By Amelia Twyman and Sam Gauntt
For 48 seconds, a Maryland Hillel room packed with more than 100 University of Maryland students was silent. With each second, community members honored a hostage still captive in Gaza.
Throughout Monday evening’s ceremony, students and community members remembered the about 250 people taken hostage and the more than 1,200 people killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Attendees spoke about the pain and weight the day carries as its second anniversary began in Israel.
“It’s crazy that it’s been two years,” junior psychology major Yuval Shachar said. “It’s heartbreaking, but it also feels like it was yesterday.”
Shachar remembers coming downstairs as her family watched the attack unfold on TV. Her mother was frantically trying to contact her aunt in Israel, but couldn’t reach her because her phone had died.
During the ceremony, a student read the names of the hostages remaining in Gaza. Shachar’s great uncle was one of those names.
He was killed in captivity, and his wife was returned after being taken hostage, Shachar said.
As they entered Maryland Hillel for the ceremony, community members walked by rows of candles set atop pictures of individual hostages. A banner strung from pillars in the lobby read “Let them go now!”
For several students, the ceremony represented their bond and strength of community.
[UMD SGA passes boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution on Yom Kippur]
“The ceremony itself is an opportunity for students to come and honor the day, honor the lives lost and come together as a community,” Mia Mikowski, the Jewish Student Union’s vice president of Israel engagement, said before the ceremony Monday.
The Jewish Student Union is continuing its remembrance events Tuesday with a “100 Human Stories” exhibit and hostage memorial display on McKeldin Mall.
Mikowski told The Diamondback last week she was dreading the anniversary because it brings up emotional and stressful memories.
“It’s not a fun day for me to remember,” the junior aerospace engineering major said. “Coming up on two years makes me feel just awful, but this is still going on, and there’s still people experiencing what I experienced on day one, today.”
The Associated Press reported Monday that 48 hostages remain in captivity. About 20 of them are believed to be alive.
Taylor Faust, a Jewish student at this university, said she has been feeling an assortment of emotions in regards to the anniversary, including a significant amount of anger.
She said she’s angry that Hamas attacked Israel in 2023 and that many hostages have not been returned. The senior criminology and criminal justice major said she is also frustrated with some of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions regarding the country’s war with Hamas.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians since it started after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the Associated Press reported Monday. Thousands of people in Israel and across the world have protested Netanyahu, demanding he take a ceasefire deal to bring the hostages back and end Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the Associated Press reported.
Indirect talks over a potential peace-agreement began between Israeli and Hamas officials in Egypt on Monday. Officials are discussing a U.S.-devised plan to end Israel’s offensive in Gaza and return the hostages.
Faust said she hopes people can understand not all Jewish and Israeli community members agree with the Israeli government’s actions.
“We don’t want people to die, we don’t want war, we don’t want suffering,” she said. “If you can understand the core fundamentals that no one wants anyone to die, I think we can understand each other a lot more and get to a place where we can actively find solutions together.”
[SGA resolution demands UMD recognize Israel’s offensive in Gaza as genocide]
Faust added that she has been upset over incidents of antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world over the past two years.
Incidents of anti-Jewish hate crimes spiked in the U.S. toward the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, according to data from the FBI.
Several Jewish and Israeli students at this university told The Diamondback that their experience with antisemitism on campus has been much milder compared to other schools in the U.S. But some students said they still felt uncomfortable on campus in certain moments.
Faust said she has mostly encountered verbal instances of antisemitism, such as people making comments to her and her friends on their way to Hillel.
Alex Mullin, a junior mechanical engineering major who has family living in Israel, said he remembers seeing “harmful” messages written in chalk on campus his freshman year, right around the time of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. He’s been concerned with legislation in this university’s Student Government Association.
SGA passed a boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution on Wednesday calling on this university and the University of Maryland College Park foundation to cut ties with all companies and academic institutions that “support or profit from Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation,” The Diamondback reported last week.
SGA legislators voted on the first night of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. Members of this university’s Jewish community said the action was unfair because many of them could not be present to express their opinions on the resolution.
SGA allowed proxy voting for legislators who could not attend, and provided a form for students to submit their concerns on. SGA also hosted committee meetings ahead of last week’s vote to hear student concerns.
Jewish Student Union president Lucy Schneider said Jewish students at the university are standing strong and will continue to celebrate Jewish life and identity despite attempts to silence their voices.
“We have a strong, resilient community who is committed to persevering,” she said.
