700+ year tragic anniversary at Berkeley Synagogue

They sat together, sang together and prayed together, they lit candles and remembered together Monday at the Netivot Shalom synagogue on University Avenue to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.

Around 500 people attended the gathering in person on Monday evening to commemorate the October 7, 2023 attack that killed around 1,200 people, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza and the deaths of more than 41,000 Palestinians.

“We are not alone in our pain. We come to mourn and we find great strength and healing,” Rabbi Chai Levy of Congregation Netivot Shalom told the audience at the hybrid event, which organizers said another 200 people attended online.

The gathering was one of many around the world, across the country and in the Bay Area held by congregations and Jewish community centers in places such as San Francisco, San Rafael, Palo Alto, Foster City and UC Berkeley.

“Today is about remembrance,” said Tamar Fendel in an interview in front of the synagogue before the ceremony began. “We will come together in community on October 7th.” She has a child who lives in Israel.

Fendel is part of Netivot Shalom, which co-sponsored the event with Congregation Beth Israel and the Jewish Coalition of Berkeley. Members of the entire Berkeley Jewish community attended, as did several non-Jews in solidarity, organizers said.

Sabrina Kabella said: “I was going about my normal morning routine when I heard the news (of the attack).

“My mother lives in Israel. I was often glued to the TV, to my phone. We were all focused on getting her out,” said Kabella, a longtime Berkeleyan who boasts of being born at Alta Bates Medical Center (then Alta Bates Hospital).

Kabella, a public school teacher in Berkeley, said: “My colleagues all know that my mother lives in Israel. When I came to work, a colleague who is Muslim and wears a hijab came up to me and hugged me. She asked me, ‘Is your mother okay?’”

The teacher’s story reflected the theme of the evening, which focused on people affected by war and avoided often divisive politics.

Amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the war’s spread to Lebanon, Hamas is still holding about 101 of the 250 people abducted by the militant group that leads Gaza. Some of those kidnapped were released, but many were killed.

The evening ceremony, held in the sanctuary of the synagogue, honored her. Rabbi Levy and Rabbanit (a title for an Orthodox religious leader) Meira Wolkenfeld of Congregation Beth Israel led the audience in songs and prayers as photos of people killed and kidnapped flashed on two screens in the synagogue’s sanctuary.

One of the images was 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s warm smile. The American-Israeli, born and raised in Berkeley, was wounded at the Nova Music Festival and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Despite his parents’ tireless efforts, including a heartbreaking speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago urging him to be strong, Goldberg-Polin was killed after surviving about 11 months of captivity.

Deb Fink, one of the event organizers, read a poem by the young man’s mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, “One Tiny Seed.”

“The point of the poem is that she understands that there are mothers on the other side and we all want our children to grow up and have healthy lives,” said Fink, who is close friends with the poem’s author.

“It’s not just hope for one side, but for both. We hope for peace for all peoples in the region, not just one side.”

After the poem was read, a guitarist and a flautist played while a woman led the group in song. The audience joined in quietly at first, but then grew louder and bolder, and the cadence built to a powerful conclusion.

During the ceremony, various speakers read a seemingly endless litany of names, punctuated by music, singing and poetry. The audience rose to sing the final song: “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem. The Hebrew word means “hope.”

“It was a wonderful and very personal meeting,” said Kabella. “There is still much more healing to be done, but it was impressive to see so many people from across the Berkeley Jewish community come together. We needed that.”

The teacher said she also found it encouraging that School Board Directors Jennifer Shanoski and Laura Babitt, Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel and Title IX Coordinator Jasmina Viteskic were in attendance.

In addition to education officials, Council members Igor Tregub and Sophie Hahn appeared in person, along with BART Board Director Lateefah Simon, while Council members Rashi Kesarwani, Terry Taplin and Mark Humbert attended via Zoom.

Levy noted: “It meant a lot to us – during what felt like an isolating time for the Jewish community – to have leaders from the city of Berkeley and the school district with us.”

Overall, the event eschewed the political statements and ideological clashes that have torn universities and communities apart since October 7, and instead mourned the lives lost that day.

“In addition to all the horror and sadness over October 7th and the war, the last year has been so polarized,” Levy said. “And so it was important and powerful to come together to feel our pain in community and find some comfort and strength in being together, even though we may have different perspectives.”