New York City Prepares for Third Anniversary Commemoration of October 7 Attacks Amid Ongoing Tensions

Jewish institutions across New York City are preparing to commemorate the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2023. This solemn milestone coincides with planned demonstrations by some anti-Zionist groups, highlighting the ongoing divisions and profound grief felt by many in the community.

The Oct. 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with 251 others taken hostage, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the subsequent conflict, 452 Israeli soldiers have lost their lives, per the Israel Defense Forces. Meanwhile, the war in Gaza has claimed over 74,000 Palestinian lives, according to local health authorities, deeply reshaping the region and sending shockwaves globally.

Here is a list of key events around New York City commemorating the attacks and their ongoing aftermath.

Manhattan’s Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center is holding “a day of remembrance, music, and community” in its lobby, from noon until 7 p.m. “Strokes of Hope,” an exhibition of drawings by Israeli artist Zeev Engelmayer, will be on display.

UJA-Federation of New York is launching “Rooted,” a public art installation at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which will be on display until Oct. 25, made up of thousands of hostage solidarity tags and pins. At 92NY on the Upper East Side, Claire Shipman – the former acting president of Columbia University – is moderating a conversation between an Israeli father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, and a Palestinian father, Jaser AbuMoussa.

Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli former hostage, will speak at Yeshiva University’s memorial at 8 p.m.

In Brooklyn, the Park Slope Jewish Center will host an event at 7 p.m. including personal testimony from Atir Vinnikov, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre.

At 7 p.m. in Union Square, the group Israelis for Peace is set to meet for an evening of “quiet reflection and mourning” of the people killed on Oct. 7 and in “its bloody aftermath.”

A number of anti-Zionist student groups are planning walkouts on campuses across the city, including City University of New York campuses, Columbia, and NYU.

The walkouts will culminate in a rally held outside City Hall at 4 p.m., organized by Pal-Awda and endorsed by a number of groups, calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a strident critic of Israel, to stop “[capitulating] to Zionist pressure.”

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