Hillel at the University of Texas at Dallas hosted a Jewish resilience festival on campus Monday afternoon to commemorate and pray for the victims of the Oct.7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
Rabbi Stefan Weinberg told those in attendance, “We will carry this past year with us, unquestionably, but we will try to uplift ourselves and the world around us.”
On Sunday, around 200 people assembled for a symbolic 18-minute walk in Dallas ahead of the somber anniversary.
“18 minutes represents Chai life, and so this might end up being a little bit longer because we have so many people walking with us, but usually our goal is to walk at least 18 minutes to represent life and just to continue to pray that the hostages come home,” said Colette Lipszyc with the local chapter of ‘Run for their Lives.’
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
“There's still 101 hostages in Gaza, innocent children, women, and men.”
A one-day summit in Dallas also aimed at showing support for the Israel state, despite local and global criticism over Israel’s year-long bombing assault on Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory actions have reportedly left more than 40,000 Palestinians dead, including thousands of children.
Texas political leaders, including Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Senator John Cornyn, shared their message of unflinching support for Israel.
“Last November, I visited Israel and saw firsthand the carnage caused by Hamas. It was sheer evil and savagery,” said Abbott in a recorded video message.
“One thing is certain: Israel is both right and righteous in pursuing the elimination of Hamas, and the U.S. should do everything to help them.”
The governor’s message vowing to ‘eliminate antisemitism’ in Texas was followed by a video message sent by Sen. Cornyn, telling the crowd: “Israel has a right to defend itself, and I remain committed to supporting our important ally here in Congress.”
Senator Ted Cruz, who’s running for re-election, appeared in person and spoke at length about the atrocities captured on videos and later shown to senators.
“I saw those videos of people being murdered. I will tell you it makes you violently sick,” said Cruz.
Cruz at times received standing ovations for hardline positions on the spiraling conflict that in his view is a ‘black and white issue’ with no grey.
“There are too many of my colleagues whose immediate response following these horrors is we need a ceasefire now,” said Cruz, who added he does not support a ceasefire.
Cruz also mentioned demonstrations on college campuses over the past year, including at UT-Austin, as well as reports of Jewish college students reporting being harassed.
“If you threaten and harass another student because they are Jewish, you should be arrested,” said Cruz. “You should be prosecuted, you should be expelled, and if you are a foreign student, you should be deported!”
