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UPDATE: This story was updated at 8:15 p.m. on December 5, 2023.

Around 100 students and community members gathered at the Syracuse University Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life Thursday evening to hear the first-hand perspective of Millet Ben Haim, a survivor of the Supernova music festival massacre during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

At the event, hosted by Syracuse Hillel, the Chabad House Jewish Student Center and the Students Supporting Israel club, Ben Haim recounted her experience fleeing from the scene and hiding from Hamas militants for over six hours before being rescued by two civilians.

“I saw a massive barrage of rockets,” Ben Haim said, describing the start of the attack. “Nobody knew what was happening.”

Ben Haim said that in the time leading up to when she was able to escape from the site of the festival, she first attempted to flee by car before she was forced to run away on foot. Then, she had to split up from her original group and tried to contact her family and police as she hid from Hamas militants.

“It feels like someone is burning poison in your body … this kind of fear that I felt,” she said.

Ben Haim said she was eventually saved by Rami Davidian, a civilian who rescued several other survivors after the attack.

After Ben Haim’s initial speech, Maura Koenig, who helped plan the event, opened the floor to questions from audience members. Students filled out questions on notecards before Koenig asked them to Ben Haim.

Koenig, the assistant director of recruitment and partnership for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Teen Immersive Israel Programs and personal friend of Ben Haim, said she was proud to see the number of students in attendance. She credited Hillel and Chabad for their help promoting the speaker and said she hoped Ben Haim could help unite the Jewish community in Syracuse.

“The room was silent the entire time,” Koenig said. “I think every single person in this room feels really lucky to have been here … I know that I did.”

Several students involved in Jewish organizations on campus were in attendance, many of whom said they have a personal connection to the ongoing conflict.

“It’s really powerful to have such a strong Jewish community here at Syracuse,” said Philip, a senior at SU, who asked to be referred to only by first name.

Two other students, Josh and Emma — both SU sophomores who also asked to use only their first names — said they attended the event to support Ben Haim as she had previously been their camp counselor at a summer camp during a trip to Israel.

“It was important to show up for her and her cause,” Josh said.

Several Chabad and Hillel leaders, including Israel Co-Chair Emma Burke, said providing students with a first-hand account of the Israel-Hamas war can help raise awareness of the human impacts of the conflict. Many said they believed hosting Ben Haim would provide a “missing narrative that isn’t being showcased on campus,” Burke said.

“It was really important that people hear what happened on Oct. 7 from a first-hand experience,” Burke said. “We wanted to share Millet’s story and give her the platform to do so.”

Alexis Salen, a SU student who worked with Koenig to plan the event, said she was proud Hillel and Chabad could provide the university’s Jewish community with the perspective of a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack — something she said many students pushed for.

“With such a polarized political climate right now, it’s important to remember that it’s not politics to so many people,” Salen said. “It’s not really a one-side-versus-another thing … it’s being on the side of humanity.”

At the end of the event, several Hillel and Chabad leaders urged community members to support the Faces of October 7th project, a nonprofit initiative with a group of survivors, including Ben Haim, who travel all over the country to hold guest lectures.

“There will not be a victory of light over darkness until we recognize the simple truth that, instead of fighting darkness, we should turn on the light,” Ben Haim said.

Published on December 1, 2023 at 12:31 am

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu