Hillel San Antonio (HillelSA) hosted a memorial on Oct. 7 to honor the victims of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel in 2023. 

The exhibit featured 10 large panels displayed in front of the Magic Stones from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., allowing hundreds of students to view them on their way to class. The first panel provided an overview of the events of Oct. 7, 2023, while the remaining nine shared personal stories of Hamas militant victims, as told by their living family members. Hillel based the display on the book “10/7: 100 Human Stories.”

“It’s a day of mourning. Every Israeli, and most Jewish people, they all have an Oct. 7 story. Some are willing to share it. Some are not willing to share it,” Gal said. “And what that means is that they know someone who died. They know someone who was there. They know someone who knows someone who died. It’s a very tight-knit community, and it affected almost everyone.”

HillelSA members spoke with students who stopped by, offering information about that day. 

“I separate it entirely from the war. It is just a day of mourning for me and the people that I knew and the people that I know who lost other people,” Gal said. “And then the war is something that happened after that. And that’s just how I view it. To me, it’s two separate distinctions.”

Gal said he hoped the exhibit helped students gain a deeper understanding of the events of Oct. 7 and encouraged open, honest dialogue on campus.

“I hope that they had an emotional reaction because, to a lot of us, it was a very emotional event. I was reading through the cards, and I had to stop halfway because I almost started crying,” Gal said. “I hope that for other students who were Jewish or other students who were Israeli, I hope that they now feel safe to talk about their Oct. 7 story or that they feel safe to talk about the war in Israel and Gaza because it’s imperative that we have a campus where we can have this open dialogue.”

Gal said that HillelSA is planning to continue fostering these conversations through future events, focusing on remembrance and understanding while separating mourning from political discourse.