By Amichay Findling, Israel & Overseas Program Manager
Shortly after I arrived in Ann Arbor from Israel with my family in August 2023, the Jewish world changed, as did my work as a community Shaliach (emissary). I came to Ann Arbor expecting to work on connecting the local Jewish community with Israel, especially with the beauty of Israeli arts and of the Hebrew language, but the disaster of October 7th and the following war left us needing to provide for the most basic needs of many Jews in Israel. These basic needs have included safe shelter, warm food, a bed for the night, a classroom and a teacher for the kids, employment for the adults, and mental well-being for everyone. We have also been concerned with Israeli citizens wondering whether their friends and family are safe, or, God forbid, knowing that they are dead and respectfully buried.
The emphasis on caring for all these basic needs pushed “the beauty of art” far away.
Jews in Israel and around the world were reminded of their unbreakable bonds to one another by the most horrific disaster, and, at least temporarily, laid aside their previous fights and quarrels, rising to the occasion. Those who could rushed to put on their uniforms and put up a fight. Others volunteered to provide survivors, evacuees, and soldiers with their most basic needs. Still others, like many of us here in Ann Arbor, supported those efforts with generous donations, service, solidarity visits to Israel, and public advocacy for Israel’s struggle. We did that while combating rising antisemitic rhetoric and actions here in the US.
But none of us believed that we would commemorate a year of those events while the events still unfold; while hostages are still being kept in Gaza, while tens of thousands of Israelis are still away from their homes, and while IDF soldiers still fight against Israel’s enemies along and beyond the borders. We didn’t anticipate that the same day we commemorated these events, antisemites would graffiti Jewish buildings in Metro Detroit and pro-Palestinian students would still be spreading lies about Israel on the U of M campus.
Yet, we felt urged to commemorate, even under the shadow of still unfolding events. Even though we do not yet know how it will end, we are all in need of reflecting on and analyzing our emotions over the past difficult year. Many of us felt the urge to get together, and fortunately many Ann Arbor Jewish community organizations came together to provide us these opportunities.
Kinneret Weiss viewing a visual art exhibit at the JCC on October 6.
The Oct. 6 “Reflections” exhibition at the JCC of Greater Ann Arbor gave participants and visitors an outstanding opportunity to reflect, discuss, and commemorate together. More than 20 local and nationally-recognized artists showed their work, spanning a variety of artistic styles. In addition to indoor presentations, an outdoor exhibit visible to passersby displayed visual art, and one room inside the JCC transformed into a movie theatre presenting documentary films created about Oct. 7. Even the JCC’s gym was in use as the center for performance arts and in-person engagements.
Marie Aiudi Pattipati, Director of Cultural Arts and Education at the JCC, and an artist herself, curated and organized the exhibit. “With this exhibit,” Pattipati says, “we aimed to commemorate the ongoing horrors in Israel and reflect on pain, resilience, and hope for the future.” Pattipati was inspired in part by the creation of her own experiential art piece as a graduate student at UM last year, a piece which highlighted the denial of sexual violence and the horrors experienced by victims of the Hamas attack. The piece was heavily censored on campus but has since found an audience in Jewish spaces.
For some of the artists featured on Oct. 6th, the pain of the year’s events in Israel is deepened by experiences much closer to home. Evgenia Gazman, one such artist, commented on what motivated her to present at this exhibition. “It was deeply meaningful for me to be part of the October 7th commemorative event at The J in Ann Arbor,” she said. “My initial connection to the J formed at Sam Woll’s celebration of life event in January 2024 at Cadieux Stage in Detroit. Much of my grief and creative expression post-October 7th is deeply intertwined with the loss of Sam on October 21st just two weeks later,” Gazman reflects, commenting on the shocking murder of the Jewish Detroit luminary, who had family ties in Ann Arbor.
“Art is deeply spiritual for me,” Gazman says. “I joke it’s how HaShem and I hang out.”
The art exhibit outside at the JCC offered another space to reflect on October 6.
Personally, the exhibition reminded me that the beauty of art is an important educational, therapeutic, and communal power in dire situations as well as in times of peace and prosperity.
The peak of the exhibitions and activities day was a presentation and testimony by 2 Israelis—Shay Raz and Noa Reuveni—who came to Ann Arbor to share their experiences of Oct. 7. Shay, an elite unit reservist, rallied his comrades without receiving any order from above and rushed south on the morning of the attack to rescue a friend living in one of the attacked Kibbutzim. He kept on fighting for many more months after that day. Noa, a resident of a Gaza envelope Kibbutz, happened to be on a trip abroad on Oct. 7. Her best friend was Ziv Berman, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza. From the moment of the attack, Noa was in constant contact with Ziv via messaging until he stopped replying. Noa did the unbelievable and found a flight back to Israel within days, taking her car and driving south by herself to look for her family and best friend. She found her family in safety but learned that her best friend had been kidnapped by Hamas. From this moment on, she split her time between two duties: military reserve duty for the war, and her duty to her best friend Ziv, visiting Tel Aviv’s Hostages’ Square every free moment she had and advocating for the hostages.
