Executive and Managing Director Comments from Israel Solidarity Vigil – October 2023

Rabbi Jevin Eagle, Executive Director
October 13, 2023 – Solidarity Shabbat
We are not okay.
We are enraged. We are in pain. We are in mourning. We are nervous. We are
scared.
Many of us do not feel supported. By friends, classmates, colleagues, and our
beloved university.
What happened is unprecedented. The worst possible evil. Planned, targeted
cross border terror—by land, air, and sea—in over 20 civilian towns. They had
only one goal: Murder, rape, beheadings, hostages. Old people in wheel chairs.
Breastfeeding babies. College age people at music festival. Whole families
wiped out.
1,300 Dead. 150 hostages. Many, many injured with burns so bad that we can’t
identify who they are. Conducted by 3,000 highly trained terrorists. With
30,000 more of these highly trained terrorists sitting right now in Gaza, calling
for a Global Day of Jihad.
This is not about Palestinians or the Palestinian conflict. This is about terrorists
who are worse than ISIS. Their stated goal is to eliminate Israel and to kill
EVERY Jew.
We need more allies like President Biden. And the NFL and the NBA. We need
more people and more organizations to be unequivocal in their condemnation of
Hamas, unequivocal in their support for the State of Israel and for Jews
throughout the world. Silence is deafening.
Yesterday, in Israel, US Secretary of State Blinken gave this message to Israel:
You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself, but as as long as
America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your
side.
Today, in Israel, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, gave this message to
Israel, filled with condolences, solidarity, and hope.
He pointed out the amazing way Israelis are coming together when their backs
are to the wall. Hotels and homes taking in those who’ve had to flee. Long line-
ups for blood. WhatsApp flooded with messages of people racing to support
neighbors in anguish. People showing up for reserve duty who weren’t even
called up. Israelis around the world returning home to help—and to fight.
Secretary Austin said: Perhaps because I’m a retired general, I was especially
moved by the story of a retired general named Noam Tibon. His son called him
on Saturday from his home near Gaza to say that Hamas terrorists had stormed
their kibbutz and were closing in. And the retired general jumped into his car in
Tel Aviv, raced toward the combat zone, linked up with other fighters, and
rescued his son, his daughter-in-law, and his granddaughters. When the general
arrived at their house, one of his granddaughters just said, “Grandpa is here.”
Secretary Austin finished by saying this is no time for neutrality, or for false
equivalence, or for excuses for the inexcusable.
There is never any justification for terrorism.
And that’s especially true after this rampage by Hamas.
And in times like these, sometimes the best thing that a friend can do is to just
show up….
On behalf of our beloved Jewish students, my Jewish colleagues on the BU
faculty, and my dear BU Hillel Colleagues,
I want to say to Deans:
Jason, Stan, David, Jack, Mariette, Natalie, Hyoeuk, Aldo, and Tanya, and to
other special friends here this evening.
Thank you for showing up.
Thank you for doing a mitzvah, a good deed.
May God bless you.
Students, colleagues, and friends.
As we speak today let us remember that everyone here today is doing a mitzvah
of showing up. They are here to help. Let us show our respect and say thank
you.

October 11, 2023 – Vigil
More Jews were murdered this past week than any time since the Holocaust.
In the words of President Biden:
This was an act of sheer evil.
More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered—not just killed, slaughtered—in Israel.
Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children.
Stomach-turning reports of babies being killed.
Entire families slain.
Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace.
Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.
The brutality of Hamas—this bloodthirstiness—brings to mind the worse—the
worst rampages of ISIS.
This is terrorism.
But sadly, for the Jewish people, it’s not new.
This attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by a
millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people.
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Winner, BU Professor for 40 years, said:
We must always take sides.
Neutrality helps the oppressor. Never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Sometimes we must interfere.
We must always take sides.
This week’s attacks against Jews in Israel are not complicated to understand. This
is not about “good people, or bad people, on both sides.” There is no grey here.
There is one side to take.
There can be no justification for what has happened.

Ethan Sobel, Managing Director
October 11, 2023 – Vigil
We are in pain. We are heartbroken. We are angry and traumatized. We stand here today to show the power of being together. We are here to pray, commemorate, and be with one another. As students, staff, and faculty there are so many ways we are showing up as a community. Of course here today, but we invite you also to join us daily at 1 pm at BU Hillel to light yahrzeit candles and say kaddish. We invite you to join many BU Deans this Friday at BU Hillel for Israeli Solidarity Shabbat. BU Hillel staff and rabbis are here for you – to listen, to validate you, to be there for you. Your peers are here for you with amazing student groups like BU Students for Israel. There are dedicated partners that join us who are also here to support you – The BU Hebrew Language Dept, the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Marsh Chapel and Religious Life, BU professors, and more.  The late great professor of BU, Elie Wiesel said it best, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” We are standing here today, not being indifferent.  Let us urge others not be indifferent. Silence is loud. Let us find more ways to be together in the days ahead. If you have ideas on how we can support you, Jewish students, and Israel, tell us and let’s get started. Thank you.