More than 100 students gathered Monday evening at Chabad at Lehigh for a unity memorial honoring six Hamas-held hostages who were found dead in Gaza on Sept. 2. Lehigh Hillel, Lehigh Friends of Israel, Chabad at Lehigh and Tamid group at Lehigh hosted the event.
Rabbi Zalman Greenberg, co-director of Chabad at Lehigh, said students felt compelled to do something, and it’s important to uplift students and foster unity during difficult times.
Dit Greenberg, co-director of Chabad at Lehigh, said the goal of the event was to comfort the Jewish community and provide a message of hope and resilience.
“What they stood for is important, and it will help the spirit of the hostages live on,” Dit Greenberg said.
During the service, the President of Chabad at Lehigh Hannah Gordon, ‘26, lit the Yahrzeit candle in memory of the victims.
The candle lighting was followed by Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead, led by Rabbi Steve Nathan of Lehigh Hillel.
Nina Berkowitz, ‘26, vice president of Lehigh Friends of Israel, gave a speech discussing the six victims and their stories.
“Every Jewish person’s heart aches knowing there are 101 hostages still waiting to be brought home,” Berkowitz said. “It feels even more personal when you begin to follow their stories closely.”
Arthur Pevzner, ‘27, co-president of Lehigh Friends of Israel, said many students have family in Israel so it’s important to host events like this to show unity within the Jewish community.
“I hope that students will see (this memorial) and know that they’re not alone,” Pevzner said. “We’re here together, united around the cause of bringing the rest of the hostages home alive, and we are here to fight against anti-semitism and anti-Zionism.”
Rabbi Greenberg said it’s important to understand the misrepresentation of Zionism in the media and said antisemitism is often masked as anti-Zionism.
“There are roughly 15 million Jews in the world,” Rabbi Greenberg said. “More than half are in Israel. When somebody is (an) anti-Zionist and anti-Israel, they’re, in most cases, an affront to the Jewish people, everywhere.”
1 Comment
I have to disagree with the last paragraph. As a Jewish student, it is concerning to see the harmful rhetoric of equating anti-zionism with antisemitism. Being against Israel, its government, and its actions is not antisemitic, and many who oppose the existence of the State (i.e. the political entity, not the people) support coexisting in the land.
Claiming that anti-zionism is antisemitism suggests that Jewish people as a whole are a monolith, supporting the actions of the Israeli government, which is false. Statements like that stop constructive dialogue and distract from the issue at hand by resorting to religious fault lines.
If we are to have a serious discussion about the war and the devastation that inflicts, we must stop this rhetoric.
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