Hundreds across Long Island gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, the lives lost, and the hostages that remain captive one year later.
Israeli flags cloaked people’s shoulders and American flags filled the air during one rally Sunday at Andrew J. Parise Park in the Village of Cedarhurst. The air crackled with energy as people cried for justice.
“We are fighting evil,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told the crowd. “This isn’t a normal enemy, and we have to stand behind Israel until the job is done.”
When the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the terrostists killed more than 1,200 people and took 254 hostages. Close to 100 of those hostages are still being held by Hamas. Among them is 22-year-old Omar Neutra, from Plainview. Neutra is the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
“The biggest lie I told myself was that the Holocaust could never happen again, because, of course, the world would never allow it to, right?” said Emily Austen, a 23-year-old reporter and social media influencer from Long Island. “But every single day since October 7 has shown me why I was wrong about that.”
“The reality is the world chose silence,” she added. “They chose to look away from the horror, or even worse, they chose the side of evil. The global silence, indifference and acceptance to our suffering has become more apparent than ever.”
In the three months following Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, antisemitic incidents more than tripled, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Nassau, and specifically the Five Towns area, had always felt safe, multiple people at the rally told the Press. But in the past year, they and loved ones have experienced frightening antisemitism.
“My friend’s son, he’s 19 in NYU,” Hysyah Levy told the Press. “He walks on campus, and he forgot to take off his yamaka, and people started throwing stones at him. And they say, ‘next time, I’m going to kill you.’”
“If we stay silent, we’re next here,” she said. “The Jews in Nassau County are not safe if the Jews in Israel are not safe.”
“America has to wake up,” Rivka Friedman told the Press. “Because it’s happening, and it’s going to happen to you.”
The fallout from last year’s terrorist attacks has been devastating. As of Aug. 15, more than 40,000 Palestinians had been killed since the outbreak of the war, according to the United Nations Office of Human Rights. Over the past year, global support for Israel has seemed to wane. Political leaders such as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have criticized Israel’s response, and studies by Pew Research Center suggest the relationship between America and Israel has become more strained since the war began. But that should not — and will not — stop Israel, multiple speakers at the rally said.
“Israeli society is committed to annihilate its enemies no matter what type of pressure is put,” said Rabbi Yotav Eliach to the crowd. “I’m sorry to say it could be the present American administration. It could be the president of France, Macron. It could be the EU. It could be the UN International Court of Justice. It doesn’t make a difference.”
“[Hamas] lit a fire I haven’t seen in Israelis in my life,” he said.
“We must give up on seeking the world’s compassion and accept that we will not find it,” Austen said to the crowd.
She likened the war to a surgery: “It’s painful, and we’ll need time to recover, but stopping in the middle of an operation would be fatal.”
Hatred and ignorance are a dangerous combination, said Col. Tom Sullivan during the Oct. 7 rally. It must be battled with “prayer, with education, and yes, sometimes by force.”
It’s more important than ever to support politicians who stand full heartedly behind Israel, multiple people told the Press. Neil and Miriam Kugelman were in Israel last year on Oct. 7. They were asleep in their hotel bed when suddenly an alarm sounded, and they were told that there was an emergency. A few minutes later, a missile had narrowly missed their hotel.
That experience was terrifying — but so too were the subsequent waves of antisemitism that reached New York.
“We’ve lived in Nassau County for 32 years,” Neil told the Press. “And I’ve walked around with a kippah on my head, and I never gave it a thought. But in the last year, we actually felt vulnerable, even in Nassau County.”
The pair attended the rally to support politicians such as Blakeman, who helped increase security around their synagogue, The Young Israel of Woodmere.
Though the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians extends far before Oct. 7, 2023, this time is different, Eliach said. This time, Israel’s enemies will “pay the ultimate price.”
People claim that Israel is a colonizer, he said — that Jews must be kicked out of the Middle East the same way the English were kicked out of India, or the French from Algeria.
“Nah,” Eliach said. “They’re trying to kick the English out of England. They’re trying to kick the French out of France. But with all due respect to the French and the English, we got more chutzpah, we got a little bit more anger, we got a little bit more history. And we ain’t going nowhere.”
For hours, hundreds of people held signs that read, “Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel,” “Don’t let days become years,” and “Never again, now!” They stood in solidarity for one goal: the return of each and every hostage and the total elimination of the terrorist organization Hamas.
