Sunset vigil marks six months
"I want to say that life and death are intertwined – pain and hope live alongside each other," says Michal Lewinsohn, a survivor from Kfar Aza.
A sombre crowd gathered in St Kilda’s O’Donnell Garden on Sunday night to mark six months since the October 7 terror atrocities in Israel.
Organisers J-United estimated the sunset vigil attracted around 300 people.
Some non-Jews passing by asked about the event and when told it was about the hostages in Gaza, several stayed to show solidarity.
Michal Lewinsohn, a survivor from Kfar Aza, told the gathering about her experience as Hamas terrorists swarmed through her kibbutz. She said she does not hate, and simply wants the hostages, including her friends, returned now.
“They are being raped, tortured, stabbed, and they are undergoing severe psychological abuse. This cannot be a reality we accept – the fight to release the hostages, every last one of them, is a fight for a world that values human life,” she said.
“I want to say that life and death are intertwined – pain and hope live alongside each other. And there is hope, I believe it with all my heart, and I ask you all please don’t give up hope” she said.
Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto told the crowd that while our hearts remain captive in Gaza with the hostages, the Jewish people’s spirit is not.
“Our spirit lives on through every human, in every city around the world, where gatherings just like this one are taking place today. We are a mere 15 million, but our spirit shakes the earth,” he said.
Cassuto acknowledged the many members who make Australia’s “one of the strongest, proudest, most active and most Zionist Jewish communities anywhere in the world”.
Caulfield MP David Southwick contrasted the dignified way the Jewish community has responded to October 7 with that of others.
“They have taken over our streets, they’ve taken over our cities, they have used violence. They brought hate and extremism to Melbourne and … that is totally unacceptable,” he said.
Southwick said the silent majority are with Jewish community “because nobody likes hate, nobody likes extremism, and hate and extremism will never, ever win”.
One of the organisers Maiian Galant described the vigil as very emotional.
“It’s so good to see our community again … we need to get together as a community more,” she said. “The Jewish community needs to feel strong together as antisemitism is not going anywhere.”
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