Day of pain: Jewish anguish still raw on attack date
Allanah Sciberras |
Australia’s Jewish community will never forget the pain, sorrow and trauma that flowed from Hamas’s deadly attack two years ago.
Vigils and gatherings were held nationwide on Tuesday to commemorate and remember those killed and taken hostage on October 7, 2023.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the terror attack created a deep wound that hadn’t healed due to the unfolding horrors occurring both in the Middle East and on home soil.
“This is a day that will live with us forever,” Mr Ryvchin told AAP.
“Everything from terror on home soil, arranged by a foreign regime, to daily abuse that ordinary community members are facing in the streets, in their workplaces, the rallies … all of this has exacerbated the hurt and the pain that we felt two years ago.”
Police on Tuesday confirmed they were investigating pro-Hamas graffiti emblazoned across a billboard in Melbourne in an incident labelled “terrorist propaganda”.
Mr Ryvchin, whose former home in Sydney was targeted in a graffiti and arson attack, said the latest incident was an example of what the community continued to face, adding that it should never be normalised.
Events commemorating the anniversary continued on Tuesday, including the opening of an exhibition titled “October 7: Atrocity, anti-Semitism and Resilience”.
Hundreds of people gathered at Melbourne’s inner-city Goldstone Gallery at 6.29am – the exact time the massacre began at the Nova music festival near the Israeli border with Gaza.
The community stood in silence. The only sounds were the sirens and quiet sobs as a message from the families of the victims showed on a screen.
They included Ayala Puder, the mother of Maya Puder, a 26-year-old first-year film student who was killed while hiding in a bomb shelter at the festival.
She also features in the installation Nova Faces at the gallery, which depicts more than 70 faces and personal stories of the Nova victims, images and testimonies.
Jewish artist Nina Sanadze curated the exhibition, which spans two floors and features a documentary and VR film, photography, sculpture, live performance and poetry.
“This is a comprehensive show to commemorate and go back and look at what happened because there has been a lot of denial and refusal,” Ms Sanadze said.
Visitors to the exhibition received a stamp bearing the name “Maya”, a replica of the tattoo her mother wore in her memory.
Ms Sanadze spoke while wearing a copy of the T-shirt that Ms Puder was seen in before her death.
“This exhibition is about rehumanising Jewish and Israeli people through personal stories and lived experiences,” she said.
Ms Sanadze is also behind installations that use charred metal and chairs from Melbourne’s Adass synagogue, which was the target of an arson attack in December.
Director Danny Ben-Moshe, whose work is also displayed in the gallery, said it was disheartening the gathering couldn’t take place in a more public setting.
Security guards had to be employed to ensure the safety of attendees, many of whom did not want to speak to the media.
“The positive is the determination and the fact that so many people came out, to hear a siren and stand in silence in vigil to remember, demonstrates the depth of commitment and determination by Australian Jews,” Mr Ben-Moshe said.
October 7 marks two years since militant groups including Hamas – designated a terrorist organisation by Australia and many of its allies – crossed the border from Gaza into southern Israel, killing 1200 people and taking 250 hostage.
The attack triggered an Israeli military campaign that has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities.
AAP
