Marc Rivo remembers all too well the frightening sounds of sirens blaring in Jerusalem, and rushing into a bomb shelter on Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas militants attacked southern Israel.
On Monday, Rivo joined with about 1,100 people inside the sanctuary of Temple Beth Sholom, a synagogue on Miami Beach, for a solemn memorial event to remember those killed and taken hostage, and pray for a more peaceful future.
“We are proud that we are Jewish and that we fight in Israel, for millennia, to be a free people in our own land,” Rivo told WLRN. “We hope that 5785 will be a much better year,” he said, noting the new Jewish year that began on Oct. 2 at sundown.
The Oct. 7 attacks have impacted families like the Rivos on many fronts. He and his wife, Karen, are friends of Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh, was an American-Israeli hostage killed in captivity.
Rivo, who lives in Miami Beach with his wife, has returned to Israel, where he has dual citizenship, to volunteer with a program focused on rebuilding communities in Israel’s south near Gaza. He had been in Israel last year to spend Simhat Torah, a typically joyous holiday that marks the end and restart of a year-long cycle of reading the Torah, which includes Jewish law and teachings.
Monday's event in Miami Beach was organized by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami and the Consulate General of Israel in Miami. It included Holocaust survivors, bereaved Israelis, elected officials — from city commissions to members of Congress — and South Florida residents.
READ MORE: They survived the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Now they battle antisemitism
“We will not rest until each and every one of the 101 [hostages] is back in Israel. Bring them back home, now,” said Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the Consul General of Israel in Miami, drawing applause across the room.
The attack by Hamas militants last year in southern Israel left at least 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians. NPR reported this week on a community, Kibbutz Be'eri, where Hamas attackers went door-to-door breaking into safe rooms to shoot people and burn homes.
Hamas militants also took around 250 people hostage into Gaza. The oldest, Shlomo Mantzur, was 85 at the time and remains in captivity. The youngest, a then 9-month-old baby, Kfir Bibas, also remains a hostage. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 730 soldiers, officers and reservists have been killed during the ongoing war with Hamas.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.
The Oct. 7 attacks and the ongoing war have led to a spike in antisemitism, which Sen. Rick Scott R-Florida, addressed in remarks during Monday's gathering.
Scott has called for unity in fighting harassment, vandalism and assault against Jews: "This is a common cause that I urge every American, regardless of political party to unite around,” he said in a statement.
Cases of antisemitism have nearly tripled since the attacks, according to the latest Anti-Defamation League report, released on Sunday. The ADL, a civil rights organization, wrote that incidents have nearly tripled from Oct. 7, 2023 to Sept. 24, 2024, compared to the same period a year before — from 3,325 incidents to more than 10,000.
The program at Beth Sholom ended with singing of Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah”, which means "the hope," in Hebrew.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
