Rather than focusing on the heartbreak of Oct. 7 as the third anniversary approaches, Eilat Harel is helping plan an event that embraces hope and recovery.
“The concept of ‘Echoes of October’ is the same. But I try not to stay in the past,” said Harel, the chief impact officer at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation. “Yes, we have a moment to remember and commemorate, but [also] to bring up the stories of going forward.”
The screening of Rita: An October 7 Nova Festival Survivor’s Journey, will be hosted in St. Louis Park on Oct. 7 beginning at 7 p.m. Due to the security check-in process, it’s recommended that guests arrive at 6:30. The location will be shared after registering. The film is presented by Minneapolis Jewish Federation’s Israel Center & The Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival, a program of the Minnesota JCC.
Harel said the documentary starts at the Nova Festival on Oct. 7, where Rita Yedid was with her husband and her sister. When the attacks started, they hid in the festival ticket office with other festivalgoers. Her husband was shot three times as he shielded Rita from gunfire, but survived the attack. They were rescued by IDF soldiers eight hours after the attack started.
“It starts with what happened to her at the Nova, but the rest of the story is her journey with healing,” Harel said. “I can’t say how she’s come out of the tragedy because no one has – but what she’s doing with what happened to her going forward.”
Harel said she has seen some documentaries of Oct. 7 survivors since the attacks – and knows more will be made – but liked Rita because Yedid speaks English well, and she’s inspirational.
“She’s becoming a motivational speaker from this tragedy,” Harel said. “There are many, many stories. Not all of them get translated into a movie. I see a lot of them on TV every day. And the ones that get somehow translated to be taken out of the country, we need to take a moment and listen to them. They want to talk. The least we can do is listen to them.”
Jewish Federations of North America have raised nearly $1 billion since Oct. 7 in a massive Israeli emergency fundraising effort. Harel said that without the American Jewish community’s financial support in helping Israelis rebuild, she’s not sure where her home country would be.
“This community has been so supportive of the whole healing process and supporting Israelis. I’m not even saying Israel, the country. I’m saying Israelis,” she said. “In order to heal, you’ve got to move forward. And my answer to healing is reminding the community that they are part of the story. That seriously, without this community’s help, Israel wouldn’t have survived it. And I mean that as an Israeli. I don’t even mean that as chief impact officer.”
what do you say about those people who have given up hope for having a two state solution?the hostages who are telling their story all over the world.