On Thursday, Feb. 29, Haverim Claremont and Claremont Hillel hosted Avigail Olman, a member of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Sagi Gabay, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack on Nova Fest, to speak on their experiences of and since the Hamas-led ambush.
The talk, open to all 7C students and faculty, was titled “Stories of Survival and Resilience” and took place in the Argue Auditorium at Pomona College.
According to Ayelet Kleinerman PO ’24, founder and president of Haverim, the event aligned with Hillel and Haverim’s broader goal to create inclusive spaces for Jewish voices on campus.
“Both Hillel and Haverim provide a space, a community, and a sense for students that they are not alone by providing education [and] leadership skills, catering for students’ interests, celebrating life and Jewish culture, history, and practice, building solidarity, and simply [allowing students to] have fun together,” Kleinerman said in an email to TSL.
In order to put on the event, Claremont Haverim and Claremont Hillel partnered with Stand With Us, a nonprofit organization that, according to their website, is focused on “support[ing] Israel and fight[ing] antisemitism.”
At Thursday’s talk, Rotem Bankel, director of Israeli student programs at Stand With Us, welcomed the audience and introduced the speakers.
Olman began her talk by talking about her experience growing up in Israel in a military family. Following in the footsteps of her father, who served in the IDF, Olman joined and became the first girl in her community to become a combat soldier.
After completing her compulsory service, she was originally put on a reserve unit and commissioned to restart duty Oct. 8. However, after learning about the attacks, Olman decided to join the Search and Rescue Unit a day early on Oct. 7. Olman reported to duty in northern Israel and provided rescue services and evacuations to those in need. She recalled the general confusion and fear she witnessed around Israel as the attacks happened.
“I remember just pure panic, I didn’t know what was going on,” Olman said. “No one knew what was going to happen.”
Olman explained the role the IDF played in helping victims in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.
“One of the main goals of the IDF … was to come and give them faith and security that we were there to protect them no matter what cost,” she said.
She concluded by discussing the war in northern Israel and the IDF’s commitment to sending troops and protecting citizens on all fronts. Olman then gave the floor to Gabay, who introduced himself before recounting the normalcy of his day celebrating at Nova Fest, an open-air music festival in southern Israel, moments before the attack.
He recalled briefly exiting the festival around 6:30 a.m. out to the parking lot with some friends before noticing something in the sky.
“I was looking to the sky and seeing one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen and then I saw splashes in the sky and didn’t understand what I was seeing until I understood,” Gabay said. “It was rockets.”
Though Gabay explained that this was not necessarily an unusual sight in Israel, he decided to leave with his ex-girlfriend. As they drove away, Gabay remembered noticing a car full of bullet holes pass them, prompting them to seek safety in a nearby bomb shelter.
They left the shelter soon after, although Gabay noted that many people did not. He played a video clip taken from a car’s dash cam outside the same shelter showing Hamas gunmen firing shots at Israeli citizens and throwing grenades into the shelter, explaining that the majority of people who stayed inside were killed or kidnapped.
Emilio Bankier PO ’27, a student leader at Claremont Hillel and director of public relations at Haverim, noted this video as being the moment that stood out to him the most from the talk.
“That’s something very powerful and especially when you realize that the person standing there in front of you would not be there had he not driven off like five minutes earlier,” Bankier said.
After driving away, Gabay and his ex-girlfriend abandoned their vehicle and began their journey on foot, running through open fields.
Later finding his car destroyed, he attributed his earlier decision to a gut instinct he had to flee.
“Everyone was confused, everyone was shocked, everyone was scared,” he said. “I think it was my luck that my body understood what was happening.”
Though Gabay noted that all of his closest friends survived, the Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250 people, the majority of them citizens. Reflecting on this violence, he emphasized his desire for safety and normalcy for the people in Israel.
“My message is that no moms need to cry when their sons or girls go to a party,” he said. “We all just want to live peacefully and enjoy life without being in the massacre.”
Bankier expressed the importance of having Olman and Gabay tell their stories at the 5Cs.
“I think it’s very important that Israelis speak on campus so that they’re humanized,” Bankier said. “I think a lot of what goes on on campus dehumanizes Israelis and it’s nice to put a face to the idea and to hear from them and their experiences of Oct. 7.”
Kleinerman echoed Bankier’s sentiment about the importance of hearing personal stories from Israelis.
“In a reality where Jews, Zionists and Israelis are dehumanized to alarmingly violent levels, it is important to remind the community that those people are first and foremost humans, which was the goal of this event,” Kleinerman said in an email to TSL. “There is no better way to learn about the Oct. 7th impact on Israelis [than] through their lived experiences.”
Bankier also expressed the importance of garnering inclusive discussion and listening to others regarding topics such as this one.
“We’re all human and trying to deny that isn’t going to get anyone anywhere and solutions don’t come from thin air and they don’t come from violence and they don’t come from shutting anybody down,” Bankier said. “They come from sitting down at a table and talking to someone and you can’t do that if you refuse to give a face to that person sitting down at the other end of the table.”
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