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Why an exhibit that honors the Oct. 7 hostages still draws crowds in the U.S., even after their release
When I traveled to Chicago recently to tour the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, I expected to find it nearly empty. More than two years have passed since Oct. 7, 2023. All the living hostages have been returned home, and only one hostage’s remains are still being held in Gaza. I figured people were done revisiting the horrors, and ready to move on.
I was wrong. In Chicago, 1,200 visitors had purchased tickets for that day alone. This 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.
By the time it reached Chicago 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. And the crowds continue to visit. The exhibition’s website announces, “new cities coming soon,” even as the events of October 7 recede into the background.
When my Uber pulled up to the exhibition — held in a warehouse — I saw lines of people, police cars, and security personnel. What were all these people doing here, I wondered?
The question wasn’t idle. I had my own doubts about what had drawn me. Was it morbid curiosity? Perhaps a voyeuristic urge? Beyond these unsettling questions, accusations from protesters who had demonstrated outside the June 2024 New York installation had gotten into my head. They had tried to shut down the exhibition there, calling it “apartheid apologia,” designed to justify Israel’s war on Gaza. Were they right?
I recoiled from each of these explanations but still could not pinpoint what exactly had motivated me to visit this re-creation of the site where so many people had met their brutal ends. It took two hours of walking through the installation, moving from one area to the next, to understand.
Why Hamas is absent
The exhibition begins in a small, dark holding room where visitors gather before entering the main space. A large wall panel provides the barest introduction to orient the viewer. After a long night of intense music, dancing and revelry — the text reads — just as the sun was coming up over the horizon, the rave party was shattered when the “Angel of Death” swooped in, firing a barrage of missiles, which were precursors to the “inconceivable horror” that was soon to follow.
Referring to the attackers as “The Angel of Death” matters. From these very first words, the story turns away from naming the perpetrators. Hamas is absent, as is any wider political context. That absence speaks for itself. This exhibition does not weigh in on Israel’s actions after Oct. 7. Its focus, instead, lies solely on the experiences of those who were abused, terrorized, kidnapped, and killed.
Passing through heavy drapery, visitors enter the festival grounds in the early hours of Oct. 7. Sand is spread underfoot, and small tents are strewn across the landscape. Yoga mats, sweaty T-shirts, flip-flops, cereal boxes and other personal belongings litter the ground. Burned-out cars and bullet-ridden porta-potties mark failed hiding places. Cigarettes and empty bottles lie scattered at the bar, as though party-goers were present just moments before.
Objects alone cannot tell the whole story; Screens scattered through the wreckage reveal the unfolding terror. Some mounted on stands, and others glowing inside the tents or dangling on wires play videos on a loop. 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 themselves. Taken from a pickup truck zigzagging across the road, one of these recordings shows terrified people running, trying to escape. Some are shot and collapse to the ground as the vehicle speeds past.
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.
This recounting represents what unfolded that day. At the Nova festival alone over 400 were killed, and 43 were kidnapped. What popularly came to be referred to as a single attack, fractured into thousands of separate experiences, each person caught by surprise, and left to confront the terror on their own. The confusion is conveyed through the disorienting structure of the exhibit itself. Visitors are not given a clear route through the space, or directions about where to look first and then next. Nor do we progress as a group. I am among strangers and without a guide, leaving each of us to absorb the fragments of horror in our own way.
Then comes the pivot. Visitors turn a corner, and the exhibition shifts to a tightly organized space that directs viewers along a deliberate path. A map marks where each festival-goer met their fate. No longer immersed inside the horror, we now see its larger shape. After the map, rows of tables are arranged, holding neat piles of folded sweatshirts, lines of eyeglasses, and carefully arranged pairs of shoes. No labels explain, and none are needed. It’s clear that these personal items are the pieces picked up after the massacre, sorted by volunteers who handled each with care.
Order in the aftermath
Now I am beginning to understand. Walking through the disorienting chaos was necessary to appreciate the ways in which order is made in the aftermath. Not only through collecting and tending to the objects left behind, but to the affected people as well. A wall display shows photos of the 44 hostages taken from Nova, with a message that the “Nova Community” holds all “their pain, their courage and their hope.”
