“184.” That was the number seen over and over on Sunday along a highway overpass near Walnut Creek.
A throng of people wearing stickers with that number gathered on the windy overpass to bring attention to the six-month milestone — 184 days, to be exact — since Hamas took an estimated 253 hostages. Of them, 133 hostages remain in Gaza, though fewer than 100 are believed to remain alive.
The vigil, an ongoing event since the first days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, has in some ways become a refuge for those who have felt shocked and alienated by the dispassionate reaction to the kidnappings in the wider Bay Area community, said Jeffrey Goodfriend of Lafayette.
“It’s a family. It’s a community,” he said. “It’s a way to feel not alone.”
The overpass vigil has been a constant over the six months. Four times a week, people bring Israeli and American flags, banners and photos of hostages to hang on the El Curtola Boulevard overpass overlooking busy Highway 24 in Lafayette, on the border with Walnut Creek.
Usually it’s just a few people, but Sunday was different. While it was a somber anniversary, the event also felt uplifting at times, as friends hugged hello and Israelis greeted one another in Hebrew.
“This is a culmination of everyone coming together,” said Julia Babka-Kurzrock, a board member at Congregation B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek. Organizers told J. a total of at least 300 people had come by, based on the number of stickers with “184” they’d handed out.
For co-organizer Yoav Harlev, the six-month mark is deeply personal. In the aftermath of the brutal attack on Israel, Harlev — who is from Kissufim, a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was hard-hit by Hamas — came to the overpass every day. He hardly imagined then he’d be doing it six months later. But he feels that it’s the least he can do to keep attention focused on the hostages.
“I’m a simple guy,” he said. “This is my purpose.”
Harlev was holding a poster of Alexander Dancyg, who recently turned 75 in captivity. “This was my history teacher in high school,” Harlev said, adding that Dancyg is in ill health and that his condition is unknown.
Yael Nidam Kirsht, a UC Berkeley graduate student, was holding a photo of her brother-in-law, Yagev Buchshtab, also a hostage. She’s been traveling the country to tell his story. “He’s a really gentle soul,” she said.
Yael’s sister-in-law, Rimon Kirsht, was also taken hostage but was released in late November during the short cease-fire deal that Israel reached with Hamas.
For Goodfriend, who has been a regular presence at the local vigil since Oct. 7 and describes himself as left-of-center and a supporter of a two-state solution, the lackluster reaction in the Bay Area to the hostage-taking has been “incredulous.” He was back on the bridge on Sunday despite having just had surgery and said the vigil is an “apolitical” space that focuses on a single topic.
“The only thing we’re doing is bringing attention to the plight of the hostages,” he said.
Rabbi Jill Perlman of Lafayette’s Temple Isaiah, standing on the crowded walkway, agreed that the vigil has been important to raise awareness but “it’s also been meaningful as a gathering space.”
One of the spots where people gathered was in front of Israeli baker Hana Levy Windrix, who stood behind a table laden with sweets.
She was offering cookies and treats based on recipes from the Tastes Like Home website, which publishes the favorite cookie recipes of some of the hostages. She was selling the baked goods as a fundraiser, with all the money earmarked for Israel, she said.
People lined up to buy everything from babka to alfajores, a type of cookie often found in Latin America. Windrix spent over a week baking for a simple and heartfelt reason: “This is what the kidnapped liked.”