Empty Shabbat desk honors hostages in entrance of Previous Union

An extended eating desk has stood in entrance of Previous Union for greater than every week, every of its empty chairs reserved for one of many 224 hostages kidnapped by Hamas in October — the quantity has since been estimated to be over 240, based on the Israeli army. 

Passerbys on their strategy to Tresidder Union cease often to learn the names of the victims taped to every chair and look on the Challah loaves, tea candles, sippy cups, books and different objects filling the size of the desk.

Members of Stanford’s Jewish neighborhood and allies gathered on Oct. 27 to arrange the empty Shabbat desk and maintain a Shabbat service mourning these kidnapped and murdered by Hamas of their Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

“For the Jewish neighborhood, it’s a logo of hope and, for the remainder of campus, it’s an academic software and a reminder that there are nonetheless folks being held hostage,” mentioned Tia Geri ’25, who helped set up the set up.

For Odelia Lorch ’24, an Israeli pupil who labored with Geri to arrange the set up, the weeks since Hamas’ assault have been “horrid.”

Quickly after the assault, she referred to as her cousin in Israel.

“He was simply strolling via piles of lifeless our bodies all day Saturday and Sunday and he was telling me about these our bodies, a couple of fetus that was ripped out of its mom’s abdomen, a couple of little one who was burned alive, in a trash can,” Lorch mentioned.

She mentioned she is aware of folks murdered within the assault and her brother has been referred to as to serve within the military. 

“These are the issues that hang-out me every day. So, I don’t sleep. I’ve nightmares. I’m not okay,” Lorch mentioned. 

Her grief and anxiousness have been compounded by being on campus, which she mentioned is “an entire different nightmare.”

Following the Hamas assault and Israel’s retaliatory struggle in Palestinian territories, there was an increase of reported hate crimes on campus in opposition to Jewish and Palestinian college students, in addition to these advocating for Palestine. 

Within the wake of the struggle and alleged on-campus crimes, college students have participated in walkouts, vigils and rallies, advocating for justice in Palestine. Israel declared a state of struggle following the Oct. 7 assault and has since pummeled the Gaza strip with air strikes. Not less than 9,061 Palestinians have been killed as of Thursday, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry.

Jewish neighborhood members have additionally held vigils and different occasions to mourn the Israeli lives misplaced within the assault. 

On Oct. 20, college students started an ongoing sit-in at White Plaza, a couple of toes away from the Shabbat desk, urging the College to problem a press release calling for a cease-fire and condemning what they view as Israeli struggle crimes, amongst different calls for.

Some neighborhood members criticized the pro-Palestinian efforts on campus, claiming that sure phrases chanted and written out at protests and chalked on the bottom are antisemitic.

“To stroll out of my room and to see folks inciting phrases that imply violence and destruction to my folks and that taunt and tease proper after one thing completely horrid occurred … What ought to have been taking place was consolation,” Lorch mentioned. “What ought to have been taking place was all the college, all of our associates, coming to take a seat with us as we have been mourning, as we have been huddling collectively, as we have been terrified, as we have been sobbing, as we have been paralyzed.”

It was amid this difficult time that college students together with Lorch and Geri determined to create the empty Shabbat desk, drawing inspiration from comparable installations arrange world wide.

“We have been in search of a strategy to flip all of those emotions of grief and paralysis and unhappiness and concern right into a neighborhood occasion the place folks might come collectively and join after which have a bodily creation that we might pour our emotions into,” Geri mentioned.

After sending their concept to varied group chats, over 100 neighborhood members got here collectively to arrange the desk Friday. Some folks introduced private objects to honor the hostage victims, like a handwritten birthday card for a hostage who turned 12 in captivity.

Geri believes these things are vital to emphasise that every sufferer bears their very own story. “They’re not simply faceless, anonymous, political ploys to attain a couple of political factors,” she mentioned.

Organising the desk, Lorch mentioned, was an emotional expertise for neighborhood members, lots of whom regarded round to seek out the seats of kidnapped victims they knew. One pupil recognized three of his associates, Lorch mentioned.

On the service, the group sang conventional Shabbat songs, in addition to songs about caring for folks in horrible locations. 

“We have been truthfully a bit of overwhelmed by how unbelievable it was, how a lot folks wanted this and the way a lot this was the chance for folks to place all of their anxiousness and grief into one thing tangible,” Lorch mentioned.

Lorch typically sees folks going to wish by the desk within the mornings, afternoons and evenings.

Joshua Jankelow ’24 is certainly one of them. Alongside varied Jewish organizations on campus, like Chabad at Stanford, of which he’s the president, he has gone to wish on the desk since its set up. He mentioned many individuals have come as much as him and others to precise their ideas and prayers.

“To see such an enormous empty desk made us notice how empty so many households and houses are going to really feel for a really very very long time to come back,” Jankelow mentioned.

Jankelow instructed The Each day he has had issue grappling with the tragedy, as he mourns the lack of civilian lives and worries about his household and associates hiding in bomb shelters in Israel.

He mentioned he additionally mourns Palestinian lives misplaced in Gaza and respects the suitable to critique Israel’s response to the assault, although he takes problem with a number of the phrases heard throughout campus, comparable to “From the river to the ocean, Palestine will probably be free,” which has been heard chanted and written on indicators at varied protests. 

“All we would like is the suitable to mourn and the suitable to really feel protected and welcome and beloved on our campus and that’s sadly one thing we’ve been compelled to defend,” Jankelow mentioned. “All we will do to point out that’s one thing like this Shabbat desk.”