In fact, the more than 3,000 revelers who attended the Nova rave were not a community at all. They came from different backgrounds, from all over the country and abroad, with no prior connection to one another. But the survivors, the bereaved, and the families of the kidnapped have gathered in the aftermath under the auspices of “The Tribe of Nova Foundation,” to offer each other support. Established by the festival’s producers immediately after the attack, the foundation provides therapy, healing services, and memorial events, all needed even now after the ceasefire.
Exiting the last dark portion of the exhibit, we walk beside a long board laid out on the floor, arranged with memorial candles and hundreds of notes written by fellow visitors. Most echo the installation’s message: “Wrapping you in love.” “Remembering all those who lost their lives and who are still healing,” and “We will dance again.”
But one hand-scrawled message breaks through: “Fuck Hamas.”
This stops me. Not because I don’t share the rage — I do. But the sentiment feels jarring here, disrupting a sense of sanctity whose contours are fully revealed in the final room.
Here, black drapes and heavy shadows give way to earth tones, warm lights, jute carpets, and macramé lanterns. Small coffee tables and wicker chairs are arranged around the space, as though we have entered a living room. Having left the horrors of Oct. 7 behind, this is a room for the living. It is also a shiva — a ritual space where visitors sit with mourners and let them speak.
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.
Here, the hesitations and doubts I carried into the exhibition fall away. I now understand what brought me here, and why so many others have come. It is not morbid curiosity, nor propaganda meant to justify war. It is the need to sit shiva. This space draws its power from gathering and caring for the scattered objects, and from bringing the bereaved together to witness, mourn, and remember.
The Nova Exhibition is a contemporary phenomenon, employing modern technology and immersive design to respond to contemporary trauma. Yet it draws on ancient traditions of telling and listening to stories, sitting together, gathering what was scattered, and working to stitch ourselves whole again. This cultural work remains relevant even now — more than two years later, with nearly all hostages home and bodies laid to rest. The exhibition will travel to new cities, and it should. Grief continues to unfold, and mourning takes time.
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Races to watch: As staunch Israel critics notch wins, these candidates could be next
(JTA) — A wave of left-wing candidates with sharply critical Israel stances have won their Democratic primary this year and are set to head to Congress. Who else of like mind could join them in the coming months?
Several candidates who fit the bill have benefited from the endorsement and vast volunteer infrastructure of the Democratic Socialists of America. Others are simply meeting the moment for the growing number of Democratic voters who think the U.S. government is too supportive of Israel. Meanwhile, some Jewish groups and other critics have been concerned that their campaign rhetoric in this election cycle has at times veered into antisemitism.
Last week’s New York City results showed the power of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement and alarmed some Jewish leaders who watched as two pro-Israel incumbents lost their seat. Some onlookers questioned whether those victories could be replicated in other parts of the country, but Melat Kiros’ decisive win in Tuesday’s Colorado Democratic congressional primary for a district representing Denver answered the question with a resounding yes.
With just over two months left in the primaries, here are the upcoming races featuring left-wing insurgents whose results may hinge, at least in part, on sentiment toward Israel, Zionism and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group.
Arizona: 4th Congressional District (July 21)
Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton is facing a primary challenge from activist Kai Newkirk in Arizona’s 4th District, which covers parts of Phoenix and Maricopa County.
Stanton, who took office in 2018, is pro-Israel and has picked up the endorsement of AIPAC — support that Newkirk, whose activism has largely focused on campaign-finance reform, has blasted.
Newkirk’s platform includes imposing a complete arms embargo on Israel and ending all military subsidies to the Jewish state, which he accuses of committing genocide. He identifies as a democratic socialist (though he’s not endorsed by the DSA), and is backed by a number of progressive organizations, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ group Our Revolution and Track AIPAC.
“Kai is Israel Free and has fought to get money out of politics his whole life,” wrote Cenk Uygur, the host of the Young Turks, who has spread conspiracy theories about Israel.
Newkirk spoke out against last year’s killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. “I stand always with my beloved Jewish siblings against the scourge of antisemitism just as I will never stop in the nonviolent struggle to end the genocide in Gaza, release all hostages, and open the way to just, lasting peace,” he wrote.
