The Chaplains’ Office held a vigil on Monday night on the steps of Chapin Hall to reflect on continuing violence in Israel and Gaza.

Students, faculty, staff, and members of the Williamstown community lit candles to mourn the lives lost in the ongoing conflict as Dining Services staff member Rami El-Aasser played the oudh.

On Oct. 7, Hamas breached the Israel-Gaza border into Israel in an unprecedented attack, killing at least 1,400 Israelis and taking nearly 200 hostages as of Tuesday night — making it the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. In retaliation to the attacks, Israel declared war on Hamas, and Israeli air strikes have killed more than 2,750 Palestinians, as of Monday.

President of the College Maud S. Mandel announced the vigil in a Thursday all-campus email, in which she also explained her decision not to issue a statement about the war when it broke out.

“When the topics are national and world events — even events that affect us personally, and on which we feel great moral clarity — I do not believe it is the president’s job to speak for the whole community, or even that it is possible to do so,” she wrote.

“[Institutional statements] support some members of our community in particular moments while intentionally or unintentionally leaving out others.”

Instead, Mandel wrote, it was her job to ensure that the community can “reflect, study and decide” for itself.

The vigil followed smaller gatherings held within the College’s Jewish and Muslim communities to process the developments in Israel and Gaza. Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Seth Wax and students from the Williams College Jewish Association (WCJA) organized a gathering for the Jewish community on Oct. 10.

“As a chaplain, a core part of my work, alongside my colleagues, is to provide spiritual care to members of this community,” Wax wrote in an email to the Record. “The gatherings that have been held recently for the Jewish community on campus have been offered in that spirit. Each of us processes shock and trauma, and grieves, in our own way. That also changes over time. My hope was that the gatherings held at the JRC would let attendees know that any and all feelings are welcome.”

The Muslim community gathered on Friday evening for an event for healing led by Muslim Chaplain Sidra Mahmood and Bilal Ansari, assistant vice president of campus engagement for the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (OIDEI) and co-director of the Davis Center (DC).

“Our community gathering was appreciated by the Muslim community because, in the students’ words, they often feel ‘forgotten’ or ‘sidelined’ on campus,” Mahmood wrote in an email to the Record. “Everyone found it to be very ‘healing’… I was personally shocked that there were so many feelings of anxiety and heaviness amongst staff, faculty, and students, while some were feeling Islamophobia, and that their friends were avoiding them or not treating them the same, a reminiscence of the post-9/11 era perhaps.”

Chaplain to the College Rev. Valerie Bailey Fischer opened the vigil by recognizing how members of the College community were emotionally impacted by events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. Catholic Chaplain Bridget Power reminded students that they can seek support from various on-campus resources such as the Chaplains’ Office, Integrative Wellbeing Services (IWS) and the Dean’s Office before inviting all attendees to share their emotions with whomever was standing next to them.

“This space is here for us today to mourn, lament, and reflect,” Mahmood said. “Listen with compassion to each other… We are all here in community.”

The chaplains then recited a selection of passages and prayers. Mahmood read verses from Surah al-Baqarah, Wax shared “A Prayer for Wholeness” by Rabbi Alex Weissman, and Fischer read from Psalm 22.

Following the readings, the chaplains shared reflections on the events of the past week and their impact on the College community. “We are in pain,” Mahmood said. “We are angry, we are experiencing loss that is deep, that is personal, that is intimately connected to our sense of ourselves and the people and places that we love, and we are afraid for what is happening and for what is to come.”

Amid the polarization that has followed the loss of life in Israel and Gaza, Wax spoke against the “loss … of our shared humanity.”

“We can stand together and reject hatred of each other. We can reject the murder of a Muslim child just for being Muslim or a Palestinian based simply on where they live,” he said in reference to the murder of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume in Chicago, Ill., on Saturday. “And we can reject the murder of a Jew for simply being who they are.”

Power called for a moment of silence to acknowledge the suffering of all those affected by the Oct. 7 attacks and the subsequent war. “We remember those who’ve been kidnapped, those who are injured, those who are currently in harm’s way,” she said. “Those who are being bombed, those who are running out of water, power, food, those who are afraid, those who have been killed, those whose children, siblings, parents, friends, and loved ones have been murdered, and those whose entire families have been wiped out.”

“Remember those who are grieving, those who are facing hate crimes, those who are afraid of hate crimes, those who are feeling helpless and silenced, and everyone else who is suffering,” Power continued.

After the moment of silence, Mahmood read a passage from the Quran often used as an offering for the deceased, and Wax recited the El Malei Rachamim and the Mourner’s Kaddish, Jewish prayers of mourning in which he invited attendees to join.

Fischer closed the vigil by urging community members to listen to one another. “Silence is ignoring things, but quiet is paying attention and waiting, which is a great position to be in to listen and to support each other,” she said.

Moving forward, College institutions will continue to offer venues in which students can navigate the ongoing developments. For the Muslim community, Mahmood said that she is planning programming that is “connected to lament in the Islamic tradition and connecting to the One who truly has the power to change it all.”

Wax said that, while the details of future programming are still uncertain, the Chaplains’ Office will continue to offer support to students in the coming weeks. “Individual chaplains continue to meet with students and groups as we all process what has taken place and what is unfolding in Israel and Gaza,” he wrote.

The DC is also currently working with student and faculty leaders to organize gatherings besides the vigil where students will be encouraged to listen, support one another, and learn about resources that will help them lead discourse and restorative practices, according to Ansari.

Mahmood said that she hopes members of the College community will continue to connect with each other and heal together. “I am also envisioning dialogue and building community with one another across different voices and groups on campus based on the rich Islamic tradition of dialogue,” she wrote.