The sand and dust on which Hamas terrorists ran as they massacred attendees of the Nova music festival in Israel, touching off the war in Gaza, settled on the burned wreckage of cars and bullet-riddled portable restrooms. First exhibited in Tel Aviv with the defiant message “We will dance again,” these artifacts of a crime were brought to Wall Street for an American audience.
Organized by the promoters of the ill-fated music festival that took place in the desert outside Kibbutz Re’im, it was brought to Manhattan by pop music producer Scooter Braun.
“Bringing the Nova Music Festival to New York City honors those who were taken from us too soon, while reminding us of the progress we still need to make to bring the hostages home,” Braun said in a statement. “The festival’s message of peace for all sides will live on, despite the continued conflict abroad, as there are still innocent civilians being held hostage under horrific conditions in Gaza. We must not forget them, and we must bring back and reunite the innocent music lovers with their families.”
Following the premiere of the exhibit, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, in partnership with the UJA-Federation of New York, held a forum in which two of the massacre survivors spoke about their experiences.
“At 6:29, the music stopped, and we saw the massive barrage of rockets,” said Milet Ben Chaim, 24. “Within a few minutes, I realized that I had to escape. I tried to get as many friends as possible in the car and improvise a way out.”
As they reached the main road out of the festival, a pickup truck carrying eight gunmen awaited them. Ben Chaim and her friends ran into the field. “We wanted to follow the sunrise that’s east, the opposite side of Gaza. That was the plan, but was not really doable because wherever you go there were people screaming and being shot at.”
In the crossfire were men in uniforms, terrorists posing as soldiers. “You can hear them whistle above your head, and you start to see a lot of people fall,” she said. “I always describe this as one of those nightmares where you want to run fast but you can’t.”
Ben Chaim ran for two hours and then crawled under a bush with other women. They kept silent for hours as they heard gunshots and laughs from the terrorists. “We saw a couple of them and, at that point, I started to pray that a rocket would hit me because it was very clear to me that if they would see me, they would rape me.” She called it a miracle that the terrorists did not see them. At 7 p.m., she was rescued and out of the line of fire.
She was joined by Ron Segev, 38, who got into a car with his brother Dan and their friends. They were also trapped in a traffic jam on the road out of the festival, an easy target for the gunmen. “A few minutes later, the terrorists arrived and they started shooting at the cars behind us. At this point we had to abandon the car.”
The brothers hid under a bush and called their friends who ran in a different direction. “They told me that one of them is bleeding from his mouth and from his leg. He told us to run towards the east, towards the sun.”
The brothers ran under bullets from all directions. “I remember I told my brother that from this point we are not stopping, no matter what.” They reached Soroka Hospital in Beersheva by 10:30 p.m. “We got out of the situation alive.”
On the following morning, they encountered two gunmen on the road riding a motorcycle. “The terrorists were shooting directly at us, and we found cover behind an abandoned car,” he said.
“I was sure that we were about to die but we didn’t want to give up. I don’t know if you are a believer or not, but I believe in G-d and I am sure that He was there with us through our entire escape.”
Ben Chaim and Segev spoke of their fellow survivors, those taken hostages, and loved one of those murdered on October 7 as a “community” that encourages each other to recover, not lose hope, and “keep on dancing.”
Echoing the experience of the Holocaust, the artifacts on the biggest pogrom since World War II were identical: a table of shoes, bags, and clothing, pilfered by terrorists and later recovered by Israeli soldiers. Documented on social media profiles with glowing admiration by the culprits, screens show videos of Shani Louk’s body Hy”d on the back of a pickup truck as one of the kidnappers was spitting at it. Another video shows Noa Argamani taken away to Gaza, where she remains in captivity while her terminally ill mother pleads for her return.
In total, more than 360 festival goers were reported killed, with 44 taken as hostages. In the surrounding kibbutzim, towns, and military bases, around 1,200 people were killed on October 7, with 250 hostages from this region. These numbers testify to individual lives, whose faces and names look back on a wall.
The hall inside 33 Wall Street is dark, with fake eucalyptuses installed among the tents, cars, and sleeping bags. Trance music faintly plays on this eerie reconstruction of the crime scene. It is an immersive experience akin to the nearby Museum of Jewish Heritage with its Holocaust exhibits, and the 9/11 Memorial.
“We are hoping this exhibit shows visitors we can all hold two truths: one that yearns to memorialize and honor the massacre at the Nova Music Festival, and the other for all of the lives lost, both Palestinian and Israeli,” organizers said in a statement. “We want to bring hope to visitors and enshrine the memories of those we lost.”
Alongside Braun and his American partners, Joe Teplow and Josh Kadden, Nova Founders Omri Sassi, Yoni Feingold, Ofir Amir, and Yagil Rimoni contributed materials and stories to this exhibit, which was designed by Reut Feingold. Although there is very tight security and tickets must be obtained online in advance, they are only $2, a low price to encourage maximum participation so that as many people can bear witness to the aftermath of the attack that triggered the current war against Hamas. The public can donate additional funds, which would benefit the tribe of Nova Foundation, which provides therapeutic and social services for survivors of the massacre and their families, as well as families of the hostages who remain in Gaza.
The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7 – 06:29am – The Moment Music Stood Still is on view daily through Thursday, May 23, at 35 Wall Street. For more information, visit www.nova0629exhibition.com.
By Sergey Kadinsky
