Like communities worldwide, Baltimoreans gathered in their places of work and worship to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in Israel and the start of an ongoing war in Gaza.
At Beth El Congregation in Pikesville Monday night, a crowd of 1,500 Jewish community members filled the pews, joined by Maryland politicians like Governor Wes Moore and U.S. Senator Ben Cardin.
Only 20 minutes away, a small group of Johns Hopkins University graduate students gathered in front of the hospital with candles in hand to center the continuing crisis in Gaza.
“In this new year, we fight for a ceasefire and we fight for the Palestinian right to mourn,” said a local representative from Jewish Voices for Peace who spoke anonymously to protect her safety. “We fight for the Palestinian right to heal, and we fight for the Palestinian right to live.”
Both events mourned the loss of life over the past year, and called for continued action to ensure safety and rights.
“Our entire Jewish world has forever been changed, and unfortunately, our work is nowhere near over,” said Andrew Cushnir, president of The Associated, Baltimore’s Jewish Federation. “Our hostages are still being held, and Israel is still in pain, trying to process the enormous grief of today, while still needing to fight to ensure tomorrow.”
Governor Moore vowed that the state of Maryland “stands with the Israeli people” and “supports their right to exist.” Eyal Noor, the minister for congressional affairs at the Embassy of Israel, said the nation and its allies will “win through to absolute victory” in the war against terrorism.
“We did not ask for this war, and we didn't initiate it, but it was waged upon us on several fronts,” Noor said. “And we will not only defend ourselves, but make sure these horrors shall never endanger us again.”
At Hopkins hospital, the Jewish Voices for Peace representative said Israeli safety is tied to Palestinian liberation.
“Jewish trauma will never heal when it is weaponized to justify the traumatizing and re-traumatizing, the displacement and starvation and massacre of our Palestinian and Lebanese siblings,” she said.
The Gazan Health Ministry says that over 41,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli attacks in the past year. A United Nations report says that 96% of Gazans are facing “high levels of acute food insecurity.”
During the vigil, students read some names of the dead — noting it would take over 33 hours to read them all.
“I cannot express how terribly guilty I feel for living in a country that is pushing for the slaughter of my own people every day, not just over the last year, but over the past 75 years of occupation,” said Nadia, a Hopkins public health student and representative of the graduate chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. She asked to stay anonymous for safety.
“The only difference between us was that my grandparents were able to leave while others couldn't,” Nadia said. “And so I grieve my family in Gaza. I grieve my ancestors’ homeland that was once filled with so much life.”
At Beth El Congregation, Yahel, an Israeli high school graduate living in Baltimore for a year of service, recalled waking up to the sound of sirens in Jerusalem on October 7, 2023. The next morning, she learned some friends and family had been taken as hostages by Hamas.
“I was in shock, and immediately started crying,” she said. “It was too hard to comprehend the thought of Israeli civilians being kidnapped from the safe rooms of their own homes.”
Some of her loved ones returned after months in captivity; others were killed. One remains a hostage, along with around one hundred other Israelis.
“I share this painful personal story with you today to continue raising awareness about the remaining hostages and to urge you not to forget them,” Yahel said on Monday. “For me, this seems like a second independent war. We are going to win this, and we'll win this together. There is no other alternative.”
