Holocaust center in Glen Cove marks Oct. 7 anniversary with new memorial
Shir Zohar, who survived Hamas' attack at an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, speaks Sunday in Glen Cove. Credit: Morgan Campbell
The two survivors locked eyes and embraced.
It had been more than eight decades since Manfred Korman, 92, survived persecution for being Jewish. For Shir Zohar, 21, it had been 364 days.
The two shared a poignant moment on Sunday at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County in Glen Cove. Both were there for the unveiling of a new memorial commemorating the 1,200 people Hamas militants killed in Israel on Oct. 7. Zohar had been at the Nova music festival and fled after Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel.
The stone memorial, surrounded by yellow and velvet chrysanthemums, sits in the center’s backyard. It reads: "May their memory be a blessing and one day we will all dance again."
Korman, a Holocaust survivor, considered what Zohar endured. He said he wondered: "Why the hell did you have to go through this?"
"This was a Holocaust of attacking young people, and attacking a whole concept of a state," he said in an interview on Sunday.
Hamas took about 250 hostages — 60 of whom are believed to still be alive in Gaza. Thirty-five are dead. Hamas released most of the others; while Israel rescued less than a dozen.
In Gaza, the death toll is nearly 42,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Zohar shared her story Sunday on a crisp morning with a crowd of about 150 people under a clear blue sky.
Zohar and a friend fled the festival at the sight of missiles in the sky. They got in the car of Ori Arad, who had been working as a bartender at the festival. Arad promised the girls he would shepherd them to safety, Zohar recalled.
Militants started shooting at Arad’s car. It flipped over three times, sending the young people into a ditch, she recalled. Zohar and her friend survived, but Arad did not. He was 22.
Zohar, who is staying in Great Neck and embarking on a speaking tour around the area, refers to Arad as her "angel."
"He’s standing next to me when I’m talking. He’s here with me every second, he’s giving me the power to be able to talk about all of that awful stuff," Zohar told Newsday. "He’s my power."
Rabbi Howard Stecker, of Temple Israel of Great Neck, said the memorial will serve as a teaching tool for years to come.
"We need to make sure that high schools and universities across this great land are teaching high resolution, are teaching moral clarity, are teaching an emerging generation to understand what is at stake," Stecker said.
Zohar, dressed in all black, hung back around the memorial for about an hour after her speech. Locals thanked her for sharing her story as they had bagels and muffins. At one point, she plopped onto a black chair, the back of which was taped with a tribute to one of those killed on Oct. 7.
She recalled her conversation with Korman and Arnold Newfield, another Holocaust survivor in attendance.
"I just told them that they give me strength,’" Zohar told Newsday. "I’m very happy that I can talk to someone and he can understand me, and he knows what I’ve been through."
Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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