Israeli speakers call for diaspora support at emotional JW3 community memorial

A moving and emotionally charged Community Memorial event for Jewish victims, and those of all faiths and nationalities murdered as a result of the Hamas terrorist attacks, saw JW3’s main auditorium full to capacity on Monday night.

The event, which was opened by JW3 chief executive Raymond Simonson, saw Rabbi Lea Muhlstein, Rabbi Jeremy Gordon and Rabbi Jordan Helfman lead the audience, which included a number of MPs in prayer, while youth movement group members took to the stage to read poems.

In a remarkably brave address Limor Broyde, from Beerotayim, spoke of her pain as 12 members of her family have been taken captive by Hamas terrorists, including some who had just arrived to celebrate the last day of Simchat Torah.

“I came here from Israel on Sunday,” she told the audience, “and I return tomorrow, to a battlefield and to my husband and three kids.”

Broyde, part of a group of relatives who have been campaigning to raise the efforts to bring home those captured in Gaza, said she called on “all democracies around the world to unite” to free hostages.

She continued:”It’s hard to comprehend.

“It doesn’t matter if you lose one or 12, your heart is bleeding. It’s time to come together as a community.

“We are going to need our brothers and sisters around the world to help us rebuild. We are going to come back stronger. That is our obligation.”

The memorial had been organised by groups including the New Israel Fund, Yachad, Arzenu, Habonim Dror, the Jewish Labour Movement, LJY-Netzer, Masorti Judaism, Noam, Progressive Judaism and RSY-Netzer.

An advert put out to the community in advance of Monday had recognised October 7th as”the worst tragedy to befall the Jewish people since the Shoah” but had stipulated that as well as “memorialising the victims of the heinous attacks on Jews” the ceremony would also “honour victims of the attack from all faiths and nationalities.”

Among those to attend were the Labour Party’s chair and shadow women’s and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds, the Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel, former Board of Deputies president Vivian Goldman and the barrister and Finchley and Golders Green parliamentary candidate Sarah Sackman.

Partnered in association with Jewish News, an overflow room allowed more people to attend, with donations to Magen David Adom encouraged.

New London Synagogue’s Rabbi Jeremy urged all in attendance to reach out to their own MPs and ask them to do everything they can to secure the unconditional release of hostages, particularly children.

Amir Tibon, an Israeli journalist also spoke candidly about his own escape from Hamas terrorists on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the closest place in Israel to Gaza.

Media interviews in the aftermath of October 7th, had already detailed how Tibon’s retired army general father had been among those to save him from the massacre, after he drive from Tel Aviv to join team up with IDF soldiers combing the kibbutz for terrorists to retake it.

But in a poignant moment, Tibon told the audience:”We don’t know what the future will bring, when we will be able to return to our homes. These are unanswered questions.

“The one thing I do know is that there will be a major role for our friends in the diaspora if we ever want to achieve this goal of returning to the communities on the Gaza border.”

He added:”Personally, I think this will be the most important mission for Zionism in the 21st century.

“We can kill ten thousand Hamas terroists in Gaza in the next few weeks.

“But a year from today, if my neighbours and I do not feel comfortable putting our children into the kindergarten and going off to work, Israel will have lost the war.”

Speaking from his temporary home in a kibbutz further north, Tibon added:” I don’t have much faith in the current government (in Israel).

“I view them in a very negative light after what happened and I expect them to all resign after the war is over. If they don’t, we will make them.

“But I do trust our friends in the Jewish disapora to step up to the moment and to understand what is at stake here.”

Also speaking via Zoom to audience from Israel was Avi Dabush, the chief executive of Rabbis for Human Rights.

As he addressed the audience near the conclusion of the programme Reform Judaism’s Rabbi Jordan spoke of the “desire to live as a free people in our land.”

And also of the need to “show up now, and in the future”. He added:”All of us are responsible for one another.”

The evening saw the audience rise to recite Kaddish, sing Oseh Shalom Bimromav, and finally in a rendition of Hatikvah.