|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://forward.com/opinion/788437/nova-exhibit-hostages-oct-7-memory-mourning/
An Exhibit that Honors the Oct. 7 Hostages Still Draws Crowds in U.S. even After Their Release
(Forward) Alanna E. Cooper - I traveled to Chicago recently to tour the Nova Music Festival Exhibition. 1,200 visitors had purchased tickets. The traveling exhibition, which uses actual objects from the Nova festival grounds to reconstruct the scene of the attacks, has been drawing massive crowds since it opened in Tel Aviv in December 2023. After stops in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Washington, D.C., Berlin and Toronto, more than 500,000 people had already passed through its doors. It took two hours of walking through the installation to understand what exactly had motivated me to visit this re-creation of the site where so many people had met their brutal ends. The rave party was shattered when the "Angel of Death" swooped in, firing a barrage of missiles. From these very first words, the story turns away from naming Hamas as the perpetrator. Its focus, instead, lies solely on the experiences of those who were abused, terrorized, kidnapped, and killed. As visitors enter the festival grounds of Oct. 7, screens are scattered through the wreckage. One woman hiding between bushes, speaks into her own camera, "I'm filming so that later there will be a video of all this." Another captured himself huddled with others in a trash bin. More footage comes from the Go Pro cameras of the terrorists. One shows terrified people running, trying to escape. Some are shot and collapse to the ground. Additional screens feature survivor testimonies. One tells how her husband took a fatal bullet so she could flee, another lived by keeping cover beneath dead bodies. At the Nova festival alone over 400 were killed and 43 were kidnapped. In the final room, people take seats, facing a Nova survivor who is regularly present at the front of the room. Articulate and composed, she begins with photos of her best friend whom she lost in the attack, and ends with a story of her own survival, and a message of not taking life for granted.