Updated on June 10
About 40 people convened on a highway overpass in Lafayette on Sunday to call attention to the plight of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The local activists have been gathering there regularly for more than a year and a half. But this time, two private security cars were parked at either end of the overpass — a security measure added in the wake of the June 1 firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, against a Run for Their Lives rally and the May 21 shooting in Washington, D.C., where two young Israeli diplomats were killed by a suspect who said “I did it for Palestine.”
Vigil regular Natalie Benn of Lafayette, herself a member of the Walnut Creek chapter of Run for Their Lives, said it was “a shame” that the security was needed, but she agreed with the reasoning.
“It’s the most security we’ve had, but it’s what we’ll have to have going forward,” she said. “We want people to keep coming, but we want them to be safe.”
The vigil on the El Curtola Boulevard overpass on Highway 24 has been taking place since November 2023, at first several times a week, and now less frequently but always on Sundays from noon to 2 p.m. The participants stand next to banners demanding the hostages’ return, wave Israeli and American flags and respond with cheers to the drivers passing underneath who honk their horns in support.
“It’s not the number of people who show up, but that we continue to hold up the message for drivers to see,” said Dublin resident Lindsay Levin, who passed out stickers for attendees to wear on their shirts, declaring the number of days the hostages have been held. It’s something she does at every vigil.
Sunday’s sticker number: 611.
Levin said she wasn’t worried about a copycat attack — at least, no more worried than usual.
“From the very first day I came [in late 2023], I knew there was a risk. We’re standing on an overpass, in a public place,” she said. “That sense of risk has been there with each Jewish event I’ve attended.”
Referring to a Berkeley event that she helped organize to demand the release of Bay Area native Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered by his Hamas captors in August 2024, she said, “I’ve had things thrown at me, I’ve been called a Zionist whore, that I should be raped. And that was said by young women!”
Lafayette resident Itzhak Goldberger, a co-organizer of the inaugural vigil, said the Contra Costa County overpass rally doesn’t draw the same ire as the less-frequent vigils on the Berkeley overpass on Highway 80.
Every now and then, he said, people driving by might yell profanities, or lone individuals might walk up to attendees and point out the thousands killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza.
He’s good at defusing those situations, he said. “I walk over to them and tell them we’re here for the hostages, nothing else. That usually works.”
What’s important, said those who spoke to J., is that the vigil remains focused on its one goal: getting the hostages back, as soon as possible, with priority given to those who are still alive.
“We have varying political opinions here, from the far right to the far left,” Goldberger said. “On the hostages, we have full alignment. That’s what unites us.”
Most of those on the overpass on Sunday were regulars. But Oakland resident Warren Mazer was there for the first time. He was driving by when he saw the flags and banners on the overpass, so he pulled over and joined the group.
“I just wanted to show a small amount of support for these people who are here,” he said. “Even though I’m here and I’m Jewish, I believe it’s an issue that should extend far beyond the Jewish community to include everybody who believes in liberal, democratic values.”
Off to one side, Lafayette resident Ellen Sweet was busy responding to a text on her phone. “It’s my son,” she said. “He’s concerned. So I just sent him a picture of the security here.”
Was she herself concerned? She thought for a moment. “I’m glad there’s security today,” she said.