All Westporters are invited to a “Bring Them Home” candlelight vigil this Sunday.
The event is at Jesup Green, from 6 to 6:45 p.m.
The vigil is “an opportunity for us to come together, united as a community, to pray for the safe return of the hostages and show our support for Israel,” organizers say. They are an ad hoc group of interfaith Westporters.
Rabbi Michael Friedman of Temple Israel, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Kantor of Chabad of Westport and Rev. Heather Sinclair of the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston will lead prayers. Staples senior Ethan Walmark will sing the national anthem.
1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker will attend the vigil.
Allison Walmark says, “My family is honored to participate in this community-wide, multi-faith showing of support for Israel and the estimated 200 kidnapped hostages in Gaza. No parent should endure the agony of not knowing if their child is dead or alive. No person who survived the Holocaust should endure the same inhumanity a second time. We must show our children that inhumanity is never normalized.”
Organizers say, “Bring a candle. Bring family too.”
Both the Westport Police and Connecticut State Police will provide security.
One holocaust should not beget another.
My thoughts exactly. Israel must defend itself from the terrorist organizations threatening the existence of the only Jewish state in the world.
@dermot
This rally is about freeing hostages.
So your comment is misplaced. But since you made it, I’ll reply.
Don’t make a false equivalence between Hamas’s actions and Israel’s. Hamas is a terrorist organization that orchestrated a pogrom against innocent civilians. 1400 people were brutally murdered. Read this – https://nypost.com/2023/10/22/tomer-peretz-describes-horror-of-clearing-bodies-from-hamas-attack/
Hamas terrorists hide in Gaza among their own civilians in places of worship, hospitals and residential areas. They take hostages. They use them and their fellow Palestinians as human shields. Hamas and their puppet masters in Tehran openly call for the destruction of the Israel in violation of international law.
Israel has the right to defend itself against this and in doing so won’t be guilty of another holocaust. Frankly it’s amoral to use that term in this case. It’s disgusting and you should be ashamed.