10/09/2024
2,500 Attend Federation Ceremony to Mark Oct. 7 Attack Anniversary
David Matkowsky, from left, and shilchim in Cleveland accompanied by Alona Sella on cello sing “Hatikvah” to close the 10-7-23 Commemoration program on Oct. 7 at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood. CJN photo / Abigail Preiszig
ABIGAIL PREISZIG | CJN
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
More than 2,500 people united in solidarity to show their support with the state of Israel at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 10-7-23 Commemoration on Oct. 7 outside its Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood.
The event was held to remember those who were lost or taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, to mourn all of those killed in Israel and in Gaza, and to pray for the day when neighbors can live side by side.
“Liminal places are often scary and that’s why we need to walk this walk together,” Kyla Schneider, event co-chair, said of the “in-betweenness” of the aftermath of Oct.7, 2023, during her opening remarks. “… We are a community of many, and we are not only here on this tragic anniversary to remember and commemorate the lives of those murdered and kidnapped by Hamas, but we are also here to know that we are not alone in this state of in-between and both, and as we look around, let us commit ourselves to holding each other closely and in this space and in these moments as sacred.”
Rotem Sadeh, a wife and mother from Sderot, Israel, shared her firsthand experience of her and her family’s survival of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and its aftermath as she, her husband and two young children navigated the loss of their home, community and lifestyle while suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Thanks to the Fund for Victims of Terror through The Jewish Agency for Israel, Sadeh and her family moved into an apartment in July, she said, adding that the Cleveland Jewish community was with her during the worst time in her life.
“I cannot start to express how our life has changed,” Sadeh said alongside her husband as she held back tears at that moment. “I am not the same person I used to be. I don’t have the same friends, or any. I don’t live near my family anymore, and since Oct. 7, we just felt lonely. Being here and hearing how you embrace us, how you care for us, is everything to us.”
Federation board chair Daniel N. Zelman shared how the Jewish Federation of Cleveland has mobilized since Oct. 7 last year, contributing $30 million to the Israel Emergency Campaign which raised $800 million nationally; visiting Israel many times to “bear witness and reassure our brothers and sisters that they are not alone”; partnering with Kibbutz Kissufim, a community in the Gaza envelope among the 22 targeted by Hamas, to help with rehabilitation efforts; and battling antisemitism through partnerships on college campuses and involvement with city, county, state and federal government.
Zelman encouraged attendees to call out and inform law enforcement of any antisemitic incidents; connect with elected officials, community members and non-Jews about issues impacting the community; and support the Federation’s Campaign for Jewish Needs.
“Cleveland is proud and will always be proud to stand with Israel,” he said.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne were there personally and thanked the Cleveland Jewish community for their generosity and support of all communities in Cuyahoga County. Each shared that they stood in solidarity with the Jewish community and the state of Israel every day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and will continue to do so.
Ronayne, reading a United Nations speech quote from the late Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, formerly of The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, said, “We are an ancient people, and though we have often, on the long, hard road which we have traveled, been disillusioned, we have never been disheartened. We have never lost faith.”
“May we never lose faith in the possible and the prospect of peace,” Ronayne told the crowd. “… You are us and we are you. We stand today, as we did last year in support, as one community.”
Other speakers included event co-chairs Tovah Magence, Noam Magence and Mitchell Schneider.
The evening included poems, prayers and songs in Hebrew and English as well as the lighting of memorial candles for the 22 communities that were attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, by local community members, each representing the various local synagogues and Jewish day schools. Prior to the commemoration, attendees placed remembrance stones on displays representing the communities and were given yellow ribbons.
