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CONTINUES OUR COVERAGE WITH THEIR MESSAGE TONIGHT. NEPHESH YONI ME TO RINGING THROUGH SCHENLEY PARK THURSDAY NIGHT WHERE THE SOUNDS OF ISRAEL’S NATIONAL ANTHEM HATIKVAH, WHICH MEANS THE HOPE. IT’S TIME THE WORLD DID NOT STAND WITH US 80 YEARS AGO. TODAY IT’S IMPORTANT TO STAND WITH ISRAEL AND BE WITH ISRAEL. THE HOPE IN THIS CROWD IS THAT JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL FOR THE HUNDREDS OF JEWISH PEOPLE AND OTHERS WHO GATHERED IN SCHENLEY PARK TONIGHT SAY THIS IS A MOMENT THAT DEMANDS A SENSE OF MORAL CLARITY, URGING PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT HAMAS IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION THAT NEEDS TO BE CONDEMNED AND THAT ISRAEL HAS A RIGHT TO EXIST AND DEFEND ITSELF. EACH SPEAKER RECOUNTING HOW THEY FELT OCTOBER SEVENTH, THE DAY OF AN UNPROVOKED SURPRISE TERRORIST ATTACK ON SOUTHERN ISRAEL, BELIEVED TO BE THE DEADLIEST DAY FOR — SINCE THE HOLOCAUST. IT MANY ON STAGE TONIGHT SPEAKING OF THEIR CLOSE TIES TO THE JEWISH HOMELAND. I CANNOT FULLY CONVEY HOW DIFFICULT IT IS FOR ME TO BEING AWAY FROM MY FAMILY IN SUCH HARD TIMES. I PERSONALLY KNOW TWO FAMILIES WHOSE LOVED ONES HAVE BEEN KIDNAPED AND TAKEN HOSTAGE TO GAZA. EVERY MESSAGE BEING SENT TO ME MAKES MY HEART DROP EVERY HOUR. MY BROTHER DOESN’T ANSWER ME. IT FEELS LIKE AN ETERNITY TO ME. THERE ISN’T AN ISRAELI FAMILY LEFT UNTOUCHED BY THIS ATROCITY. MY BROTHER IS MY HERO. EVERY ISRAELI SOLDIER IS MY HERO. SORRY WITH ISRAEL INCHING CLOSER TO A GROUND INCURSION OF GAZA, MANY HERE ARE CLEAR EYED ABOUT THE MISSION TO ELIMINATE HAMAS. BUT THERE ALSO SYMPATHETIC TO THE PLIGHT OF INNOCENT PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS. THE PEOPLE OF GAZA ARE IN A REALLY AWFUL SITUATION. HAMAS IS COMPLETELY TO BLAME. GAZA SHOULD BE FREE, BUT FREE FROM HAMAS. AND AS — HOPE FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW, FREE FROM HAMAS JARRED HILL VIJAYADASHAMI RABBI MALOUMA DIVRE. THEY RECITE THE MOURNER’S KADDISH HONORING THOSE ISRAELI LIVES TAKEN BY THE TERRORIST
‘It’s important to stand with Israel’: Pittsburgh Jewish Federation holds vigil for Israel
Updated: 11:38 PM EDT Oct 19, 2023
Hundreds of Jewish people and others gathered together in Schenley Park Thursday for a solemn vigil to send an emphatic message: Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself.”The world did not stand with us 80 years ago,” said Brian Eglash, the senior vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “Today, it’s important to stand with Israel and be with Israel because we are not only fighting for ourselves. We’re fighting for the entire free world.”The vigil featured comments on stage from local rabbis, cantors, Jewish organization leaders and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis.”I am proud to lend my voice and show my support for the Commonwealth’s Jewish community now in this moment of crisis, grief, and mourning,” Davis said. “And always as fellow Pennsylvanians.”Davis was followed by emotional pleas for support from four Israeli students studying in Pittsburgh, as well as an American-Israeli. All of them have family or friends who have been hurt or killed in the attacks or who have been mobilized to join the Israeli Defense Forces.”There isn’t an Israeli family left untouched by this atrocity,” said Lauren Klitzner, who said she knows two families whose loved ones have been kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza.While many in the crowd expressed steadfast support for Israel’s intended mission to launch a ground incursion into Gaza and eliminate Hamas, they also expressed sympathy for the plight of innocent Palestinian civilians.”The people of Gaza are in a really awful situation,” Eglash said. “Hamas is completely to blame. Gaza should be free, but free from Hamas.”Eglash and others also stressed the need for moral clarity and not moral equivalence in this moment.”It was a horrific slaughter,” Elgash said of the Oct. 7 attacks. “It was the most Jews slaughtered in one single day since the Holocaust.”
Hundreds of Jewish people and others gathered together in Schenley Park Thursday for a solemn vigil to send an emphatic message: Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself.
“The world did not stand with us 80 years ago,” said Brian Eglash, the senior vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “Today, it’s important to stand with Israel and be with Israel because we are not only fighting for ourselves. We’re fighting for the entire free world.”
The vigil featured comments on stage from local rabbis, cantors, Jewish organization leaders and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis.
“I am proud to lend my voice and show my support for the Commonwealth’s Jewish community now in this moment of crisis, grief, and mourning,” Davis said. “And always as fellow Pennsylvanians.”
Davis was followed by emotional pleas for support from four Israeli students studying in Pittsburgh, as well as an American-Israeli. All of them have family or friends who have been hurt or killed in the attacks or who have been mobilized to join the Israeli Defense Forces.
“There isn’t an Israeli family left untouched by this atrocity,” said Lauren Klitzner, who said she knows two families whose loved ones have been kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza.
While many in the crowd expressed steadfast support for Israel’s intended mission to launch a ground incursion into Gaza and eliminate Hamas, they also expressed sympathy for the plight of innocent Palestinian civilians.
“The people of Gaza are in a really awful situation,” Eglash said. “Hamas is completely to blame. Gaza should be free, but free from Hamas.”
Eglash and others also stressed the need for moral clarity and not moral equivalence in this moment.
“It was a horrific slaughter,” Elgash said of the Oct. 7 attacks. “It was the most Jews slaughtered in one single day since the Holocaust.”
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