'I want to hug my daughter': Jewish leaders, lawmakers mourn at Oct. 7 event in California

LOS ANGELES — Local and state lawmakers and Jewish community leaders and advocates addressed a crowd of about 2,000 in Beverly Hills on the Oct. 7 anniversary of the attack on Israel, honoring those who died while repeatedly calling for the release of those still held hostage.

"I want to simply hug my daughter," said Eitan Gonen, recounting the call he received from his daughter Romi before she was taken hostage at a music festival last year by Hamas militants in Gaza. "I don't want to look at her picture anymore."

On a candlelit stage, Gonen, as well as Mayor Karen Bass, Sen. Alex Padilla, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and Rabbis David Baron and Noah Farkas, among others, joined the Jewish community and supporters in a more than two-hour program at the Saban Theatre to remember the victims of an attack that left an estimated 1,200 dead, with roughly 250 people taken hostage.

"Tonight, I and those here grieve with you, reflect with you and offer you our support as Angelenos and as Americans," Bass said.

Actor and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik said that she was wary of participating as fear from last year's attack persists.

"I, like so many of us, live with a terror and an anxiety since Oct. 7 that seems to not allow me to have a place where I can truly feel settled or happy or whole," she said. "I worried about being in a communal space tonight because I wasn't sure how it would feel."

Many who arrived for the event reunited with friends outside the theater before walking through metal detectors and showing identification to access the packed venue.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, protests emerged, fueled by outrage over the war between Israel and Hamas. In addition to a pro-Israel vigil on the UCLA campus Monday, a pro-Palestinian protest was held amid what organizers termed "a week of rage." Protesters also gathered at USC and other campuses to decry the deaths of Palestinians and Israel's bombardment of Lebanon.

Counterattacks by Israel have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In Lebanon, Israel has targeted Hamas-allied group Hezbollah. According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, hundreds of people have been killed and more than 1.2 million have been displaced.

Over the course of Monday night, dozens paid tribute to the victims of last year's attack in Gaza while denouncing antisemitism. Seven candles were lighted in honor of those who died, as well as first responders and others who helped to save victims; rabbis and cantors sang in Hebrew as the crowd held up battery-powered candles.

"This is a night where people needed to be together. … This was a year we would love to forget," said Roz Rothstein, CEO and founder of StandWithUs, one of the groups that organized the event. "Something has to change."

The granddaughter of a current hostage wished for optimism.

"Bring them hope, so that they may come home to a better world," Malayan Snapir said, before receiving a standing ovation. Her grandfather Oded Lifshitz remains captive.