To commemorate the loss of Israeli lives in the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, a remembrance ceremony was held at SAR Academy last week.
The entire school, from primary to high school students, was in attendance as were many community members. The ceremony included performances from the middle school choir, memorial candle lighting and speeches from U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, Bronx borough president Vanessa Gibson and a former Israeli Defense Forces soldier who fought for five months.
Though this event was not a fundraiser, the school has, over the years, raised $1.5 million to support nonprofit organizations in Israel as well as individuals and families, when appropriate.
Rabbi Binjamin Krauss described this Oct. 7 as a “difficult moment everyone was anticipating with trepidation” but different from a traditional day of memorial in that the grief is not past tense but “something that we are very much still living in.”
What was most important, Krauss said, was framing the situation in a forward-looking way and might bring hope to the community, especially to children who fear for their relatives and loved ones in Israel.
Over the past year, SAR Academy students have been encouraged to write letters to Israeli citizens, and to commemorate lives lost by painting memorial stones with messages of hope or prayer, laid in the school’s garden. Since last Oct. 7, the garden has grown to include 1,200 stones.
The day’s programming varied by grade level, Krauss said, which allowed younger students to deal less with some of the heavier elements of the tragedy, such as the ongoing taking of Israeli hostages.
Some of the older students, Krauss said, on their own, decided to start wearing masking tape with a number indicating how many days had lapsed since last Oct. 7.
Councilman Eric Dinowitz was also present at the remeberance. He said the severity of the Hamas attack has been difficult to reconcile.
“Oct, 7 was the most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust,” Dinowitz said, “first and foremost traumatic for people in Israel and the hostages and their families.”
Dinowitz said, since that day, New York has witnessed skyrocketing incidents of anti-semitism. In response, he said he has noticed the community striving to come together against these acts of hatred, in solidarity and healing.
Two local teenagers, Dinowitz said, have taken on managing a local chapter of the grassroots organization Run for Their Lives, which organizes weekly run/walks to encourage the release of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.
Above all, Dinowitz said,“Oct. 7 was a day that really clarified who is there for the Jewish community.”