Right across from Tommy Trojan, members of the USC Chabad Organization prayed wrapping tefillin, a traditional Jewish custom in which a leather strap is wrapped around the hand and arms, and a box containing a Hebrew prayer is placed on one’s head.
The campus organization was among those preparing for a later vigil commemorating the one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel, in which some 1,200 people lost their lives.
“We’re here now talking to people doing mitzvahs and prayers together. that’s how we cope. We cope by looking towards life,” said Dov Wagner, Head Rabbi of the USC Chabad Organization.
He says the trauma experienced by the Jewish people that started last October 7 is still occurring. With no end in sight to the Israel-Hamas war and dozens of Israelis still being held hostage, Wagner says a chronic reminder that life is still being held captive.
“It’s very hard to commemorate a day that hasn’t ended yet. October 7 hasn’t ended yet. It’s still ongoing,” Wagner said. “The hostages are still in captivity. The effects on all of our people around the world and so many other people are still ongoing.”
But he hopes gatherings like this one will help promote some sort of healing.
“We do our best to translate tears into growth, into into hope for the future, into working towards a better world,” he said.
At the campus Hillel Center, executive director Dave Cohn prepared for the same vigil.
“We’re really trying to hold our students in their individual journeys as they process the ongoing pain and strife and trauma in the world and provide them with every resource that we can,” Cohn said.
Both organizations aim to help students as they face the gravity of what happened a year ago, and a conflict that is far from over.
“It’s not getting any simpler,” he said. “It’s not getting any more peaceful. That’s an incredibly difficult reality to cope with.”