A crowd of Boston College community members gathered on O’Neill Plaza Thursday night for a candlelit vigil commemorating the victims of Hamas’ recent attacks in Israel.
“It’s amazing seeing all these beautiful faces all here to stand in solidarity with the Jewish life on campus,” said Avery Miller, president of BC Hillel and MCAS ’24. “It honestly means so much and keeps our hearts warm when everything feels very cold.”
The BC chapter of Hillel, a international Jewish campus organization, organized the event following a community meeting with Jewish students, faculty, and community members on Tuesday night, according to Harrison Pierson-Panes, BC Hillel engagement intern and MCAS ’25.
Hamas, a Gaza-based Islamist political and military organization designated as a terrorist group by the United States, launched a surprise attack on the Israel-Gaza border on Saturday. Israel sent airstrikes into the Gaza Strip in retaliation and declared war against Hamas on Sunday.
In an interview with The Heights following the vigil, Miller and Sam Peterson, BC Hillel treasurer and MCAS ’25, said they mourn the lives of all people affected in this conflict.
“Any innocent life lost is a tragedy,” Peterson said.
Miller said it is shocking to see people place blame on the Israeli community for actions directed against it.
“It seems like people are trying to justify their deaths, or almost like what happened to them was deserved,” Avery said. ‘It’s shocking to me.”
Ira Kirschner, associate director of the Thea Bowman AHANA+ and Intercultural Center, addressed the crowd by sharing the transcript of a CNN interview with an Israeli man who described the moment he learned his 8-year-old daughter had been killed in the Hamas attacks.
“They said we found Emily, she’s dead,” Kirschner read to the crowd. “And I went, ‘Yes.’…That was the best possibility I was hoping for. She was either dead or in Gaza. And if you knew anything about what they would do to her in Gaza, that’s worse than death. So death was a blessing.”
Kirschner, who grew up outside of Jerusalem and served five years in the Israel Defense Forces, said the present tragedy in Israel is not a Jewish one but a human one.
“Hamas terrorists have proven that they have no humanity and that they have dehumanized us just as the Nazis did,” he said. “How else can you burn children? How else can you decapitate babies? How else?”
Reuters has reported that “there were no images to suggest militants had beheaded babies,” as Kirschner said.
Kirschner shared that while he feels helpless and scared with his family and friends back in Israel, he holds faith that the Jewish people will sit Shiva.
“We will rise again,” he said. “We will be happy again. We will protect ourselves, and no one will ever destroy us, and no one will take away our joy and our love of life for very long.”
Matt Sienkiewicz, chair of BC’s communication department, told the crowd that some of his most challenging times over the past week included friends asking the question, “How are you?”
“How am I?” he repeated. “I’m doing terribly. But I truly do thank you for asking and caring.”
Sienkiewicz said the days following the attacks in Israel have been characterized by fear.
“I’m terrified to send my children to the little Jewish school over the hill of Brighton,” he said. “I fear for our Jewish communities. I fear for our Muslim communities. I fear for the hate we’re going to see.”
Sienkiewicz added that BC could better serve its Jewish students by including religious minorities in cultural activities, offering different religious chaplains through Campus Ministry, and thinking more carefully about how students are taught about Israel.
“But right now we’re getting the most important thing very right,” he said, looking out into the crowd. “You’re the biggest part of it just by being here. You’re here for us. We see you.”
UGBC president Jonah Kotzen, MCAS ’24, also spoke at the vigil. Kotzen said he attended not as a UGBC affiliate, but as a concerned member of BC’s Jewish community.
“It’s our job as both Jews and non-Jews alike to stand together in solidarity and mourn the lives lost to such terrorism and barbarism displayed from Hamas this weekend,” he said.
Peterson said the level of support shown at the vigil is not something he takes for granted.
“It was beautiful to see so much support from our friends and from the BC community, Jewish and non-Jewish alike,” Peterson said.
Update (Oct. 18, 2023 11:18 p.m.): This article was updated to describe Hamas as an Islamist political and military organization in an effort to reflect the Associated Press’ language. It was previously referred to as an Islamic political and military organization in this article.
Update (Oct. 16, 2023 8:23 p.m.): This article was updated to include Reuters’ report that “there were no images to suggest militants had beheaded babies.”
Correction (Oct. 13, 2023 10:40 a.m.): This article was corrected from a previous version to specify that Hillel is an international organization and clarify Kirschner’s current role and statement about Shiva, as well as add “for very long” to one of his quotes.