Being experienced public speakers, both Shay and Noa have spent the last few months dedicating themselves to advocating for the hostages, traveling the world to engage Jewish communities and decision makers.
Along with Shay and Noa, Ann Arbor’s own ShinShinit, Danielle, shared the story of Noa Price, a victim of Oct. 7 who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on her military base when she was unarmed and could not fight back. Noa was the cousin of Danielle’s best friend.
Israel is a small country, and there’s no one who’s left unscarred from this day, no one who doesn’t know someone killed or kidnapped on that horrible day. So many of us here in Ann Arbor have connections with Israeli friends and family, so many of us are scarred ourselves.
As the exhibition day ended, a group of U of M students arrived at the JCC to move many of the installations to their next important destination: The University of Michigan Diag. The University’s main square was booked in advance by Hillel students for an entire day of activities commemorating Oct. 7. The events included a day-long art exhibition open to the public and visible to passersby, turning the Diag into our own Hostages’ Square for a day. At the end of the day came an evening vigil that brought together the campus and broader Ann Arbor area Jewish communities. Following the vigil, to allow for a more intimate and protected space for the students, Hillel held a commemoration dinner at the Michigan League, hosting Shay and Noa, who presented their testimonies to the crowd of students.
Allison Bloomberg, Michigan Hillel’s Israel Engagement Manager, was instrumental in organizing the open exhibition on the Diag and commented on the day’s events: “The all-day memorial on the Diag was spearheaded by Michigan Hillel staff, student leaders, and Wolverines for Israel, a Michigan Hillel-sponsored pro-Israel student group on campus. With the additional support of student leaders who work closely with Chabad and the Jewish Resource Center, the team was able to divide and conquer to create exhibits that tried to encompass what this past year has looked like and felt like for students and their peers. We were also grateful to collaborate with additional student groups, including Students Supporting Israel and J Street U, another Hillel-sponsored student group who defines themselves as ‘Pro-Israel, Pro-Palestine, Pro-Peace.’ With the support of about 60 students, we were able to display handmade artwork, installations, and opportunities for action to support families in Israel all day long.”
The U of M’s Hostages’ Square contained an empty dining table indicating the wait for the hostages to come back, big posters and other prints showing the horrible outcomes of the Oct. 7 attack, various art exhibitions reacting to and reflecting on the disaster, and giant milk cartons with pictures of American hostages. Over the course of the day, thousands of people walked by the exhibition and engaged with it in various ways.
Facing this somber, peaceful, and respectful commemoration were a handful of anti-Israel, “Pro-Palestinian” demonstrators who gathered during the early evening and attempted to interrupt the commemoration events in several ways, including allegedly attacking campus police officers, who, like always, maintained the peace and the right of Jewish students and community members to gather and speak out.
Vigil on the UM Diag the evening of Oct. 7.
The community vigil on the Diag attracted hundreds of participants from across campus and the broader community alike. Student and community leaders shared their thoughts on the impacts of Oct. 7 on Israel and the United States and prayed for the hostages, the dead, those who fight, and those unfortunate people caught in the crossfire. Eileen Freed, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, reminded the crowd that the war is still being fought, and many still suffer, even though a whole year has passed since the initial attack: “Since October 8, the north of Israel has been under daily rocket fire from Hezbollah, making cities and communities unlivable. More than 60,000 Israelis are living as refugees in their own country. One hundred and one hostages remain in Hamas captivity… All the while, innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon are caught in the crossfire as they are used like human shields by terrorist organizations… These continued horrors can often feel paralyzing; we don’t know what’s to come.”
Ryan Silberfein, President of Michigan Hillel, commented after the vigil’s end: “Yesterday was a tremendously difficult day for Jewish people across the world, so we took it upon ourselves to create a space to be with community, mourn, hear stories, and share prayers with one another. This was not an easy task, with many hours of planning over Zoom and changing the script over and over to make sure it was as meaningful as possible, in addition to Rosh Hashanah just a few days before the event. Leading the vigil and the planning process was so powerful to me and I am even more grateful that it had such a positive impact on the greater community as well.”
To echo Ryan’s words, it was a difficult day amidst a difficult period that concluded a difficult year for me, as an Israeli living in Ann Arbor, and surely for any Jew in our community. The commemoration events gave us the opportunity to gather in a meaningful way as a community, mourn, reflect, and hope together. I surely needed that.
The Oct. 7 commemorations were supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor Engagement Fund, as well as by grants from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). To connect with future Israel-related activities, contact amichay@jewishannarbor.org.