University of Maryland students gathered at Hillel on Sunday evening to sing timeless Jewish songs at a vigil mourning the six murdered hostages, whose bodies were discovered by the Israel Defense Forces the day prior.
The IDF recovered the slain hostages — Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Master Sgt. Ori Danino and Hersh Goldberg-Polin — on Saturday night, in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.
The discovery of the bodies, including that of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American whose face became symbolic of the hostages’ plight over the past 11 months, sent the American Jewish community into a state of shock, followed by immense despair.
To help Maryland students process the heartbreaking news, Rikki Lehman, the campus OU-JLIC representative, announced the availability of a shira session, an event centered around singing traditional Jewish melodies.
Along with singing Hebrew songs such as “Acheinu” and “V’Heshemta,” a handful of students gave speeches detailing the unrealized hopes and dreams of each slain hostage.
Sophomore Talia Markowitz memorialized Eden Yerushalmi, a 24-year-old Tel Aviv native whom Hamas kidnapped from the Supernova music festival on October 7.
“Eden loved spending summer days by the beach and was studying to become a pilates instructor,” Markowitz told vigil attendees.
Reflecting on Sunday night’s vigil, Claire Roffman, a junior hearing and speech science major from Boston, shared that she found the singing to be “therapeutic.”
She was grateful for how quickly campus Jewish leaders put together a “space for everyone to process their emotions while simultaneously practicing the Jewish tradition.”
Rabbi Josh Lehman, the campus OU-JLIC rabbi, started the services by acknowledging there are no words that can bring comfort, but that singing can be a universal language.
Every student was given an opportunity to light a memorial candle, as well as a hand-held candle to contribute to the mellow atmosphere.
For Roffman, seeing the dozens of flickering candles imbued her with a sense of hope.
“As I watched everyone’s candles flicker, I realized just how powerful a little light can be in a time of darkness and it inspired me to always try to bring that light,” she told Mitzpeh.
The vigil hosted around 100 students of varying religious backgrounds, from Orthodox to Reform, and even drew a number of Greek life students.
Eliana Casper, an Orthodox biology major from Florida who spends a lot of time at Hillel, was delighted to see many attendees whom she had never met before.
“I liked that there were a lot of new faces that I didn’t know, religious not religious, everyone came together in pain. Everyone was feeling the same. We were feeling for our nation.”
