A who’s who of elected officials and rabbis gathered with more than 100 people to grieve the six hostages recently murdered by Hamas. The standing-room event was held in the Beth Gavriel Bukharian Congregation in Forest Hills on Monday, September 2.
“According to preliminary, unofficial reports, the IDF was five minutes away in the tunnel to get them. Hamas found out about this effort and shot them point blank in the head,” said City Councilwoman Lynn Schulman.
Hamas released videos of interviews with the six hostages the same day as Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s funeral. “How barbaric is that?” said Schulman. “Even now, with the deaths of these individuals, there’s not a huge outcry over it. The general media, the mainstream media, doesn’t really say much – and that’s disgusting.”
Congresswoman Grace Meng fought back tears while speaking. She met with many of the hostages’ families multiple times. “My heart aches for their loved ones.”
“I know people in the Jewish community feel abandoned sometimes, especially in these months, but know that the US will continue to stand with our ally and our Jewish community during this dark and tragic period.”
Assemblywoman Nily Rozic has family members serving in the IDF in Gaza and in the West Bank.
“Every single person in this room and otherwise has an obligation now to stand proudly and solidly in our light, not shying away from our Jewishness so that we don’t offend anyone.”
“We know what our story is. We know what happened to us in centuries past, and we know where the truth is. We know which nations stand in the light and which don’t.”
“We are a nation of believers. We have emunah. We have bitachon, and after almost 11 months, we still have to have hope. That is who we are as a nation, as a people, as Queens residents, as New Yorkers, as Jews, as allies. May we be blessed to see an end. May we be blessed to have them back home with their families.”
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz recently wrote an Op-Ed about the Israeli women raped on October 7. “There is so much outrage from the women across the world on so many things. Why is there no outrage when it’s Israeli women?”
“We stand together. We come together, and if no one listens, we stand together and shout louder,” said Katz.
Assemblyman Sam Berger said Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar gave his strategy in four words during an interview in 2018 with an Italian journalist: “No blood, no news.” “Yesterday, there was blood. Today, there’s news,” Berger said.
“Hamas has been waging a narrative war, using their own civilians as shields and as weapons, to turn what should be a black and white discussion on the rape, murder, and beheading of children, babies in ovens, making it into a great discussion.”
“College students carrying signs that say, ‘Bring the war home,’ and ‘Globalize the Intifada.’ Hamas is winning that narrative war; so now is the time, right now, for us to take back that narrative. Now, when Hamas’ evil is blatantly clear.”
Berger said Hamas took six lives “for no cause. That was not rebellion. It didn’t help the Palestinian people. Just pure hatred of Jewish people.”
Assemblyman David Weprin added, “We have to get the word out of the evil of Hamas. There’s no moral equivalency. It’s not good people on both sides of the issue. It’s clearly one-sided.”
The highest-ranking Orthodox Jew in the history of the NYPD, Deputy Chief Richie Taylor, pushed for criminal charges against a man who screamed on a southbound 5 subway train on June 10: “Are there any Zionists on this train? Raise your hand. Now’s your chance to get out.” Taylor didn’t want this to be normalized or happen to any population. The man was arrested and charged on June 26, with attempted coercion, a misdemeanor. “We had to send a clear message that hate is not tolerated in New York City and not all speech is protected,” said Taylor.
City Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers represents Far Rockaway. She left the West Indian Day Parade early “because I needed to be here with each of you.”
“To allow these memories of these people who were murdered to be a blessing, and for us to use that as a guideline on how we move forward, beyond this day.”
Rabbi Mayer Waxman, Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Council, said how T’hilim is our go-to book during times of joy and for consolation. “In some painful ways, not only do we recite Sefer T’hilim to relieve our current pain, but also to show awareness that, without G-d’s intervention, things could still get worse.”
Quoting the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek: “If you only knew the power that lies in the verses of T’hilim and their effect in the celestial heights, you would recite them all the time.”
Rabbi Tomer Zino of the Beth Gavriel Bukharian Jewish Center recited T’hilim 20 and 23 with the attendees.
“We know that G-d does no evil, and there’s always good that comes out of this, even that it is just that we are gathered here today and became more united.”
“Leave this place a better place. We can leave this place with our legacy, our good name, and hopefully, the Jewish people come more and more together,” said Rabbi Zino.
Six memorial candles for each hostage were lit, one by one, by leaders of the community.
Each murdered hostage’s name, read aloud, followed by the Keil Malei Rachamim in Hebrew and in English. Kaddish and the singing of HaTikvah were led by Michael Miller, CEO Emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
Barbara Nevis attended and had been feeling “devastated. It was just seconds before they might have been released. It’s horrifying.” This gathering, though, “was beautiful how everyone was acknowledged, everyone came together.”
City Councilwoman Schulman initiated and organized the memorial in less than two days while her staff was on vacation for the holiday weekend.
Barry Grodenchik, president of the Queens Jewish Community Council, moderated the event.
Five NYPD Counter-Terrorism Officers, Lt. King of the 112 Precinct, Queens Shmira, and three plainclothes security officers were observed protecting the event.
By David Schneier
Photo Credit: David Schneier and Shabsie Saphirstein
