Maya Mcfadden photo
Eytan Israel with photo of 8-year-old Emily Hand.
The death of Emily Hand, an 8‑year-old girl who was killed in Israel last week, reverberated here in New Haven on the steps of City Hall.
Her story was one of many shared during a Friday event where local Jewish organizations gathered to commemorate the lives lost in Israel this past week. Organizers included Chabad at Yale, Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, Congregation B’nai Jacob, the Jewish-Israeli Center of New Haven, Orchard Street Shul, Temple Beth Shalom, and the Westville Synagogue.
More than 100 people attended, many of them adorned in the blue and white of the Israeli flag as they held each other, eyes wet. Participants lit candles, listened to speakers — many of whom have friends and family in Israel — and joined each other in calling on the community to support Israel and think about the victims of massacres carried out last week by Hamas fighters who entered Israeli territory. The rally took place as Israel began preparing a retaliatory invasion and advised a million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza.
Friday's crowd outside of City Hall.
Missing posters of Israeli families and children surround City Hall entrance.
After organizer Dr. Liram Koblentz-Stenzler gave the opening remarks and a group of performers sang the American and Israeli national anthems, Eytan Israel took the stage. He read a Facebook post an Israeli man wrote about Emily, whom he didn’t know personally.
“We are in the midst of a faithful campaign,” Israel read, “and you — beautiful, pure, young, and innocent Emily — are cruelly murdered.
“In the cruelest fashion, you were slaughtered in the neighborhood you grew up in, by the hands of the most heinous, evil people for no reason.”
Attendees light yahrtzeit memorial candles for lost loved ones and victims.
Mayor Justin Elicker picked up on Emily’s story when he spoke at the rally, stating that New Haven stands as a community against Hamas and acts of terrorism against both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Standing over there, looking at the photos, I was struck by how much Emily looks like my 8‑year-old daughter. She looks very much like my 8‑year-old daughter,” Elicker said.
“I can’t imagine losing my daughter. I can’t imagine someone whose child was abducted and not knowing whether you’re ever going to see that child again,” he continued. “And I think that is what we need to reflect on today.”
Other speakers recited poems and read messages from Israeli friends and family members hiding in bomb shelters. The gathering concluded with a prayer from Rabbi Eli Raskin, who then led the crowd in singing “Shalom Aleichem.”
Many lingered, lighting more candles.
let me know when the PRO Palestinian Rally or the
Anti-Netanyahu Government protest will take place..