertainty continue to loom over the Jewish community — even as masses of people paused to mark one year since that traumatic day and to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish for those lost.
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Speakers told stories of horror, and of heroism. Amid the brutality of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists attacked a music festival and kibbutzim in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, and taking 254 hostages, countless Israelis grabbed weapons and fought to protect fellow citizens at great risk to themselves. Many of them also died that day.
Rabbis and cantors led prayers for peace and asked for God’s protection and comfort. Clergy and congregants, from Chabadniks to secular Jews, joined together in a show of unity and sang “Hatikvah,” the national anthem of Israel, which translates to “The Hope.” -Gabe Stutman
San Francisco
More than 50 politicians and clergy joined an overflow crowd of 1,500 to fill the sanctuary of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco on Monday for a Yizkor service to grieve and remember lives lost, and irreversibly changed, on Oct. 7 of last year.
Three mayoral candidates — Mayor London Breed, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Daniel Lurie — sat near one another.
As doors opened at 6:15 p.m., the community filtered in slowly and in silence. A host of rabbis — from Congregations Am Tikvah, Beth Sholom, Magain David, Ner David, Sha’ar Zahav, Sherith Israel and Emanu-El, and the JCC of San Francisco — read the names of every person killed by Hamas on Oct. 7.
The main program began with Israel Consul General to the Pacific Northwest Marco Sermoneta, who compared Oct. 7 to historical pogroms and massacres of the Jewish people. Sermoneta attacked the “moral confusion” among progressives, arguing that there is “no moral equivalence between good and evil.” He called on the world to rally against “genocidal terrorism.”
The remainder of the program mixed cantorial singing of psalms and prayers with eulogies. Seven clergy rose to memorialize people killed on Oct. 7 with whom they had a personal connection.
Audience members cried as Cantor Sharon Bernstein of Sha’ar Zahav described how her cousin Aviv, one of 14 kibbutz defenders, fought against 500 Hamas attackers and died motioning others away from his body so they would not be killed as well.
Some clergy chose to memorialize peace activists. Rabbi Chayva Lehrman of Am Tikvah remembered Vivian Silver, a co-founder of Women Wage Peace who was killed in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri.
Lehrman suggested that to remember is to continue the work of those who died, and she ended with the hope that peace could come tomorrow. That sentiment was echoed later with the reading of “One Tiny Seed,” a poem by Rachel Goldberg, the mother of slain hostage and East Bay native Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The poem imagines an Israeli and Palestinian mother laughing together in 50 years.
The service ended with the Mourner’s Kaddish, “Hatikvah” and Oseh Shalom, a prayer for peace. -Jo Ellen Green Kaiser
San Rafael
Hundreds gathered at Osher Marin JCC on Monday for “An Evening of Remembrance and Hope.” The event, hosted by a number of organizations including the Brandeis School of Marin, Congregation Kol Shofar, Congregation Rodef Sholom and Chabad of Marin, opened with a somber and soulful rendition of Hashkiveinu, a prayer asking for peace and protection from God, led by Rabbi-Cantor Elana Rosen-Brown of Rodef Sholom.
Rabbi Stacy Friedman of Rodef Sholom related an account of events that led up to the massacre — and the wounds it had left behind both in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora.
“This wasn’t just an attack on Israel. This was an attack on the entire Jewish people,” she said.
Rabbi Paul Steinberg of Kol Shofar spoke of the rise in antisemitism. He reflected that “watching the world turn its back on Israel” on Oct. 8 “woke him up.” He was met with a standing ovation.
“I come here crying over Oct. 7 and standing defiantly awake over Oct. 8,” he said. “And I can’t, I just can’t, go back to sleep.”
The Brandeis Marin choir sang a prayer for Israel, and head of school Peg Sandel introduced an art project the students have been working on to commemorate Oct. 7, made of Marin manzanita wood, called the “Scroll of Hope and Remembrance.”
The hourlong event closed with the singing of “Olam Chesed Yibaneh – I Will Build This World From Love” in a thundering chorus, followed by audience members holding one another for “Hatikvah.” -Lea Loeb
Palo Alto
The Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto hosted a packed outdoor event that included testimony from a local resident whose great aunt was murdered on Oct. 7; a moving talk from the brother of a hostage in Gaza; and an address by Eytan Berman, an Israel Defense Forces soldier who rushed south with his special forces unit on the morning of the attack to retake a military base overrun by Hamas terrorists.
Organizers said they received 2,500 RSVPs for the “Evening of Remembrance and Hope,” hosted by OFJCC CEO Zack Bodner.
“We neutralized all the 25 terrorists,” Berman said from a stage decorated with images of red kalanit flowers, a symbol of the region near Israel’s border with Gaza. “My team and I then took control of the operations room where there were 36 IDF observers, three wives, a baby and four injured soldiers. We managed to rescue everyone in the operations room and gain control of the base.”
Among those holed up in that room was Ariella Ruback, a 21-year-old radar observer, who approached the podium when Berman finished speaking. When the terrorists entered the base, she said, “slowly they started murdering my friends.”
“I knew my death was close,” she said. “At that moment (when) I thought my life was over, Eytan walked into the operations room — and I was saved that day by Eytan and his friends. I hope he knows I am forever grateful.”
