Hundreds Unite at Set Shabbat Table to Remember Gaza Hostages

By COLlive reporter
Photos: Chaim Tuito/COLlive

A special event to show solidarity with the innocent civilian hostages taken by Hamas in the massacre on Simchas Torah took place near Crown Heights on Friday, organized by a group of local Jewish residents.

Hamas terrorists abducted over 222 innocent civilians, including infants and Holocaust survivors, during the October 7 massacre. The group of victims includes men, women, and children of all ages. They are Argentinians, Germans, Americans, French, Russians, and Israelis.

Hundreds gathered for the event on Eastern Parkway near the Brooklyn Museum, which featured a fully set Shabbos table with over 222 empty chairs, to demand the hostages’ immediate return.

“We will not be silent until every single hostage is reunited with their families,” said activist Sam Stern, one of the organizers. “We set up a Shabbat table, because it is our sincere hope and prayer that we are reunited with the hostages today, now – before Shabbat, so they can join us because we already have a seat reserved for them at the table.”

“The hostages are from all four corners of the world, and therefore it is incumbent upon us to come together from all four corners of the world, to say, you are not forgotten, you will not be forgotten. We will protest, we will yell, we will scream, we will put pressure, we will do everything within the law, to let it be known that this is an atrocity that we have never seen in the past 75 years, and we will never allow this to happen again,” Stern said.

The hundreds joined in song, led by musician Zalmy Schreiber on the guitar, singing “Acheinu” and “Shalom Aleichem,” the prayer sung before the Shabbos meal every Friday night, with the hope and prayer that the hostages will be released home to their loved ones even before the beginning of Shabbos.

Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, Head of the Jewish Future Alliance and one of the event organizers, quoted the Lubavitcher Rebbe about the challenges facing the country of Israel and the Jewish nation: “Jews don’t ask what’s going to be, Jews ask, ‘What are we going to do?'” he said. “It is important for us to be here today and stand here proudly as Jews. Dear fellow Jews, many of you are facing antisemitism and attacks, but now is the time to stand proud, now is the time to stand strong. Do not be afraid! The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. We are one family, our unity is our strength, and we are united, Am Yisrael Chai!”

Other speakers included Rabbi Aron Raskin, leader of Chabad of Brooklyn Heights and  Rabbi Lazer Avtzon of Crown Heights.

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