(Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Oct. 1, 2024 By Shane O’Brien
The Jewish Community Center (JCC)-Chabad of Western Queens will host a candle-lit commemoration at its Long Island City headquarters next Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.
The event will take place outside the JCC building at 10-29 48th Ave. at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7 and will run for approximately 45 minutes.
The commemoration will feature prayers, songs and a candle-lit vigil in honor of the victims of last year’s attack and the hostages who still remain trapped in Gaza.
The event will also feature speeches from members of the community, including Rabbi Zev Wineberg of the JCC-Chabad.
Rivka Wineberg, director of the JCC-Chabad, said everyone who attends Monday’s commemoration will also have a chance to speak if they wish, while an installation dedicated to the hostages in Gaza that has appeared on the LIC waterfront every Saturday since the attacks last year will be placed outside the JCC-Chabad.
She said the event will feature prayers remembering those who died in the attacks last year as well as prayers of hope for the safe return of the remaining hostages.
“When you pray with a group of people, it’s so much more powerful,” Wineberg said. “So we’re going to remember and pray at the same the same time.”
Wineberg added that the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks will be particularly emotional because it occurs during the Jewish holiday season. The Jewish New Year festival of Rosh Hashanah takes place between Oct. 2 and 4, and Yom Kippur—the holiest day in the Jewish calendar—takes place between Oct. 11 and Oct. 12.
“It’s really, really emotional because the times of the holidays are super joyous times, and we just have this weight of heaviness.”
Wineberg said Monday’s commemoration was about bringing people together as “one people” to do whatever they can to ease the suffering of Jewish people anywhere around the world.
“If our brothers and sisters anywhere are suffering, we do on our part to help them. We’re all part of one soul of God, so us commemorating and praying together brings us all together in unity to tell God that enough is enough.”
Wineberg invited those who are not of the Jewish faith to attend Monday’s commemoration and said the event is open to people from all walks of life.
“We’re all one people,” Wineberg said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, who you are, what your background is. It’s all humanity.”
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