BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Many in Northeast Ohio's Jewish community woke up on this Oct. 7 feeling like Mark Holz, the Overseas Committee Chair for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
"It's hard to mark this day without a tremendous amount of sadness," he said. "Obviously, I knew this day was coming and the buildup to it, but waking up this morning and kind of reliving everything and seeing 30+ messages on my phone from Israelis just saying they are there with us and 'thank you for everything you did for us over the last year and don't forget about us.' It's a hard day."
But they learned last year that what can ease the pain is the coming together as a community to mark this sad anniversary as several thousand people from across Northeast Ohio did Monday evening at the Federation.
"We are coming together to mourn and to remember and to not forget the hostages that are still being held in the terror tunnels of Hamas," Holz said.
As a crowd of 2,000 gathered here in this same spot off Richmond Road in Beachwood last October, Rotem Sadeh was on the run to safety with her husband and two young kids. They lived in the town of Sderot, the largest city attacked on Oct. 7, less than a mile from the border with Gaza.
"We always say that living in the Gaza envelope is 90% heaven and 10% hell," Sadeh said.
Oct. 7, 2023, taking the latter to unimaginable heights. They were used to missiles maybe once a month, but this was different.
"Nobody knew the severity, the magnitude of what happened," she said looking back a year later.
At least 50 people were killed in Sderot, including eight police officers. Rotem and her family were eventually able to escape as the city was overrun by terrorists and then taken back a few days later. This community of 36,000 remained empty for the most part until it reopened in March. As a family, Rotem said they never went back.
"I would say that after Oct. 7, we felt alone," she said. "It's frightening to know that you've been attacked at your own house, and you have no one to be there for you."
They soon learned there were people there for them, right here in Northeast Ohio and in communities around the world. That's why she came a year later, to say thanks as a featured speaker at this year's service.
"Getting the opportunity to come here and to speak to the people that are strangers to me but are like family to me because they care about me, they care about my family; they care about my well-being… they feel like it happened to them, not to a stranger."
"A lot of us in Cleveland, we never met the hostages," said Holz. "We never met their families, but over the course of the last year, we've had the opportunity to meet many, many of them, and they've really become like family."
