“A little bit of light can dispel a tremendous amount of darkness.”
That’s what Rabbi Choni Marozov of Chabad of Santa Clarita Valley said to the silent crowd to instill hope.
People from all three Jewish temples in the Santa Clarita Valley gathered at Santa Clarita City Hall on Sunday evening in remembrance of the Oct. 7 attacks that left 1,200 Israeli people killed and more than 240 hostages taken by the Hamas terrorist organization.
Esther Oz, who attended the ceremony, said it means everything to her to see the community coming together.
“It’s not just in our community, but throughout the United States. We have a really big problem with antisemitism. And people just don’t realize that this is just pure Jew hatred. These were innocent people who were living in their homes, attending a peaceful music festival,” Oz said.
Oz added that people need to come together and say “Stop!” to the violence and bring home the hostages.
“We need to come together. The Palestinians need to speak up and say, ‘Stop. Give the hostages back. We don’t want Hamas anymore, and let’s start anew,’” Oz said.
U.S. Rep. George Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce, and Santa Clarita Councilwoman Marsha McLean were in attendance as well.
Whitesides talked about the wall of hostages’ images he saw at the Los Angeles County Nova Festival memorial exhibition.
“The message that I would leave you with is that I will always be here for this community. I was here two years ago, here last year, for as long as it takes, we must make sure that Jewish Americans feel safe in their homes. That their kids feel safe going to school, that their temples are places of safety and joy, rather than something else,” Whitesides said.
McLean recalled spending some time living in Israel and loving being there.
“I lived in Israel for a while. When I went to work for the American embassy, I was asked if I could spend some time in Israel to stand in for one of the officers that worked for the State Department. And I did. And I lived in Tel Aviv, and I was lucky enough to meet someone who she, her boyfriend was starting a touring company, and asked us to be the guinea pigs for going on a tour … So, I do have a very special place in my heart for Israel,” McLean said.
Rabbi Jay Siegel of Congregation Beth Shalom read something to the group that was written two years ago.
“I want to read uh, briefly, something that was actually written two years ago on October 10, the last time we came here before City Hall. And it says this: “It is Oct. 10, just for three days since one of the most horrific pogroms against Jews in Israel, alongside a mass abduction of innocent civilians, among them, babies, children and elderly, alongside all the men and women violently grabbed. We are hurting. We are angry. We are devastated. We are hearing terrible news of Israel. We are experiencing a loss of proportions, unheard of. It is natural to feel powerless, and it is also in our human nature to seek something constructive that we can do,’” Siegel said before leading the group into prayer.
Rabbi Mark Blazer of Temple Beth Ami said the only way to deal with tragedy is to come together as a community no matter how you feel.
“So, the only way we can, when terrible things happen, like Oct. 7 … you either wallow in that sadness, you either stay in that moment of sadness or figure out a way to come together and how to deal with that sadness and not compound it with a continued sense of depression and angst,” Blazer said. “And so instead, as we’ve seen, many people in our community have turned towards each other and have worked together, and it’s created a stronger sense of community.”
Blazer ended the evening with attendees getting the opportunity to hold the Israeli flag together and sing traditional Jewish songs.
