Thousands of members of Toronto’s Jewish community filled the sanctuary of Beth Tzedec Congregation Nov. 1 in a show of support for the more than 230 hostages believed to be kidnapped from Israel by Hamas.
About 3,500 people were registered to hear from the families of missing and murdered Israelis at the event, organized by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.
As attendees entered the building, they filed past silent volunteers holding “Kidnapped” posters of the hostages, which formed a sombre pathway into the event.
Noah Shack, vice-president for countering antisemitism and hate for UJA Federation, said the focus must remain on the hostages.
“They’re still captive in Gaza. There’s an urgency to increase awareness and resolve to stand up for them,” he said. “Taking their family members hostage, children, parents, grandparents—this is absolutely heinous.”
The Hamas attack killed more than 1,400 people, on Oct. 7 when communities in southern Israel were overrun by terrorists. The day marks the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
“We need to be a voice for these families to ensure that everybody is laser-focused on the objective of bringing their families home, and mobilize to ensure that people don’t forget, people don’t distort, and people remain seized of the imperative to bring these people home and ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” Shack said.
Idit Shamir, Consul General of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada, herself lost family in the Oct. 7 attacks. Her father’s cousin, 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Gina Semiatich, who lived near the Gaza border was killed in her own home.
“I, like many, try to bottle up my emotions, striving to stay strong, but yesterday, as the delegation arrived [at Toronto’s Pearson airport], we witnessed an incredible display of support from the Jewish community. And I allowed myself for the first time to cry,” Shamir shared.
“The Jewish people have faced severe adversity in our proud history, but our spirit remains strong,” she said. “Our vulnerability has never defined us.”
Irwin Cotler, Canada’s recently retired special envoy to combat antisemitism who is now advocating for the hostages, gave a harrowing personal account from Oct. 7, when his family was in Israel celebrating his son’s wedding,
“Rather than end up in the synagogue, we ended up in the bomb shelter and we began to see these atrocities unfolding in real time,” Cotler recounted, sharing the fears felt by his granddaughter in that moment.
“In words I won’t forget to this day, she said ‘Saba, are we going to live?’”
“Let there be no mistake,” he said. “The unconditional and immediate release of the hostages is an imperative of the first order because the holding of such hostages is a standing affront to the principle of humanity. It is a legal imperative every day that these hostages are held by [Hamas,] this brutal genocidal organization.”
“Whatever 2023 may be, it is not 1943,” Cotler said before the remarks from the hostages’ families. “There is a Jewish state today as an antidote to Jewish powerlessness.”
The devastating stories told by the families were preceded by the photos of the hostages and summaries of their capture.
Disturbing details included accounts of one family learning their loved ones were in Gaza through the “find iPhone” function. In another case, during the attacks, one family took in a neighbour’s four-year-old son who was covered in his murdered father’s blood.
Galit Cohen, the aunt of Tiferet Lapidot, 22, shared an emotional account of the pain of losing her niece who was killed at the Supernova music festival.
“I was there when she was born, because I’m a doula. She was so special for me. You know the song ‘You Are My Sunshine?’” said Cohen, holding back tears. “They took my sunshine away.”
Cohen described the harrowing call from Tiferet, who had gone to the music festival with friends, to her mother that morning.
“She said ‘Mommy they’re shooting at us. And I don’t know where to hide.’”
“Yesterday we finished October,” said Cohen. “What a month for everyone. Every heart in this room, in all the world, we will remember this October until we won’t be here. Our children will remember this October.”
Meirav Raviv spoke for the family of Keren Munder, 54, a special needs teacher who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, three kilometres from the Gaza Strip.
Munder was kidnapped along with her elderly parents, Avraham Munder and Ruth Munder, and her nine-year-old son, Ohad. Avraham’s son, Roee, 50, was found bound and shot dead.
“My cousin was found on the ground next to his house,” Raviv said. “They murdered him and they burned his house to ashes.”
Earlier in the day, the delegation of families met and shared their stories with Ontario Premier Doug Ford at Queen’s Park.
UJA is organizing an outdoor rally on Sunday, Nov. 12, with more details to be announced.
