Hundreds of people gathered at Temple Israel Center in White Plains to see the unveiling of a new installation that honors the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre.
"[It was] The biggest one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust," said Steve Laub, who attended the event.
"The last seven months have been extremely difficult for the Jewish community here, mourning the loss of so many people in Israel and suffering a lot from antisemitism," said Shachar Liran Hanan, with the Jewish Agency, the organization that planned the event.
There were 1,200 ceramic anemones displayed to represent the 1,200 people who died that day. The anemone flowers bloom in the desert and stand as a sign of hope.
"We should let everyone know that this really happened and this wasn't a figment of our imagination," added Laub.
"Every single flower here represents a person, a human being, a child, an adult that was murdered on october 7th look at this its massive, its overwhelming," Hanan pointed out.
Nissim Louk, the father of Shani Louk, the 22-year-old woman killed at the Nova Music Festival, and whose naked body was paraded through the streets of Gaza, spoke to the crowd.
"She loved to dance and she was smiley and everybody loved her and she was beautiful," recalled Louk.
The event was a chance for the community to come together as a whole, share their pain together and find a way to push forward.
"Don't just wipe your tears, we all have very important work to do, we can't just lick our wounds, we have to push in the other direction," said attendee Eitana Perlmutter.
