Large attendance at IAC memorial event in New York

(JNS) — Ayelet Samerano, whose 21-year-old son Yonatan Samerano was shot by Hamas terrorists and abducted by a UNRWA social worker on Oct. 7, 2023, is relieved that her desperate calls for action are finally being answered.

“Today we’re seeing the results of our hard work,” she told JNS, after the Knesset passed two laws on Monday that make it illegal for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to operate on Israeli soil, and for Israeli officials to work with the U.N. agency.

Samerano talked with JNS on Monday night after she spoke at an Oct. 7 memorial ceremony at Park East Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“We are very glad that we succeeded and that UNRWA is out of Israel finally,” she said.

More than 600 people attended the event, which the Israeli Consul General in New York co-organized with the Israeli-American Council. The Israeli Defense Ministry and the La’Aretz Foundation also partnered on the event.

Samerano, the former hostage Mia Shem and Avi Harush, the father of fallen Israeli soldier Rif Harush, addressed attendees at the event, which was held five days after the anniversary on the Hebrew calendar of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel.

“I hope everyone listening to me takes this perspective from Yonatan—that you can achieve anything with a smile and a little charm,” Samerano told JNS. “I believe this is the best wish for the world—that even with our enemies, we try to smile and talk.”

Samerano told JNS that she considers her son to be alive, 388 days after he was taken to Gaza as a hostage.

Many of the speakers shared harrowing testimonies, drawing tears from many audience members. 

Speaking in Hebrew, Shem went into painful detail about her experience at the Nova music festival, where she was kidnapped, and of her time in captivity, during which she was held in a cage underground with “no air” for 55 days. (A live translation of Shem’s remarks projected on a screen.)

“One year ago, I was a 21-year-old girl, who just wanted to dance,” she said, her voice shaking. “I am no longer that girl.” 

“A year has passed. My body is here, but my innocence remains in the fields of blood, and my heart remains captive in Gaza with those five young women still held there—abused and exploited, without air, in the depths of hell,” she said.

Harush read to the audience from a note that he found tucked in a pocket of the uniform of his son Rif, who enlisted in the IDF two months prior to Oct. 7.

“Why am I risking my life?” Rif wrote. “People have done it before and will continue to do it in the future. I do it for the elderly woman who thanks me, who cries, and says, ‘Thank you.’ I do it for my family, so they feel safe and protected and so they know that behind them stands a giant army that will watch over them as long as we are on our feet.”

‘We are winning’

Ofir Akunis, Israeli consul general in New York, told JNS after he addressed the audience that one of the evening’s main messages was to “never forget.”

“To the American people, if you continue to be naive and innocent in the face of pro-terrorist organizations, it will harm your society, not just ours,” Akunis, who assumed his role in May, told JNS.

“This threat impacts not only the Jewish communities but also the United States as a whole,” he said. “The Iranians have launched more than 180 ballistic missiles at our citizens, so we will continue to protect ourselves.”

“We are winning, and we will persist until we defeat Hamas and Hezbollah, just as America defeated al-Qaeda,” he told JNS. 

“Our hope lives on”

Prior to the ceremony, guests viewed a photography exhibit titled “Our Hope Lives On: In the Eyes of Heroes,” which honors reservists, who paused their lives this year to serve in the war against the Hamas and Hezbollah terror organizations.

The 30 soldiers portrayed in the show were each photographed twice—once in color, engaged in former roles like photographer, cook and violinist, and once in black-and-white, looking solemnly at the camera, conveying the gravity of their sacrifice.

“We’re here to honor everyone affected by Oct. 7” and “to show support for them,” Vivace Maxvictor, a native of Iran, told JNS in the exhibit.

“I grew up with terrorism, and so I have tremendous, massive personal experience with it,” she said. “My compassion, my heart, goes out to everyone affected.”

Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli-American Council, honored the sacrifice of heroes like Rif in his remarks and called for the release of all hostages. 

“We will never forget the sacrifice of Rif and of all our heroes, the lions of Judah, who have fought and are still fighting,” Carr said. “One year later, our hostages remain in the hell of Hamas captivity. Mia, thank God you’re here, but we demand the release of all of them—every one of them must come home now.” 

“One year later, the Islamic Republic of Iran is still threatening our annihilation,” he said. “For those of us here in the diaspora, yes, one year later, we are still confronting and fighting against an unrelenting wave of antisemitism that has washed over our streets, our communities, our campuses and our schools.  

“We are commemorating events that are still with us, still present,” he added.

Mark Seitelman, a lawyer, told JNS that he attended “in solidarity with our Israeli brothers and sisters and to show support and love for them.”

“We don’t forget you and we have to take care of you,” he said. “We have to take care of the wounded and prevent further terrorism.”

“We stand with Israel”

Eliyahu Elijah Collins, a Hebrew Israelite leader whose appointment to a New Jersey Conservative synagogue last year drew criticism from leaders of the Conservative movement, told JNS that he attended to show support and solidarity. 

“We’re here as a demonstration of the fact that we stand with Israel, and we want to make sure that it’s clear they have our support,” he said. “Through my participation, I hope this illustrates that, although this is a tragic event, it can be a catalyst for unity and, hopefully, bring Israel together across the globe.”

The event featured musical performances by Israeli artist Yagel Oshri, a rendition of Hatikvah from the Park East Day School Choir, a prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel led by the synagogue cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot and a group recitation of the Kaddish led by the shul’s leader Rabbi Arthur Schneier.

Samerano was the final speaker of the night. She urged attendees to keep fighting for the release of the hostages, and for those who participated in and abetted the Oct. 7 horrors to be held accountable. 

“My Yonatan was unarmed. His only weapons were his charm, happiness and joy,” she said, as footage of the brutal abduction of her son played behind her. “But Yonatan was shot by terrorists and kidnapped. A social worker, an employee of an organization supposed to help humanity, kidnapped my son.” 

“For Yonatan, everything he dreamed of—no matter how difficult—was within reach, because he believed in taking that first step and trusting the rest would follow,” she added. “To those who hold power to make decisions, may you adopt his philosophy and bring him, and all the hostages, back home.”