Candlelight vigil held to remember Israeli victims

At 8 p.m. last night, a small crowd of students began to form in the area between the 1879 arch and McCosh Walk, where an American and Israeli flag had been hung side by side on the thin branch of a tree.

Approximately 30 members of the Princeton community came to take part in a vigil in memory of the 26 victims of the terrorist attacks in Israel last weekend. The vigil was organized by the Princeton Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Princeton Committee Against Terrorism.

PIPAC co-president and organizer of the event Leo Lazar '05 spoke first about his own experience in Israel last summer and described an evening he spent in Jerusalem with his friends.

"As I stood there, watching hundreds of teenagers hit the street in search of fun and laughter, I forgot about the intifada; I forgot about how all Israeli citizens spend three years between high school and college in the army . . . I forgot that Israel had gone through more than five full-scale wars in only fifty years; for a moment, I had completely disconnected from reality, and I loved it," he said.

His feeling that evening didn't last long, however, Lazar said. As he walked with his friends to take a cab ride back to their youth hostel, a car filled with explosives, broken glass, nails and screws exploded less than 50 feet away from them.

Lazar's words were followed by those of Rabbi James Diamond, who spoke about his own emotional response to the attacks.

"I feel diminished when I feel vengeful because our Torah teaches that revenge is not the Jewish way. And I feel soiled frankly, but I have those feelings, and I am sure many of you do too," he said.

Diamond ended on a somber, but forward-looking note.

"I don't know of utopian simplistic solutions; I don't know about peace now or maybe tomorrow. But I'd like to hope that this would be the last such gathering that we would ever have to have. You have to hope. You have to love each other," he said.

After Diamond spoke, students began to light candles. The names and ages of every victim of both attacks were read aloud. A few additional words were said about each of the 10 young Israelis killed by the suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which gave a richer picture of the lives and identities of the victims.

A moment of silence followed the reciting of the names. The crowd stood quietly with bowed heads, some with eyes closed, some staring somberly ahead.

Three prayers were then offered - a prayer for leadership from the United States, a prayer for peace and a prayer for Israel.

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Students then began to place their candles down on the ground in one long row along the side of the path. Lazar asked all those who wished to join together in singing Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem.

Many students remained after the vigil ceremony had ended, talking together in small groups. What struck some students most sharply was their closeness in age to so many of the victims.

"It's impossible to imagine the way that people have to live. We never worry about our lives. We never think when going to the 'Street', 'I could die now. Maybe I shouldn't go out; it's too dangerous.' That kind of thing is impossible to think about, but that's the kind of thing they live everyday," Yali Lewis '05 said.

"It's always touched us, but now we realize that if we were in Israel, that would be us and that our friends who go to Israel are prime targets too," Danielle Cohen '05 remarked.

"When I first found out about it I was really upset," Lewis said. "It's nice to have a group of people on campus to be able to share your feelings with so that you're not alone grieving."