PALO ATO, Calif. (KGO) — One candle, one face, and one day at a time, the South Bay Jewish community came together Sunday as the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack nears.
“In our wildest nightmares, we never thought that we’d still be sitting here after 700 days with 48 hostages still being held,” said Zack Bodner, president and CEO of Oshman Family JCC.
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More than 1,000 people gathered at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, remembering and praying.
“That’s the prayer that I think unites all of us. We want the hostages back now,” said Keren-or Reiss.
The crowd surrounded by works of art, an expression explained Melanit Gal, who said after the Oct. 7 attack, she wanted to be a voice of the nation and the survivors.
The younger generation is also finding its way to support.
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“I just wanted to show love for the community and to show I really care, and it’s really impactful and I think everyone should take a moment what happened and all the damage it’s done,” said 14-year-old Yotam Gefen.
“It’s nice to be with each other and to think about the hostages and hope they come back,” said Barbara Sommer.
“It saddens me that there have to be bomb-sniffing dogs here and ultra-high security, but that’s a fact of life now.”
“Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, the incidences of antisemitism and hatred against Jews have skyrocketed since October 7,” said Bodner. “We saw over Yom Kippur the horrible terrorist attack in Manchester in the UK, and it makes us all think: are we doing enough?”
Meanwhile, the community is turning to one another. “All I can hope and dream, and I think everyone joins me,” said Reiss. “That next week this table won’t be with pictures, but smiling people because they came home.”
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