A Jewish Atlanta solidarity event Monday evening brought together hundreds of people to amplify the call to free the men, women and children kidnapped by Hamas when it attacked Israel just over three weeks ago.
The event was also a time for local Jewish leaders and others to denounce pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Atlanta and around the world, saying those who do not stand with Israel at this time are choosing to stand with terrorists.
Bring them Home, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and other partner organizations, was held at Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Buckhead. A delegation from Israel shared stories of family members who were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 during its attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians and including many children.
When people entered the synagogue, they walked into a large room where Symbolic Shabbat tables were set up. More than 200 empty seats around the tables bore the names and photos of the kidnapping victims.
“Until this evening when we arrived here, I thought [I had] run out of tears,” said Dafna Sella, a member of the Israeli delegation.
“We don’t have the privilege to stay at home and cry — we need to work to get our family members back home,” she said. “But then when we arrived to this exhibition, it got intense when you see the amount of people kidnapped and see their faces.”
Dafna Sella’s cousin, Or Sella, said Hamas’ attack on Israel is one of the “biggest atrocities” to happen to humanity in the modern world as well as for the Jewish people and Israel.
Or Sella said Hamas does not have a political goal. The freeing of the kidnapped Israelis is a “humanitarian issue” that should be supported by all world leaders, he said.
He said he remembers his grandmother telling him stories of being a Holocaust survivor. But it took Holocaust survivors dozens of years before they were willing to talk about their experiences, he said.
“We now have the opportunity to speak out in real time,” he said of the Hamas attack.
“This is a completely new reality,” he said. “Something that we have never even heard of, something we couldn’t even imagine.”
Monday’s event came as the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, expanded its ground war into Gaza following the attack by Hamas.
More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
Demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war in Atlanta and around the world where protesters demand a free Palestine lack “moral clarity,” said Anat Sultan-Dadon, consul general of Israel to the Southeastern United States.
“Shockingly, as we fight those who committed the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, we are witnessing demonstrations all around the world, including here in Atlanta, by those who shamelessly side with those who seek the genocide of our people,” she said.
“We are at war over our existence,” she said.
“To all those calling for a free Palestine ‘from the river to the sea,’ meaning the elimination of the State of Israel, I would like to tell you, you are gravely mistaken,” she said. “We will not be eliminated.”
She also condemned recent comments by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres about the Israel-Hamas war and calls for a ceasefire.
She said Israel has started what is expected to be a prolonged military response “to depose the Hamas regime, destroy its military capabilities and eliminate the terror threat posed to Israel in the Gaza Strip.”
The war with Hamas is not about land or borders, not over one political path or another, she said. She said Hamas’ only agenda is the genocide of Jews and the destruction of Israel.
“There will be no free Palestine at the cost of the existence of the State of Israel,” she said to loud applause from the crowd.
“Standing with Israel now is standing with humanity,” she said. “Standing anywhere else is supporting terror and the calls for the annihilation of our people. Never again.”
Sultan-Dadon told Rough Draft in an interview that the rise in antisemitism in metro Atlanta, in Georgia and across the country “should be a grave concern not only to the Jewish community, but to the wider community.”
“The fact that there is a climate here that people perceive to be one that legitimizes anti semitism is a danger to society,” she said.
“Any antisemitic incident needs to be recognized, acknowledged and addressed because it is a very dangerous climate, one in which we are seeing demonstrations around the world including on the streets of Atlanta, and our college campuses here,” she said.
Family members of those kidnapped also spoke about their loved ones during the event. Earlier in the day, the family members met with Georgia legislators and spoke to The Atlanta Press Club.
A similar event was held Sunday on the Alpharetta Town Green where a long table was set for Shabbat but was left empty for the missing.
