Jewish community celebrates hope amid the anniversary of Oct. 7 attacks

Before moving to the United States, Liat Alon, who is chief learning and engagement officer at the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, taught at Israeli educational institutions. 

Among the people she worked with was a department administrator whose husband, Omri Miran, was one of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. 

With many people still hostages, she said, the war is non-stop, which makes it important for the community to join together to find hope.

On Oct. 7, the federation hosted the Be the Light: Memorial Candle Lighting at its events venue, The Ora.

The previous day, Temple Emanu-El hosted Yisrael Chai: A Day of Hope, which featured prayer and musical performances and welcomed Maya Platek as its keynote speaker.

Photo by Ian Swaby

The event drew a mostly full sanctuary and many community and religious leaders, including Chaplain Tom Pfaff, president of the Sarasota Ministerial Association, although Chief of Police Rex Troche was unable to attend as planned due to the approaching Hurricane Milton.

A Columbia University student and a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson unit, Platek was elected as the university's student body president for the 2024-2025 school year, with her speech introducing herself as president gaining over 1.4 million views online.

She said after previously serving as an interim president, she was persuaded to run after many students asked her to do so. Her policies have included advocating against the elimination of the Tel Aviv University and Columbia University dual degree program, a demand she said protestors have put forward.

Photo by Ian Swaby

"Right now, we're just watching a situation where anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism has been entirely normalized on campus," she said. "It's been integrated into a lot of the curricula that we are being taught in a lot of our classes, for example."

She closed out her speech by stating the ties within the Jewish community give her hope. 

"I think that after October 7, I've seen a complete transformation amongst the Jewish community worldwide. I think it's brought many people back to their roots, made us realize how important our community is and how important our history is," she said.

At The Ora, over 900 candles were present, representing all who died on Oct. 7, and Israeli soldiers who have since died. 

A tradition in Judaism, the candles each burn from the length of time from sundown to sundown, the interval of the Jewish day.

Because the event had to be held indoors due to the weather, the full number of candles was not lit, with visitors able to bring candles home and send the federation images of the lightings to create a collage. 

"I light the candle, and then the light twinkles throughout the day, and every time you look at it, you think about that person, it's almost like inviting them back into your life in a way that's very physical and like you can feel it," Alon said. "So, I think that allows people an opportunity to connect within themselves, to connect to their community, to connect to the larger community, human community."