Isa Cruz

On the evening of September 30, students, faculty and local residents joined in a vigil hosted by Bowdoin Hillel for the victims of the October 7 attack on Israel last year. Hillel planned the vigil with its rabbi, Lisa Vinikoor, and looked for speaking volunteers among students, faculty and staff.

Hillel sought to create a safe space for those who needed to grieve as a community.

“For many students going to and from home over the past year has made it challenging to grieve with their community: religious, familial or regional,” Hillel wrote in an email to the Orient. “We hope that in holding space at Bowdoin, we created this opportunity to be together and remember those we have lost.”

Coming together on the steps of the art museum, attendees lit candles, read poems, said prayers and shared personal stories of the victims.

“We felt it was important to hold an event allowing our community to remember the victims of the October 7 attacks,” Hillel leaders wrote in an email to the Orient. “As this day has been denoted the most deadly day for Jewish life since the Holocaust, we felt that it was necessary to create a space on campus for those to mourn the loss of innocent life a year ago.”

The names of more than 100 hostages taken and over 1,000 people killed during the attack were displayed in blue and black on a long poster and the attendees were given the opportunity to come onto the art museum steps and look through each name.

“The individual act of putting these names in ink felt like a tangible means to memorialize these victims, and doing that in a community alongside other people helped provide support and understanding in what would, alone, be a very difficult act,” Hillel wrote. “While many of us might not know the majority of the individual victims of October 7, taking time to connect with each person through their name offered us a reminder of the community we’re a part of.”

Speakers at the vigil condemned all massacres and types of abuse, including torture, rape and misogynistic or ethnically motivated crimes. The speeches also called for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, Jewish unity against all forms of anti-semitism and hope of achieving peace and prosperity for all.

In his speech, Amnon Ortoll-Bloch, assistant professor of chemistry, connected the October 7 attack to his family history and his ties to Israel. He shared stories of his grandparents who escaped the Holocaust as well as distant family members who were murdered by the Nazis.

“I speak about my family history because it symbolizes the horrors of the Holocaust, as well as the horrors from October 7, where innocent Jews were killed simply for being Jews,” Ortoll-Bloch said. “There must not be another Holocaust. There must not be another October 7.”

Vinikoor joined Ortoll-Bloch in condemning the October 7 attack, sharing stories of the youth who were killed and spoke on human unity by highlighting  Jewish people’s unity against hatred.

“Jewish tradition teaches that anyone who destroys one life destroys the entire world,” Vinikoor said. “And anyone who saves one life saves the entire world. Indeed, each life is a world unto itself. Each life is sacred.”

Vinikoor also expressed hope for an end to the conflict.

“May the memory of all those we remember today be a blessing tonight. We also note that 101 Israeli hostages remain in captivity. We pray for their safety and their return home. We pray for peace and an end to violence and war,” Vinikoor said.