Approximately 50 community members gathered on Chapin Lawn for a candlelight vigil organized by the chaplains’ office to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the ongoing violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
The “Vigil of Commemoration and Lament,” held on Monday, was intended to “mark the toll of suffering and loss” from the conflicts as well as “humanitarian crises taking place elsewhere in the world,” according to a post in Daily Messages on the day of the vigil.
“We tried to create a space where members of our community, who are feeling and holding different aspects of this day and this year, could come together to grieve the loss of life from the attacks of October 7 in Israel and the ongoing war and violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon,” the chaplains — Chaplain to the College Valerie Bailey, Muslim Chaplain Sidra Mahmood, Catholic Chaplain Bridget Power, and Rabbi Seth Wax — wrote in a joint statement to the Record.
At the start of the vigil, Bailey invited students to light candles and reflect on their emotions.
Wax and Mahmood then took turns reading poetry by Israeli and Palestinian writers.
Wax first shared “Mothers,” a poem by Osnat Eldar from Shiva, an anthology of poems in Hebrew and English written in the wake of Oct. 7. Mahmood then read “Ash and Air” by Nadine Murtaja, a 21-year-old from Gaza who studied dentistry before the war prevented her from completing her education. Finally, Wax read “What’s to be done with the dead” by Maya Weinberg, another poem from Shiva, and Mahmood concluded with “Under the Siege,” which Mahmoud Darwish, a well-known contemporary Palestinian poet, wrote in 2002 in the West Bank.
“We sought to create a ritual that included the voices of both Israelis and Palestinians who experienced loss and displacement, so we shared readings that spoke to that along with the voices who are advocating for peace in the region,” the chaplains wrote.
The vigil concluded with the Mourner’s Kaddish, a Jewish prayer that is recited in memory of the dead, and an oud performance by Co-director of the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble Rami El-Aasser.
The chaplains’ office held a similar vigil last year following the events on Oct. 7, 2023, the memory of which served as a reminder to the chaplains about the scale of devastation that has occurred since the onset of the war in Gaza.
“Many people in this world perhaps did not expect the war to last this long,” the chaplains wrote. “Today, we are horrified and are grappling with the fact that this war has progressed and intensified over the past 12 months, and continues with no end in sight, at least in this moment.”
The chaplains emphasized the need for dialogue to help the campus community come together as it mourns and heals.
“The most important thing we can do here at Williams is to listen to each other,” the chaplains wrote in their statement to the Record. “It is so easy to get stuck in our own narratives and understandings of the conflict. Each of us only has a partial understanding, and we need to stretch ourselves as much as we can to learn from each other.”
The following night, Students for Justice in Palestine held a separate vigil to memorialize the Palestinians who were killed in Gaza over the past year.
