Read the full article in the New York Times
By Gaya Gupta and Lola Fadulu
Thousands of people gathered across Manhattan on Monday to commemorate the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with groups on both sides of the conflict expressing their collective grief and outrage over the past year of war.
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Separately in Union Square, hundreds of people sang at a memorial organized by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, IfNotNow and other left-leaning Jewish groups. As speakers called for an arms embargo, an immediate cease-fire and a deal to return the hostages, the crowd — some wearing kaffiyehs or kipas, some holding signs with slogans like “Palestinian and Jewish Safety Are Intertwined” and “Not Another Bomb” — was solemn.
As the names of Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese civilians who have been killed in the past year were read aloud, quiet sobs were the only sounds. Attendees stood to light yahrzeit memorial candles and leave small stones at the feet of the speakers.
“It’s hard to be here knowing that despite the efforts of so many people, it hasn’t stopped,” said Zoe Goldblum, a 28-year-old Park Slope resident who works at a Jewish nonprofit.
“But we’re still here, because there are still people living in Gaza and in Israel and in Lebanon who deserve our voices and who need us to be out here, showing that we hear them,” she continued. “They deserve to live.”