Dear Friends,

This past week, marking the one-month mark since the October 7 Hamas attack, has brought equal parts inspiration and joy and grief and anger. I want to start with the inspiration. I am so grateful to the more than 550 people who joined us to be in community with one another at Fed 360 on Saturday.

The outpouring of love, unity and Jewish pride we all felt in that room was equally humbling and empowering. Looking out during the beautiful Havdalah ceremony over the faces of people I have known for decades and people I met for the first time that night – all there to support our Jewish Federation, our Jewish community and Israel – lifted my spirits beyond words. 

In the middle of the sea of swaying people, however, stood two empty tables. Two tables set for the infants, children, men, and women still held in Gaza, including more than 20 loved ones from our sister region of Sha’ar HaNegev. We must continue to push in every way we can to bring them home.

At Fed 360, and five other times this week, I have had the sacred honor of bearing witness to the searing story of the Cherry family, survivors of the Nachal Oz Massacre on October 7. Federation was able to bring Addi, her husband
 Oren and their children, Guy (15), Shani (12), and Yahav (9), to San Diego to provide respite for this beautiful family who lost many dear friends, their home and all their belongings in the attack.  

Five times Addi has relived, for hundreds and hundreds of people, their experience of hiding in a saferoom for nearly 24 hours, listening to terrorists waging war on their kibbutz and inside their home, looting and destroying their belongings, and attempting to set their house on fire.

It does not get easier for her to describe what it felt like to be holding that door closed to protect her babies, while women and children from Gaza streamed into their house singing while stealing or destroying everything they owned. To walk out of the saferoom “into hell.” To explain that her son’s best friend, at just 15 years old, is now a captive in Gaza. That Yahav’s beloved science teacher was killed. New, painful details surface with each retelling. But we must listen and remember. 

We have hosted the Cherry family here in San Diego these past two weeks, and Addi and her family have shared their story at Fed 360 and throughout our community – with synagogue congregations, Mayor Todd Gloria and other elected officials, with interfaith leaders and the media.

Each retelling weighs heavily on Addi, and all those who hear her words, but their story is a powerful and necessary reminder of what so many experienced on that terrible day. She relives this horrific ordeal to honor the memory of her dear friend Mayor Ofir Libstein z”l and all those who were murdered. We owe it to her to share her story, to fight in every way at our disposal against the growing denialism and the downplaying of what happened that day.  

We know that nothing will erase the trauma the Cherry’s experienced, but we hope their visit here – complete with trips to the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, time on the beach, a lot of Mexican food, and a deluge of love and support from so many in our community – has provided much-needed respite from all they have endured and all they have yet to face back home.

As a way of making our voices heard and continuing to bear witness and demanding the safe return of the hostages, nearly a hundred San Diegans are heading to Washington D.C. next Tuesday for the American March for Israel. I hope we fill the National Mall. If you are planning to be there, we invite you to join our San Diego delegation.

We are all stronger together, and I wish you all strength and a moment to breathe this Shabbat.  

Heidi Gantwerk, President & Chief Executive Officer