Hundreds of members of the Jewish community in metro Atlanta converged on the City Green at Sandy Springs City Hall on Sunday to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the taking of hostages.
Israel’s Consul General in Atlanta, Anat Sultan-Dadon, was one of the speakers invited by the group of Jewish organizations that coordinated the event. She called this a watershed moment in history.
“The calls for a ceasefire should be directed at Hamas to lay down their weapons, to surrender, and to release the hostages,” she said. “Standing with Israel now is not a political choice. It is the only choice for any human being who values humanity, life, and freedom.”
People who are silently observing on the sidelines without calling out evil are aligning themselves with it, she said.
“They are standing on the wrong side of history and humanity. Terror must never get a pass. Murder can never be condoned, rape can never be legitimized,” she said.
Sultan-Dadon acknowledged that the war is brutal and horrific, and mistakes have been made. But when Israel is attacked by those who seek its destruction, they will fight until the attackers can no longer pose a threat, she said.
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Rabbi Ilan Feldman told the crowd that two months ago he joined other rabbis from Atlanta on a visit to Israel. He said that the rabbis saw the scenes of disaster and talked with families of hostages, hearing their heartbreaking stories.
The trip demonstrated the united stance that American Jews have regarding Israel, with all standing together no matter their background, Feldman said.
“In Hamas, we have an enemy that despises its own people so that it uses them as human shields, hoping to increase civilian casualties so that the world will turn against Israel,” he said. “And it takes civilian hostages, women and children, uses them as bargaining chips, doesn’t follow the conventions of war in even identifying who they are. And there are voices that want to give this behavior credibility.”
David Abusch-Magder, head of The Epstein School in Sandy Springs, said he had just gotten off an airplane as he returned from a trip to Israel. He joined other heads of schools to visit the nation. He said there was a unity in Israel he hadn’t seen before.
After the event ended, Paul Scheinberg, a Sandy Springs resident for the past 40 years, told Rough Draft that the event affirmed in a peaceful way the community’s unity with the state of Israel.
“We feel that everybody, including the government of the United States, is abandoning Israel. All we can do is affirm our unity and our strength. Our strength comes from our unity,” the retired pulmonologist said.
