Thousands pack Boch Center during 1-year remembrance of those killed in Hamas attack

Coming together in song and prayer, nearly 4,000 people gathered inside the Boch Center Theater in Boston Monday to honor and remember those killed in Israel one year ago.

Daniel Vaknin was at the Nova music festival that day, dodging bombs and bullets with his friends.

“We’re getting shot at by automatic rifles nonstop, AK-47, and you can hear the whistles of the gunshots you can smell the gun powder and you can feel it,” said Vaknin.

Vaknin says he was one of the lucky ones who found a place to hide for ten hours thanks to a Holocaust survivor.

“As a Holocaust survivor it’s sad to see after what she’s been through she’s taking care of people and hiding them from terrorists,” said Vaknin.

Many others directly impacted by the Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023 shared their stories, like Bonnie Polin Pomper from Newton, whose nephew, Hersh, was taken hostage that day and then killed just about a month ago.

“Hersh would have turned 24 this week,” said Polin Pomper. “Let his name be a memory for revolution for good.”

The theater was lit up by candles during a moment of silence for the more than 1,200 killed in this terrorist attack.

“It’s painful and unimaginable that we’re marking this day one year later and in many ways we haven’t even begun to grieve, you know we thought by this time we’d be looking back, but if you ask Israelis they would say it still feels like October 7, 2023 because the trauma just continues to unfold,” said Rabbi Marc Baker, president and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

The trauma continues as many pray for the remaining hostages to come home.

There were about 100 seats reserved up front for each person still held captive by Hamas, including a baby seat for the youngest hostage, one-year-old Kfir Bibas.

“We come together and we find strength and resilience in one another and it’s precisely at moments like this that we need to be together in community,” said Rabbi Baker.

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