Harbourside vigil the first spark in global memorial
Jewish Australians, grieving the horrors of October 7 one year on, lit candles for those lost as they awaited dozens of alike ceremonies on foreign shores.
As mourners lit their candles in memory of those lost to the Hamas massacre a year ago, they looked out over Sydney Harbour to the shining Opera House. It was a site of mixed memories, evoking the day one year prior when its sails were lit in the colours of the Israeli flag, and soon after when it was swarmed by the first divisive anti-Israel protest.
For the Jewish Australians attending the memorial at Sydney’s Rose Bay on Sunday, that conflicting feeling of fear and solidarity still hung over them.
Melissa McCurdie, a Jewish Sydneysider whose family were taken hostage on October 7, described feeling “impotent with frustration and rage” ahead of the anniversary.
“Worrying about the remaining hostages from the family, as reports come in of the condition of some of the hostages … ” she started, but trailed off before adding: “I don’t need to belabour that. I just get so despondent, panic-stricken, depressed and worried. Every day could be a disaster.
“I owe it to them to do whatever I can to keep their plight and the plight of the hostages alive … to make sure that they come home.”
Seven of Ms McCurdie’s relatives remain hostage.
The vigil was organised by the Zionist Federation of Australia and Jewish Board of Deputies, and was the first of many such candlelight memorials across the world.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, spoke of the unity between Jewish communities across the globe.
“The Jewish community and the Israelis who live in Israel are not separated entities. We are one entity. We celebrate together, we mourn together. This is a very important value in Jewish life, that when we mourn and grieve, we come together,” he said.
“The more we mark this day, the more people will understand the atrocities that were committed on the 7th by evil forces, by Hamas, Hezbollah and others. Israel will not and cannot allow the war to end with us in the same place we were on October 6.”
Organised through the United Israel Appeal, the lantern lighting ceremonies are dubbed “Illuminate October” and will continue on Monday night in Melbourne.
Also in attendance were Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts, Liberal senator Dave Sharma, Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, former Labor senator Nova Peris and Michal Ohana, a survivor of the massacre at the Nova Music Festival.
Mourners gathered around a central beacon, one towering candle sculpted from the Sydney sand. It’s a familiar ceremony, with Jewish tradition dictating yahrzeit memorial candles be lit on the anniversary of passings and great sufferings to mark the memory of the dead.
Ms Ohana also has friends still held captive, and she called October 7 a rebirth for herself and her nation.
“This is my second birthday, my new birthday,” Ms Ohana said.
“I remember this moment: I called my mum, and I said, ‘Mum, I love you, but I think I’m going to die because nobody (can) come and I’m bleeding, they shot me’.
Mercifully, she survived.
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