A crowd of over 200 people stood outside of the Sacramento State Capitol building in support of Israel, in demands of releasing over 200 hundred people who are being held hostage by Hamas as a result of the surprise attack on an Israeli music festival near the Gaza and Israeli border on October 7th, leading to over 1,400 deaths.

Many carried the Israeli flag, as they stood in front of the capitol building to hear speeches, prayers and songs from citizens of the community, politicians and faith leaders. Speakers included Sacramento’s own Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Eleni Kounalakis, a current Lieutenant governor of California and former United States Ambassador to Hungary. 

“On behalf of all the people of the state of California, we demand that the hostages being held by Hamas be released immediately,” Eleni Kounalakis said in a speech.

The Hamas gunmen killed over 1,400 people on Oct. 7th, the day of the Festival of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday celebrating peace. The day has been compared to the Jewish Holocaust by many prominent figures such as the United States President, Joe Biden and Eleni Kounalakis, and has now been marked as one of the deadliest days for Jews. The terrorist attack is one of the deadliest attacks in history, falling under the 9/11 attack in 2001 and the Tikrit attack in 2014.

“As many have said, it was the day when more members of the Jewish community were killed in any other days since the Holocaust,” Kounalakis said in a speech. 

Darrell Steinberg, the second Jewish mayor of Sacramento, also spoke at the rally. 

“As Jews, as people of good faith and conscience, we will never minimize the death of all innocent people, including Palestinian people. We will never minimize any death or suffering of civilians of war in Israel and in Gaza. We want peace and calm for doing everything possible to avoid unnecessary suffering and death,” Steinberg said to the crowd. 

People attending the rallies held posters in the air with the images of missing people, and the hashtag, #KidnappedFromIsrael, under the description of the events on Oct. 7th. People attending the rally held Israeli flags as well as many other country flags that are Israeli allies, in support of the movement to free the hostages. 

Two weeks after the initial attack, two hostages, a mother, Judith Tai Raanan, and her 17 year old daughter, Natalie Raanan, were the first hostages released by Hamas on October 20. Two more women, 85 year old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79 year old Nurit Yitzhak, also known as Nurit Cooper were released three days later, further fueling the hope for more releases in the near future. 

“It’s a glimmer of hope. But it feels, to me, (that the) Hamas (are playing) another game. It’s great (that) they let two people go one day, they let two people go another day. But what about all the other people? It’s like they’re trying to bargain with the world with these people’s lives,” Berry Broad, President of the Jewish Federation of Sacramento, said to CBS and the Granite Bay Gazette.

Broad’s pregnant daughter is in Israel, and her husband was called out to duty by the military. Broad describes it as an “emotional time for our family,” and views the rally as “encouraging” by seeing “so many people rallying behind the message” to free the hostages. 

“It is amazing the number of people who are directly impacted by this, through family, through friends, through connections to people in this community… even the people that don’t have a direct relative. There’s something about this event … that touched Jewish people deeply. And they feel an extraordinary kinship to people in Israel,” Broad said.

As a finale to the rally, Jews gathered to sing the “Mourner’s Kaddish,” a hymn praising God, and is recited for the dead, led by a Jewish religious leader.

“Today, we are all one family. Those who were killed are part of us. May each of them and their memories be for a blessing,” a Jewish faith leader said. 

To read our Palestine Story: https://granitebaytoday.org/palestinian-supporters-gather-to-raise-money-for-hospitals-in-gaza/