Students gathered on campus Wednesday for the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel.<\/p>\n
Penn Hillel organized the vigil, where around 100 attendees heard speeches and watched a short documentary.\u00a0Speakers recalled their personal experiences of the attacks and emphasized their lasting impacts.<\/p>\n
One student spoke about the gravity of the day and its impact on Penn\u2019s Jewish community, stressing the importance of remembrance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the rest of the world moves on, we must refuse to let this day be forgotten or denied,\u201d she said. \u201cWe gather for the survivors and families who live with Oct. 7 every day, so they know they are not alone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Attendees also heard a statement from Hillel Israel fellow Lihi Sinay, who reflected on the lives of her friends, neighbors, and mentors. Sinay wrote that \u201clife is stronger than everything,\u201d despite the pain her kibbutzim experienced because of the attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n
Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThree years later, with our hostages back home, we can start to see the light again and rebuild,\u201d Sinay wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another student remembered her camp counselor, who attended the Nova music festival and was killed in the attacks. The speaker described her counselor as the \u201cmost beautiful soul,\u201d and recalled her as a \u201cwell of endless energy, a smile monster, an evil genius, and somehow a role model of such values.\u201d<\/p>\n A former Israel Defense Forces soldier \u2014\u00a0who is in her first year at the School of Veterinary Medicine \u2014 recalled sitting in Hanover, N.H. as an undergraduate student at Dartmouth when she heard of the attacks. She learned that her brother, who was serving in Israel as a soldier in the IDF at the time, was preparing to \u201ctanks for a ground incursion\u201d while the \u201cterrorists were still in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNearly everyone I know, myself included, has lost people in this war,\u201d she said. \u201cWe lost some of our best.\u201d<\/p>\n While the speaker continues to mourn her \u201congoing losses,\u201d she said that \u201cacts of kindness and remembrance\u201d since the attacks remind her of the \u201cstrength of the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n Senior reporter Addison Saji leads coverage of science and health and can be reached at saji@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies English. Follow her on X at @addisonsaji<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students gathered on campus Wednesday for the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-302258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}