A mother is talking quietly, almost without emotion, a monotone. The microphone crackles but relays her words to the crowd gathered beneath the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“We are here but we cannot forget there are 240 people buried but alive under Gaza,” Rachel Goldberg says. “They include my son Hersh. He was at the rave party. He escaped to a bomb shelter. Hamas threw in grenades and shot. Most of the people he was with were killed but Hersh was alive.”
Her voice rises slightly. She has told this story many times, though not here, at the most important site for the Jewish faith.
“Hersh was alive but his left arm was blown off at the elbow. He was put on a pickup truck and taken into Gaza where he has been ….” And then suddenly “… for 32 days,” Goldberg screams, her voice cracking.
A month after the 7 October attacks launched by Hamas from Gaza, which killed 1,400 people – mostly civilians – many Israelis are still reeling from what its president called the worst loss of Jewish lives in a single day since the Holocaust.
Across Israel on Tuesday, there were candles lit in vigils and gatherings. Some brought the bereaved together. Others were effectively protests against the multiple failures of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s divisive, scandal-hit prime minister and the far-right government he leads.
The communities worst hit – the kibbutzim and towns in the south along the breached perimeter of Gaza – held their own private services in the makeshift accommodation that is now home.
The meeting at the Western Wall was organised by an umbrella group representing the families of the hostages taken by Hamas. Only four have so far been released, and one rescued by the Israeli military now fighting in Gaza.
Lilach Levy, 57, volunteered to help the families with their social media outreach. As a rabbi blew the ritual ram’s horn, the shofar, Levy spoke of other crises: the wars of 1973 and 1982, which she remembered vividly. “I can remember times when Israel was peaceful and happy. Maybe in the mid-1980s. The Israel was well,” she said.
“The hardest thing now is the feeling that we cannot trust our army to protect us. We thought it was the best in the world but not any more.”
Nearby was Yuval Matuk, a popular influencer with a vast social media following in Israel, who recently won the country’s version of Big Brother. “All that seems very trivial now … It is important to be here so people know that, though the army is inside Gaza and the operation is going on, there are [the hostages] in Gaza too. We must never give up. We must get them home,” Matuk said.
A popular singer brought many in the crowd to the brink of tears. Many were already holding hands, or quietly sobbing. There were long pauses, and then the national anthem, Hatikva.
One man waved a large Israeli flag, but most carried the black and red placards with a face of a relative, a name, an age and a slogan: BringThemHomeNow. The long walkway that leads to the Western Wall was lined with such portraits. It starts with Inbar Haiman, aged 27, and Goren Maya, 56. It ends with Noa Argamani, 26, and Ben Binyamin Cohen, 27.
Many said they had close relatives who have been called up. A handful mentioned their concerns about Israel’s response to the attacks, the massive land and air offensive in Gaza, the acute humanitarian crisis there and the devastating toll on civilian lives.
“More deaths aren’t the answer, violence just brings more violence,” said one young man quietly, who refused to give his name.
David Brickman, a 44-year-old real estate developer from New Jersey, had come with 30 others from different US synagogues on a “solidarity trip”. He said: “Israel’s war is our war and I say that as an American Jew and as an American.”
“This is one of the holiest places for Jews. People come to pray here, to pour out their souls. The closeness you feel to God is second to none. We are all praying for the return of the hostages.”
On Monday night, a more official gathering had been held at the Western Wall, involving senior rabbis and a cabinet minister. A candle had been lit for each of the victims of the 7 October attack.
For Nurit Lenga, a 58-year-old lawyer, too, the location of the gathering was important.
“The hostages were captured because they were Jews. So this is my family as well as their families’. It is another brick in the wall. Another incident in our history [of persecution]. We have been through this before,” Lenga said.
Orit Sherf, 45, said that she and others were well aware of the hostile reaction to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, where more than 10,000 people have been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry.
“We are used to the criticism but the antisemitism that is rising and coming back – that is worse. We feel that everyone is against us,” Sherf, a celebrity agent, said.
A final round of prayers, some speeches and the female members of the hostages’ families form a large circle to sing the Hatikva. Then the crowd begins to disperse.
• This article was amended on 8 November 2023. An earlier version, reporting Gaza health ministry figures, referred to more than 10,000 “civilians” killed in the Israeli offensive when “people” was meant.
