Community commemorates Oct. 7, while waiting for last hostages to return home
Hours before 20 living hostages were released from Gaza and returned to Israel, Pittsburghers recalled the horrifying events of Oct. 7, 2023, mourned lives lost and embraced hope
An evening of commemoration created space for remembrance and hope. Hours before the 20 living hostages were released from Gaza and returned to Israel, nearly 500 Pittsburghers gathered at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 12 for a Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh-hosted event marking two years since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The program served multiple purposes, Federation’s Community Relations Council Chair David Knoll said. The goal was not only to recall the horrifying events of Oct. 7, 2023, and mourn the lives lost, but to “embrace hope.”
In the 736 days since the start of the Israel-Hamas war the “world has changed,” Federation CEO and President Jeffrey Finkelstein said. “History shifted on that day, and the aftershocks are still with us.” Among the most notable consequences of Oct. 7 are the proliferation of antisemitism “on campuses, online, in the streets of our cities,” as well as a questioning of “Israel’s very legitimacy.” And while Pittsburgh’s Jewish community is not monolithic, “what matters is that we hold each other close, even when we disagree — that we stand up for one another and for Israel together.”
Throughout the program, speeches, songs and readings repeated a trope of togetherness. Cantor Laura Berman of Parkway Jewish Center sang “Acheinu,” a prayer beseeching mercy on those members of the “house of Israel who are given over to trouble or captivity.” Dean Aseef, a shaliach at the JCC, recited the prayer for the state of Israel, a text asking for the establishment of “peace in the land and everlasting joy for its inhabitants.” Rabbi Yitzi Genack, of Shaare Torah, chanted Psalm 121, a hymn whose opening verses note, “My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.”
The crowd rose to their feet as Rabbi Seth Adelson of Congregation Beth Shalom led “The Star-Spangled Banner,” followed by Cantor David Reinwald of Temple Sinai leading “Hatikvah.”
Placed midway through the program was a conversation between the Federation’s Gefsky Community Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff and Oct. 7 survivor Andrei Kozlov.
Kozlov recounted his experiences immigrating to Israel from Russia, serving as a security guard at the Nova Music Festival, his Oct. 7 abduction into Gaza, eight months of captivity and his June 8, 2024, rescue by the Israel Defense Forces.
Kozlov largely refrained from answering Schiff’s questions about the dramatic rescue, but said the experience was beyond comprehension: “You have to understand that all this time you’re praying, and you imagine how you will be released, and then it happens absolutely unexpectedly.”
The events of that day, Kozlov noted, included instruction and a “fist bump” from a Russian-speaking IDF soldier who was sent to communicate with the captive. He went on to say that the rescue and return to Israel brought a mix of confusion and euphoria: “I was crying and laughing at the same moment.”
Shadyside resident Abby Morrison, one of the 300 attendees seated in the JCC’s Levinson Hall — an overflow room in the nearby gym provided space for additional attendees — called Kozlov’s comments “moving” and said she remained on “pins and needles” waiting for news regarding the safe return of those hostages still in Gaza.
The balance between hearing Kozlov’s remarks and knowing other captives could soon come back to Israel was emotionally weighty, Mt. Lebanon resident Lisa Mekovsky told the Chronicle. The evening’s program reflected both the “high and the low, the oy and the joy.”
Hours before Hamas released the last 20 living hostages as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, Point Breeze resident Lynda Wrenn said she has participated in multiple events calling for a safe return of the hostages during the past two years.
Coming to the JCC on Oct. 12 marked a personal “hope,” she said, “that this will be the last time we ever have to go to something for the hostages.”
Speaking with the Chronicle following the event, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said he was “elated” to see the end of the war in sight. “We can look forward to closing that chapter.”
For two years, Fetterman repeatedly called attention to the captives’ plight. He met with hostages’ family members, traveled to Israel, covered his Washington D.C. office walls with photographs of those abducted on Oct. 7 and used media appearances to implore listeners to consider the hellish realities of confinement.
When asked why the issue mattered so much, Fetterman said, “Well, they’re still there.”
“There are still humans kept underground and tortured and starved in there, and the media and the world seem to erase them and forget why Israel is forced to continue this Gaza war,” he said.
Fetterman paused from speaking with the Chronicle to meet with Kozlov. Afterward, Fetterman told the Chronicle, “I’ve lost count of how many hostages and their family members that I’ve met.”
The stories of their survival are awe-inducing and will “never get old for me, but thankfully, by 2 a.m. today, this is going to begin to stop,” he said. “Finally, these last folks can come back home.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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