Marking Two Years Since October 7On October 16, our lobby will become a space of remembrance, reflection, and healing. Together, we will create a communal art project and engage with a special remembrance installation that invites everyone to take part. Throughout the day, live music will help us tend to our hearts. In partnership with Edut 710, we will also share testimonies from those who lived through that day, voices of survival, courage, and resilience, presented on screens so visitors may sit, listen, and bear witness.
The night before (Oct 15), JCC CEO Rabbi Joanna Samuels, Romemu’s Hazzan Shimon Smith, and our new UWS Shaliach Itai Bar, will lead a Havdalah service at Riverside. This ceremony will provide a bookend to the Chagim and transition into the commemoration of October 7 on the Hebrew calendar with music and poetry from the Israeli Yizkor service. Riverside location to be shared with event registrants and community partners. More information can be found here.
In Israel, determined by the Knesset, and on the Hebrew calendar worldwide, October 7 is marked not on its secular date but its Hebrew date of the 24th of Tishrei (this year, Oct 16) as a day of mourning.
On Tuesday, October 7, the first day of Sukkot this 5786, each of our three sukkot will provide a space for individual reflection and remembrance. Lit by a yahrzeit candle, community members can page through poetry published in Israel in Hebrew or translation, and kalaniyot/red poppy pins will be available to bring with you as a visual symbol of mourning.