Many members of the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana knew a family member, friend or acquaintance present in Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militant groups attacked inhabitants of the Western Negev region and Bedouin communities and attendees of the Nova music festival.
Miriam Marcus of Munster said her son spent most of that day seeking protection in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem, which she recalled at Thursday’s An Evening of Remembrance & Connection event.
Marcus explained that days of remembrance, be it the Holocaust or the October 7 attack, are an important custom of being Jewish.
“This event is part of everyday Judaism,” Marcus said. “A culture of remembrance is one of the things we do. It might seem unusual, but so many of us in Northwest Indiana have connections, family, friends and kids, who were there (in Israel) that day.”
Eli Nirenberg of Munster was attending school in Israel on October 7, 2023, while his father, Michael Nirenberg, nervously waited for word on his welfare. Nirenberg thought he had found a way to get his 22-year-old son out of the country through a U.S. State Department contact, but his son refused the offer to seek safety and leave the country.
“My son stayed and donated blood and helped out wherever he could,” Michael Nirenberg said. “He felt that he couldn’t live with himself if he left Israel while other Jews were in need. He had to be there, not here. I’m very proud of him.”
Nirenberg and fellow members of the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana in Munster read testimonies of people near or literally caught in the crossfire of the attacking Hamas forces on what was Shabbat morning, Simchat Torah, year 5784. The terrorists murdered more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, wounded thousands more, and took 251 hostages into Gaza.
Speaking to the congregation, Michael Nirenberg said, “The events of October 7 and their consequences have impacted us all, including those in the Jewish Diaspora communities through family ties, friendships our efforts to provide aid and support, and by the price we pay here for simply being Jewish and for our support of Israel.”
He said that members of the region’s Jewish community kept posters of the hostages on synagogue bimahs, which are the platforms where the Torah is read, … “hoping that if we collectively prayed hard enough the captives would be returned, and sadly many of them were not.”
That Jewish community is more than 3,000-strong, extending across Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, according to Vicky Odegaard, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana.
Marcus led the congregation in a Yizkor, a memorial prayer written for the occasion, which said, in part: “Let us remember the women and men murdered in their homes, in their kibbutzim, moshavim, and cities of the Gaza envelope, which were breached and occupied by a cruel and merciless enemy. The mother, gathering the last of her strength to hold the iron door handle tight to protect her family from the evil on the other side. The father, throwing his children out of the window of their burning home, leaping out after them and taking the lead bullets with his own body. The friends, fleeing murderers through the fields but finding no refuge.”
In unison, the congregation ended the Yizkor with “Let our mourning not go silent, and not be comforted, and not fade away until Israel dwells upon its land in safety and peace for all generations to come.”
The congregation shared poems commemorating survivors and victims alike, sang the Hatikva — Israel’s national anthem — and watched videos of first-hand accounts. The approximately 75 attendees wore a sticker featuring a red poppy to signify the regeneration of the defiled land as well as the blood spilt upon it.
The event concluded with the showing of a music video for the song “New Day Will Rise” by Yuval Raphael, who was rescued from a roadside bomb shelter near the Nova festival site in Reim.
More Top Picks Best Metal Detectors For Gold Prospecting
Jewish Federation members then headed outside where they placed a rock on a new memorial garden commemorating the victims of October 7.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.