(Courtesy: Claremont Hillel)
Claremont Hillel hosted Rom El-Hai, a survivor of the Hamas-led attack on the Nova Music Festival, for a memorial service on Thursday to mark the three-year anniversary of Oct. 7. El-Hai spoke about his experience during and after the attacks to a group of around 30 5C students and community members on Oct. 8 at the Hillel house.
El-Hai began the service by speaking about his experience on the day of the Oct. 7 festival. He said he and his friends went into the festival at 2 a.m., and at 6:30 a.m. he saw missiles overhead. He described a quick transition from “happiness [and] joy” to “fear, trauma [and] panic.”
He spoke about the chaos as a police officer told him to “get out of the car and run,” as he and a group of friends and strangers fled the festival and hid in surrounding fields.
“One thing I’ll take with me for the rest of my life are the faces,” El-Hai said.
He recounted the next several hours of walking in the heat with no knowledge of where the violence was coming from or where his group could go to get help. He recalled particular moments of terror when he heard others being killed and was certain he himself would be killed. He said he did not return to his hometown until 11 p.m.
El-Hai described how his life changed in the weeks after the attack. He said he lost the ability to feel, lost his job, lost his girlfriend and dropped out of school. Months later, he joined a survivors’ group and learned that several schools and organizations in the United States were seeking out survivors to share their experiences. He said this opportunity helped him heal.
“[I could] be a voice for those who can’t speak,” he said.
Hillel held a similar service last year, where the group hosted Yoni Viloga, another Oct. 7 survivor. Four masked individuals interrupted the service in protest of Viloga; TSL later received an anonymous statement claiming responsibility for the disruption, accusing Pomona and Hillel of “endorsement and defense of genocide.”
Interim Director of Claremont Hillel Jeanine Borland Mann spoke about how safety was a priority in planning this year’s event.
“Our students really wanted to be able to just have the experience of hearing a survivor without interruption,” Borland Mann said. “And with the emotions that we saw tonight, which were grief, and laughter and sadness … Being together in a safe place, that was the main consideration of being able to give students the opportunity to mourn something that is so horrific and affected so many of our students personally.”
Machelle Kabir SC ’27, a member of Hillel’s general board, recalled last year’s protests and said she accounted for the disruption when organizing this year’s service. The location of the event was not disclosed publicly, RSVPs were required to attend and IDs were checked at the door.
“Last year, a lot of our students faced a lot of traumatic incidents, and even our speakers — everybody in that room — from the protestors who came in,” Kabir said. “I just didn’t want the same thing to happen this year. I wanted it to be a safe environment for our speaker and our students, and for everybody to just at the end of the day have a good time and an educational time.”
Borland Mann emphasized the importance of hearing from survivors regardless of the circumstances surrounding the event.
“It’s incredibly powerful,” she said. “Each story is unique and different, and what’s powerful to me is how many lives have been changed because of this event. And that’s why I think these are so important to hear and to continue to hear their stories, to remember and also learn about the importance of building bridges and working with others, and working to create peace.”
El-Hai said that while the community he has seen between Israelis and Diaspora Jews in the U.S. is strong, he maintained that Israel will always be the homeland of Jews everywhere. His message especially resonated with Kabir, who spoke about her own reckoning with this issue and her Jewish identity.
“I think generally sharing his story just displays how bravely Jewish he is, and I feel like it makes me personally want to be as Jewish as possible,” Kabir said.
Although El-Hai spoke about the violence of Oct. 7, he concluded by delivering a message on how to move forward from the traumas of that day.
“Never let hatred win,” he said.
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