They tore strips of cloth in grief. They recited the Kaddish, the prayer of mourning. They grieved for the dead, prayed for the release of those held hostage, raised their voices in protest and song — and wished for a better tomorrow.
Across Boston on Monday night, the region’s Jewish residents, their Palestinian neighbors, their allies and their friends gathered to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-Israel war that has left thousands dead, many more wounded, and a conflict whose resolution still appears distant.
“We’re here to mourn; we’re here in anger and grief for the Israelis killed by Hamas and the loss of thousands killed in vengeance,” Elizabeth Weinbloom of Somerville, said before an event in the city’s Public Garden.
The gathering, sponsored by the pro-ceasefire group IfNotNow Boston, featured testimonies by people with friends and family in Israel, musical performances, prayers and rituals to mark the anniversary.
It’s been 365 days since Hamas terrorists launched their attack, killing women, children and young people dancing at a music festival; 365 days since Israeli forces began raining down destruction on Hamas strongholds across the border in Gaza, killing civilians among whom the terrorists had hidden themselves.
In Boston, home to one of the country’s largest Jewish communities, the war has been made real in ways large and small.
It was visible in the faces of the vanished who wallpapered a stone wall outside the State House on Beacon Hill for days after the attacks last fall.
It’s been the families waiting for word on those still in Israel and on the frontlines, and the community torn apart by the news that a hostage with ties to Boston, Hersh Goldberg Polin, had been executed by Hamas terrorists.
But in the sadness, some have found strength.
“I have been encouraged by the ways our community has responded with solidarity, generosity, and love,” Rabbi Marc Baker, of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, wrote in an open letter to Boston’s Jewish community. “And I have been grateful for the many friends and allies who have reached out and stood with us and with Israel at this most vulnerable time.”
It’s the story of husband and wife Abood Okal and Wafaa Abuzayda, who escaped Gaza for Medway. And the students at college campuses across the state who set up encampments to protest the war.
On Sunday, ahead of the anniversary observances, pro-Palestinian protesters temporarily shut down part of Storrow Drive along the banks of the Charles River after marching from the Boston Common.
“We wanted to do something that people can really feel it and see it because this is about giving a vision of what happened to people in Gaza and now in Lebanon,” Fawaz Abusharkh told WBZ-TV in Boston. “When you are going aimlessly, changing places, trying to be safe.”
On Monday night at the Public Garden, Dianne Lior of Cambridge said she was “grieving for so many lives lost in Israel and Palestine.”
“There has to be a ceasefire now,” Lior, who has dual Israeli and American citizenship, said.
As the anniversary day dawned, members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation issued calls for peace — some more strongly worded than others.
“The terrorism of 7 October 2023 was an attack against Israel’s right to exist,” U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District, wrote in an email to his constituents.
“Israel, though, was not its only target. The barbarity was meant to make Jews of all nations afraid. To Jews here in Massachusetts, it was an earthquake that still reverberates in ways both personal and political,” Auchincloss, who is Jewish, wrote.
In an email, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said, “The death and destruction we have witnessed cannot continue to be the world we accept.”
“I am steadfast in my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist,” Markey continued. “Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorists, and as we mourn, we must continue to strive toward a shared vision for a just future. Israelis and Palestinians alike have the right to safety and security. Even amidst war, we must always work for peace. “
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, addresses a ceremony in Boston’s Public Garden Monday marking the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel and calling for a ceasefire. (John L. Micek/MassLive)John L. Micek
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who spoke at Monday’s gathering in the Public Garden and then, later, at another anniversary event in the city’s theater district, renewed her longstanding calls for a ceasefire.
“Today is a heavy day. It is a solemn day. The grief and trauma run deep in our communities,” Pressley, D-7th District, said.
“I share it in your heartbreak, not only as your congresswoman but as a woman of faith; a faith that affords me clarity, a faith that affords me anchoring, a faith that was gifted to me by my mother, now an ancestor,” she continued.
Asked as she left the event how Israel could expect to negotiate in good faith with Hamas, a non-state actor whose goal is the end of the Jewish state, Pressley said there was no “other choice but to continue to do the work of peace.”
“We have to save lives [and] leverage every tool available to us for a bilateral, permanent ceasefire,” she said.
It’s a day that Jesse, 31, who attended Monday’s gathering in the Public Garden, and asked that his last name not be used, is looking toward.
“It’s been devastating — watching the news,” he said.
Half a world away, the fighting continued to rage in Gaza and Lebanon, even as those in Boston prayed for peace.
