'Faces of October 7' exhibition launches in Jerusalem

By Etgar Lefkovits

(JNS) - An Israeli graffiti artist who was painting murals at the Nova music festival in southern Israel just hours before the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre on Tuesday launched a new exhibition in Jerusalem in memory of its victims.

The exhibition, dubbed "Faces of October 7," was inaugurated just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the deadliest single attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and as the war against Hamas in Gaza has expanded to include Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The nearly 100 portraits showcased by the exhibition include victims of the desert music festival, soldiers killed on Oct. 7 and during the war as well as some of the hostages still being held in Gaza a year after being abducted.

"This is the mission of my life both as an artist and as a human being," artist Benzi Brofman told JNS.  "Life had it that I would be there at the site, and at the same time life brought me home alive."

The exhibition, which opened on Tuesday evening at the Jerusalem offices of Israel advocacy group Stand With Us in the presence of bereaved family members, is open to the public through the end of October, and will also be livestreamed around the world.

"Our eyes are in the north but our hearts are still in the south," said Michael Dickson, executive director of the Los Angeles-based organization's Israel office. "This exhibition creates a space for people to take a moment and look back and remember this grim anniversary."

Dubai-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Eitan Neishlos, who partnered with Stand With Us to launch the event, said, "We will not stop advocating, speaking, posting, initiating until the entire world knows what the evil Hamas terrorists did to our people on Oct. 7." 

Thousands are expected to visit the exhibition over the next six weeks, with tickets available online via Stand With Us for a nominal fee to cover its, while hundreds of thousands are expected to view it on the organization's various social media channels.

Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed during the Oct. 7 massacre, including 364 at the music festival alone.

Many of the speakers at the inauguration noted the denial that exists in the world regarding the attack that triggered the 11-month old war.

"Just as people around the world denied, distorted and questioned the horrors of the Holocaust, people are denying the events of the Oct. 7 massacre today," said Neishlos, whose grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.

'Not just trauma but re-trauma'

"The disgraceful celebration and denial of what has been done to our people is not just post-trauma but re-trauma," said Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Israel's Special Envoy for Trade and Innovation and a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem. "This denial is there and eating away and traumatizing us each day."

She added that the artist's work encapsulates the humanity within us.

"From my perspective, we are still stuck on Oct. 7," said Ilan Gilboa-Dalal whose 23-year-old son Guy is among the 101 Israelis still being held by Hamas in Gaza nearly a year after the attack.