Correction: This piece was corrected at 1:37 p.m. CDT on Oct. 12. It previously stated that Veronica Grady was a staff member of Vanderbilt Hillel; she is actually the assistant director. Additionally, one of Grady’s quotes was misattributed to Maya Robin.
Approximately 200 students and community members attended a vigil for lives lost in Israel co-hosted by Vanderbilt Hillel and Vanderbilt Chabad on Oct. 10.
The previous day, the Jewish Federation of Nashville organized a rally in support of Israel at the Gordon Jewish Community Center. An estimated 700 people were in attendance, including Gov. Bill Lee and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
“We believe and have faith. There is hope, and we have great hope just like has always been the case that this country and this state will stand together with these people,” Lee said at the rally.
Veronica Grady, assistant director of Vanderbilt Hillel, gave opening remarks to begin the vigil at Vanderbilt.
“Tonight you will hear stories and statistics about the hell on earth that Hamas terrorists have set upon our beloved homeland,” Grady said. “I urge you not to look away. Instead of shutting yourself in and the horrors of the world out, I challenge you, instead, to lean into your community. Do what Judaism teaches us to come together.”
Grady also reflected on the proximity of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack to the Jewish holidays and criticized the “court of public opinion.”
“The holidays of the previous month had enshrined us in, and we were standing raw and vulnerable as the court of public opinion passed judgments, providing what [it] called context, and what we experienced as dehumanization. What did Israel do to provoke this? What did Israelis do to earn this?” Grady said. “Let me be clear, there is no justification, no normalization, no modicum of understanding or careful framework of context that is sufficient to justify terror.”
At the vigil, small candles were arranged in the pattern of the Star of David on Library Lawn, around which attendees gathered to mourn the lives lost in Israel. The area outside of Buttrick was also decorated with Israeli flags. Some students took available flags to wrap around their shoulders. One flag was hung on the statue of Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, which stands at the top of Library Lawn.
Junior Maya Robin, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel, spoke at the vigil about her experience checking on loved ones who live in Israel and serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
“I never thought I would have to message so many of my friends and family to ask if they were alive and okay. I’ve been so scared to open my phone,” Robin said. “For the past few days, I’ve been shaking in fear.”
After prayers led by Jewish student leaders and the singing of the Israeli national anthem — Hatikvah, Rabbi Shlomo Rothstein, director of Vanderbilt Chabad, gave closing remarks.
“We are a diverse group of people standing here, many different opinions, but we stand united in our love for humanity and our outrage at terrorism. Tonight we need each other’s support more than ever,” Rothstein said.
Rothstein added that the news of Hamas’s attacks evoked memories of the Holocaust for him and Jews worldwide.
“The feelings I get every time I see the news and think about the terrible, terrible tragedy is actually how I feel when I’m in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem,” Rothstein said. “Grief, anger, gut-wrenching sadness for the senseless hate and murder of my people.”
Rothstein led attendees through readings from the books of Isaiah and Micah as well as Oseh Shalom — a prayer for peace — and Am Yisrael Chai, before encouraging students to take comfort in the community around them and remain on the lawn for as long as they like.
