Junior Alexis Horowitz is still reeling from the news that her friend, Netta Epstein, was killed instantly when a Hamas fighter hurled a grenade into his southern Israel apartment on Saturday and he jumped in front of it to save his girlfriend.
But Horowitz also messages daily with her aunt and cousins who live in Jerusalem, to make sure they are still safe amid the rocket fire coming from the Gaza Strip.
Senior Andrew Yakubovich is waiting for any updates he can get about his childhood friend from Connecticut, Douglas Herman, a reservist in the Israeli Defense Forces, who was called back to help defend his new home nation.
They were just two of the more than 600 students, administrators, faculty and staff members, alumni, and community and religious leaders who gathered at the University of Miami Hillel’s Braman Miller Center for Jewish Student Life on Monday evening in a show of support for Israel. It was just three days after the Jewish state endured an unprecedented violent attack from Hamas, an Islamic terrorist group that occupies the Gaza Strip, early on Saturday morning.
That invasion spurred a war between Israel and Hamas that Israeli leaders vow will not end until Hamas no longer has power over Gaza, a Palestinian territory in southern Israel that the group has controlled since 2006.
“There are a lot of us who have family and friends on the front lines now and we want to be here to support them,” said Yakubovich, who is studying finance.
Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel from the air, land, and sea on Saturday, breaking through a massive chain link blockade around Gaza to enter Israel, while others parachuted in alongside rocket attacks. Estimates indicate that the fighting has killed 900 Israelis and nearly 700 Palestinians so far. But Hamas leaders also have taken an estimated 150 Israelis hostage, mostly from towns near the Gaza border.
The operation shocked Israel, which was founded as a refuge for Jews in the years after the Holocaust during World War II. It is a place where Felicia Marie Knaul’s aunt and uncle landed after escaping from the Nazis. That’s why Knaul made her first trip to Israel at the age of 7, so her father—who escaped the Auschwitz concentration camp but lost most of his family—could introduce her to his only surviving relatives.
“When we went to visit them in Tel Aviv there were two things I realized and they marked my life,” said Knaul, who directs the University’s Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas. “One was that part of my family had survived, and the second was that in Israel we would always find safety and a home.”
The impact of Israel’s security dangling in the balance at a time when antisemitism is rising across the world was not lost on many students. Betty Srour, a junior studying political science and public relations, said her grandmother is currently visiting Israel from New Jersey, and a few of her cousins live there. One cousin living in the United States was just called back as a reservist for the military.
“I have a deep connection to the land of Israel—it’s not just a symbol for Jews, it’s a safe haven and it’s a place we know that we can go to when we are shunned from our communities for the thousandth time in history,” she said.
The urgency of the moment to protect and support Israel also prompted Hillel student president Eli Weiss to start messaging his executive board to organize a gathering starting on Saturday. The event quickly attracted the support of the several Jewish fraternities and sororities, UM Chabad, along with CanesPAC, Students Supporting Israel, the director of the Consulate of Israel in Miami, along with Patricia A. Whitely, senior vice president for student affairs and alumni engagement, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
“It’s so good to be together,” Levine Cava said. “I’m the first Jewish mayor in Miami-Dade County history; and like all of you, I’ve been in despair these last few days.”
She went on to explain that her own family had to escape antisemitic persecution in Russia and Poland. However, she noted that the way the nation, community, and University have supported Israel in the past few days is heartening.
“It may feel like the tide of progress for social justice is ebbing and that the progress we have made is disappearing, but we must not give up hope,” she said. “We in Miami-Dade County stand with Israel, with the Jewish people, with all of the people who are suffering. And we will always stand with those who champion democracy. We must work together to create a world free of violence where nations can live in peace.”
Once they saw the massive crowd at Hillel, students as well as leaders were amazed by the University’s inclusive spirit. Horowitz and Weiss said they expected around 200 participants, but instead got more than triple.
“This is beyond amazing—I’ve never seen a turnout this large of Jews in Miami,” Weiss said, comparing his experience to his upbringing in New York City. “And lots of non-Jewish students were here to support their friends.”
At the University, nearly 20 percent or one in five undergraduate students are Jewish, according to Briana Schwarz, executive director of UM Hillel. In addition, more than 40 current students and faculty and staff members consider Israel their home, as well as an estimated 200 alumni and supporters, University President Julio Frenk said in a message to the University community on Monday.
Both Schwarz and students like Horowitz, who serves as a board member for Hillel, noted that the University of Miami community fully embraces Jewish students.
“Every day I am thankful that I go to a school with so many Jewish students because I feel safer here,” Horowitz said. “The turnout tonight was proof that students here are supported and we as a University are standing up to hate. I think this is the safest place in America for a Jewish college student.”
