Leap of faith: Everyone should visit the Nova exhibition

I first met Rachel Goldberg-Polin on 27 February 2024, 143 days after the massacre of  7 October. Her son Hersh had been abducted after fleeing the Nova Music Festival.

Describing the months since his kidnapping, Rachel spoke of feeling as though she had been hit by a truck and the truck had come to a standstill on her chest. Yet what struck me most was not her grief but her determination. Again and again, she brought the conversation back to the people behind the headlines: the young men and women who had gone out to dance and whose lives had been shattered in an instant.

In doing so, Rachel reminded the world of a truth the rabbis understood long ago: every human being is an entire world. That is why the Nova Exhibition – currently running in Shoreditch – matters, and why everyone should see it.

When Rachel spoke about Hersh, I found myself thinking back to my own first encounter with Nova. In December 2023, I travelled to the site of the massacre and visited the exhibition in Tel Aviv. Since then, I have returned five times with groups from abroad.

Despite the changing memorials at the site, some created by organisations, some by artists, most by the families and friends of those who died, one thing remained constant: the feeling that we have a shared responsibility to remember.

The part of the exhibition that touched me the most was the lost property. Among the belongings recovered from the festival grounds were heaps of abandoned flip-flops. Looking at them, I found myself thinking how difficult it is to run in flip-flops. Had I been there, I would probably have kicked mine off too and run barefoot. In that moment, the victims ceased to be names in a news report. They became young people making split-second decisions as they fled for their lives.

In Judaism, we are commanded to remember – zachor. The act of remembering is about more than dwelling in the past. It is a refusal to allow human beings to disappear. For me, the Nova exhibition is, at its heart, an act of zachor.

There are those who feel uncomfortable visiting the exhibition or the site of the massacre. Some worry that it risks becoming a form of disaster tourism or advancing a political narrative. I understand those concerns. Yet my experience has been the opposite.

The exhibition resists simplification. It confronts visitors with the brutality of Hamas, but also with the failure of the Israeli state and military to protect its citizens. Above all, it insists on the humanity of those caught up in the tragedy.

The young people at Nova were not targeted because of their political views. They were victims of indiscriminate brutality.

Through her tireless advocacy, Rachel Goldberg-Polin has refused to allow Hersh to become a statistic. The Nova exhibition asks us to do the same for all those whose lives were forever changed on 7 October 2023.

That is why everyone should see it.

Rabbi Lea Mühlstein is at The Ark Synagogue