Shir Zohar shared her first-hand account of surviving the Nova Music Festival with the Lehigh community just over a year after the massacre at an event hosted by Lehigh Friends of Israel.
“We Will Dance Again” invited community members to listen to Zohar, a survivor of the Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, on Thursday in the Rauch Business Center.
Arthur Pevzner, the president of Lehigh Friends of Israel, said firsthand stories like Zohar’s are important to remember those lost in the Oct. 7 attacks and deliver a message of hope to Jewish students.
Twenty-one-year-old Zohar and her best friend Ester Borochov were two of the nearly 4,000 attending the Supernova Sukkot Gathering music festival when the attack occurred.
After seeing missiles overhead, Zohar said she and Borochov fled the festival grounds. A bartender at the festival, 22-year-old Orin Arad, spotted the two and offered to drive them to safety.
She said Hamas soldiers shot at Arad’s car, wounding him and causing the car to flip into a ditch while Zohar and Borochov hid silently in the backseat. When the soldiers realized Arad was still alive, they riddled the car with another round of bullets, killing him and narrowly avoiding Zohar and Borochov.
Zohar said the two hid in the car for six hours until the surrounding gunfire and chaos stopped for 20 minutes, which Zohar said was a sign from God. Borochov was unable to move after the crash, but the ceasefire allowed Zohar to run to a group of Israeli Defense Force soldiers.
She said Borochov eventually managed to crawl out of the car and get the attention of Israeli Defense Force soldiers who brought her to safety.
The two later had to identify Arad’s body and Zohar said they formed a strong bond with his family.
Since their rescue, the two have traveled around the world, sharing their story and paying tribute to the heroic acts of Arad.
A non-profit organization known as Or to Ori was established in Arad’s name to provide education support to underprivileged children and memorialize his legacy through community outreach.
Madline Ruben, ‘25, attended the event and said it helped her and other Jewish students feel safe to have difficult conversations about what’s happening in Israel.
Ariel Sebag, a citizen of Israel who attended the event while visiting friends at Lehigh, said events like this help unite Jewish students and foster the sense of community that so many Jewish people are looking for.
“It’s so important to have that space where you can speak Hebrew, celebrate holidays together and embrace your Jewish identity,” Sebag said. “You need that space to be yourself.”
Two days before the “We Will Dance Again” event, Rabbi Steve Nathan, Lehigh’s director of Jewish student life and associate chaplain, sent out an email to the Lehigh community titled “A Response to an Upcoming Event on Campus” emphasizing the importance of the safety of Jewish students.
The email referred to the “One Year of Genocide in Gaza” panel and Q&A discussion hosted by Lehigh For Palestine and the Lehigh Student Political Action Coalition, in collaboration with the department of sociology and anthropology. The event also took place on Thursday, shortly after Lehigh Friends of Israel’s “We Will Dance Again.”
Rabbi Nathan’s email acknowledged the Student Political Action Coalition’s right to hold the event on Lehigh’s campus. Still, it stated, “We do not in any way endorse or agree with the framing of this event.”
The email detailed two additional events, the first being a forum hosted by the Jewish Student Center on Oct. 21 with guest speakers David Makovsky and Gaith al-Omari of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the second being “We Will Dance Again.”
Pevzner said Rabbi Nathan could not attend the “We Will Dance Again” event because it fell on the Jewish Holiday Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles.
Pevzner said “We Will Dance Again” had been planned before he was aware of SPAC’s event. He said their event was in no way meant to be a response to SPAC’s event.
“I was not in communication with (Rabbi Nathan) about the event…and (Lehigh Friends of Israel) had nothing to do with (Rabbi Nathan’s) statement,” Pevzner said. “Our event and their event have nothing to do with one another and shouldn’t be compared.
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