Some attendees wore yellow ribbons and “Bring Them Home Now” T-shirts. They were secular and observant, Israeli and American, young and old. Among the youngest was a 5-week-old baby, whose mother, Tal, moved here from Haifa a decade ago. When J. asked what it was like to welcome a new baby at this moment in history, Tal’s eyes instantly welled up.
“I wanted to have a baby, then Oct. 7 happened and I thought, I’m not sure I want to bring a Jew into this world now, especially outside of Israel,” said Tal, 37. “But life must go on. We cannot let anyone affect our lives. (This baby) is our own victory.”
“It’s important to be here with my community and remember those who were involved in that horrible day,” she continued.
In addition to prayers offered by a dozen rabbis, the event included interludes of Israeli music, montages of photos from Oct. 7 and its aftermath, and speeches by local high school and college students who have joined efforts to support Israel over the past year. -Chanan Tigay
Foster City
“Bring me the grief of my people, centuries born and centuries old, and let it inspire me to still love the world. … Bring me the courage to quiet my desperate need for answers.”
These lines come from a poem by Rabbi Hanna Yerushalmi, one of the readings at the Peninsula JCC in Foster City, where 500 gathered on a grassy field on Oct. 7 to grieve, be in silence, find connection and share hope.
JCC Rabbi Laurie Matzkin started off the program, which she said was designed as a journey. “We start with going deep into our despair, anger, fear … we’ll move toward hope, the sound of the shofar and the sound of the next generation.” She was joined by presenters who came to sing, read, recite and dance under the stars and a slivered moon.
Readings included outpourings of anguish from hostages’ family members, alongside stories of heroism on that fateful day.
“I’m Coming Home,” a song by Tamir Grinberg and Shiri Shalom that has become an anthem for the hostages, was played as a group of four Israeli women performed a modern dance atop a large yellow ribbon. The night ended, as it did at other community gatherings, with the Mourner’s Kaddish and “Hatikvah.” -Sue Barnett
Los Gatos
“How do we remember something we cannot stop thinking about?” Rabbi Nico Socolovsky asked, addressing a packed sanctuary at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos. Community members gathered at the synagogue Monday evening to commemorate one year since the Oct. 7 rampage. The event featured communal prayer, music, dance and stories of victims and survivors.
Ahead of the event, more than 100 people arrived at the synagogue after walking in 90-degree heat from the Addison-Penzak JCC. Participants, many of them elderly, expressed that they were glad to join the nearly two-mile walk to remember the 101 hostages still in Hamas captivity.
The synagogue’s main sanctuary quickly filled up. By the time the event started, multiple rows of people were standing against the back wall.
“On Oct. 7… we forgot who we are,” Michal Shoham said in an interview with J. “I feel like if we can talk about the positive side effect of Oct. 7, if there is something like that, it’s us, united together.”
Throughout the entire day, the APJCC acted as a local hub for people to gather and participate in events for collective mourning, healing and learning. Events included a group support session, a tour of a small art exhibit titled “October Rain,” a yoga session and sound-bath meditation, and short film screenings of testimonies from Oct. 7 survivors and victims’ families.
The all-day events were co-sponsored by Congregation Beth David in Saratoga, Temple Emanu-El in San Jose, Congregation Sinai in Willow Glen, Congregation Shir Hadash and other partner organizations.
“Being able to curate a day that allows people to plug into what makes sense to them, I think, is one way to help bring that community together,” Daniel Klein, CEO of Jewish Silicon Valley, told J. “To be able to grieve if they need to grieve, and just observe if they need to observe, and just get that experience that they need in this moment.” -Niva Ashkenazi
Sacramento
About 200 people from the Sacramento area faced torrid weather to gather on the steps of the Capitol. It was still 94 degrees at 6 p.m. when the event began.
A shaded booth on the perimeter featured photos of the hostages still held by Hamas, with the flags of their many nationalities.
The display was organized by Christians United for Israel, which also offered a perfectly set Rosh Hashanah table, with freshly sliced apples and honey. One of the group’s representatives, Corinne Cardoza, said that the organization had reserved the Capitol steps for this occasion a long time ago, then turned it over to the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region to lead the program.
After an introductory song led by Rabbi Nancy Wechsler of Congregation Beth Shalom in Carmichael, Federation CEO Mariela Socolovsky spoke to a hushed and somber crowd. “Today marks 366 days since the horrific pogrom in southern Israel that forever changed the lives of our people,” she said. “Today, as a community, we gather to remember.”
Sacramento-area resident Brenda Wolfson spoke of her beloved grandson, Yannai Kaminka, a dual American-Israeli citizen who signed up to serve in the IDF. On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, she recounted to the crowd, he was at the Zikim training base just north of Gaza with recent recruits and 10 civilians. Nearby, a group from a kibbutz were hosting a celebration on Zikim Beach when Hamas attacked. Kaminka leapt into action, providing cover for about 20 partygoers to safely escape. Kaminka and three other soldiers were then hit by a rocket from a Hamas RPG and were killed. He was 20.
Others remembered included Staff Sgt. Daniel Rashed, an Israeli Druze killed that day. Shiram Ziman Zeman, a family member, called Rashed a “hero of Israel” who “fought with the same heroism as all the rest of his family, a family committed to preserve the State of Israel.” -Laura Paull