Nearly 130 students and others gathered at California State University, Northridge on Wednesday, Oct. 11, to honor 1,200 lives lost in the past few days in Israel, and to pray for those impacted by the Hamas attacks that triggered retaliatory strikes that have killed about 900 Palestinians.
In Los Angeles, home to the fifth-largest population of Jewish people in the world, multiple gatherings sprung up with hundreds of people gathering in support of Israel. As he stood in front of a group of CSUN students, Matt Baram, an executive director at Hillel 818, a Jewish campus organization that serves about 6,500 Jewish students at CSUN, Pierce and Los Angeles Valley colleges, said he was still in shock processing the events of the last few days.
“To those who are injured and those who are kidnapped,” he said, “we wanted a chance to be together, mourn and commemorate and share each other’s warmth during this really challenging time,”
“No matter your politics, no matter your thoughts on what would, could and should happen moving forward, there’s no justification for the murder, rape kidnapping, burning and beheading of innocent civilians, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and seniors and babies,” Baram said.
Following his speech and a prayer initiated by a rabbi, students sang several songs, including Israel’s national anthem.
“It’s been an unimaginable, difficult and horrible few days,” Baram said. “We all are in shock as we’re trying to process this horrible act of terror and the lives lost.”
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