Approximately 150 WashU community members attended a vigil commemorating the third anniversary of the 2023 Oct. 7 attack (Alex Dering | Photo Editor)

Sophomore Meital Atlas, an Emerson Fellow and co-founder of WashU Kulanu, handed out programs and greeted attendees. Atlas, sophomore Tzipora Guttman, president of WashU’s chapter of Jewish on Campus, and Jonah Hochstadt, president of the Jewish Student Association (JSA), flocked together as time came for the vigil to start. They adjusted the podium, placing it square in the middle of the St. Louis skyline seen through the Brookings arch.

At 5:55 p.m. last Wednesday, over 150 WashU community members filed into Brookings Quadrangle. Everyone came as they were. People wore their orientation shirts, jeans, Converse, dresses, athleisure — even full EST gear. Two students wore Israeli flags. 

On the third anniversary of the 2023 Oct. 7 attack, JSA, Chabad, Jewish on Campus, WashU Israel Public Affairs Committee, Kulanu, and Hillel held a vigil in Brookings Quad in honor of lives lost.  

Hochstadt, who began the ceremony, spoke on the strength of community. 

“When we are confronted with tragedy, we come together,” Hochstadt said. “When we are met with hatred, we respond not by hiding who we are, but by holding one another closer and standing even more proudly as a community.”

Multiple speakers referenced people they knew, or their family knew, who were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. At 6:17 p.m., all students observed a moment of silence to honor the approximately 1,200 people who were killed in the attack. 

While the attack happened three years ago, Hodaya Butz, WashU Chabad’s Jewish Agency for Israel Fellow, said it “feels like it was yesterday.”

As Butz spoke, the sun set over Brookings Quad, lighting up the Latin inscription on the Brookings Hall facade: Cedunt Horae Opera Manent. “The hours go by, but the works remain.”

At the end of Butz’s speaking time, she played “White Angel,” a song written for May Naim, who died in the attack. The song flooded through the speaker placed to the right of the podium, singing, “The whole country already knows your name.” 

First-year Erin Drazen spoke about how the attack translates to broader discussions on hate.

“We can remember what happens when hate takes over, and in the aftermath of October 7, just so much hate has blossomed into this world, and so much hate has affected people’s lives in such a horrible way,” Drazen said. “It’s so important to remember … what causes hate so we can avoid it as fast as possible.” 

The vigil also featured a prayer for the Israel Defense Forces and El Male Rachamim, a Jewish prayer for the deceased. Atlas read from “One Tiny Seed,” a poem by Rachel Goldberg-Polin. 

Atlas shared what inspired the event’s continuation and the joint efforts required to put it on in a statement to Student Life.

“The whole community really came together and supported each other,” Atlas wrote. “Everyone said something from the heart, and you could really feel it.”

In fact, the vigil has become an annual occurrence. 

The rest of the vigil included memorial readings and prayers by student speakers and Rabbis Shlomo Ashkanazy and Hershey Novack. 

Throughout the vigil, the yellow tablecloth next to the Israeli-flag-wrapped podium that read “We remember October 7” was clearly visible. Atop it sat 10 candles. At the very end of the ceremony, students took their own candles that had been passed out to place them all together. 

“All in all, when I was standing looking out at everyone, even on such a hard day, it was nice to see the community at WashU supporting each other,” Atlas wrote.