Missouri: 1st Congressional District (Aug. 4)
Former Missouri Rep. Cori Bush is running for Congress in St. Louis again, two years after AIPAC’s super PAC poured millions into her race to oust the former “Squad” member from the House. Bush, who was first elected to Congress in 2020, will now take on Wesley Bell for the second time in the Democratic primary.
Bush, who supports the movement to boycott Israel, has alarmed a number of Jewish leaders in St. Louis over her positions on Israel.
She has expressed reluctance about calling Hamas a terrorist group, saying in a 2024 interview that racial justice protesters in Ferguson were also called terrorists. Bush was one of two members of Congress to vote against a measure to deny entry into the United States to Hamas terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre.
Her opponent, Bell, a supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship, has the backing of a number of Jewish and pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC, the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) and the Jewish Democratic Council of America, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus.
Bush, meanwhile, has been endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman — who was ousted the same year as Bush in a race with heavy spending by AIPAC — St. Louis’ DSA chapter and the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace.
Missouri: 4th Congressional District (Aug. 4)
Tenant organizer and radio host Hartzell Gray is running with the DSA’s backing in a Democratic primary in hopes of supplanting AIPAC-backed GOP congressman Mark Alford in the November general election in a solidly Republican district that includes some of Kansas City and its suburbs.
During a recent interview with Hasan Piker, Gray said that American elected officials, including Alford, are “catering to Israel, not to our folks here at home,” and broke down his views on the issue that he called “very much at the core of who I am.”
“I’m very honest. Listen, Israel’s apartheid ethnostate has been committing genocide to Palestinian people since before the Nakba,” Gray said. “They’re committing ethnic cleansing in Lebanon as we speak. We should be ending all ties — all diplomatic ties — with Israel.”
Gray had raised close to $170,000 as of March 31, according to FEC filings, by far the most of the seven Democrats in the running (none of whom are elected officials).
Michigan: U.S. Senate (Aug. 4)
The race for an open U.S. Senate seat between former county health executive Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Rep. Haley Stevens and the trailing State Sen. Mallory McMorrow has been one of the country’s most closely watched primaries, with Israel and AIPAC at its center.
A physician and former public health official, El-Sayed, who led Stevens by 5 percentage points in the latest poll, has made Medicare for all a core plank of his campaign.
He is also a staunchly pro-Palestinian candidate who’s campaigned alongside fellow hardline Israel critic Hasan Piker. A number of major left-wing figures are backing El-Sayed, including Sanders and a handful of Congress’ most outspoken pro-Palestinian members, such as Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and California Rep. Ro Khanna. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez added her endorsement on Thursday.
AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has spent more than $2 million on ads boosting Stevens, who describes herself as a “proud pro-Israel Democrat.”
In a recent interview with Semafor, El-Sayed called Stevens “a suit with a large AIPAC bank account,” adding that he hopes AIPAC finds “some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences.”
Following the attempted attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, earlier this year, El-Sayed drew criticism from some Jewish leaders — including the synagogue’s rabbi — for releasing lengthy remarks that discussed Israel’s war in Lebanon, after initially condemning antisemitism in a statement.
Michigan: 13th Congressional District (Aug. 4)
State Rep. Donavan McKinney could be the next to join the wave of DSA-backed insurgents heading to Congress. He has the backing of major democratic socialists Sanders and Tlaib, as well as Metro Detroit DSA.
Unlike many DSA congressional candidates, McKinney has not made Israel or Gaza a primary focus of his campaign. On his campaign website, AIPAC is not mentioned by name in the section on “getting big money out of politics,” and Israel is not cited in the foreign policy section.
PAL PAC, an anti-AIPAC pro-Palestinian organization, endorsed McKinney. He thanked the group and said that his policies “reflect the growing majority of Americans who want to end US tax funding of weapons to Israel to destroy Palestinian communities, and instead invest resources back into American working families.”
Rep. Shri Thanedar, the incumbent looking to stave off McKinney, is backed by pro-Israel groups AIPAC and DMFl, and has supported military aid to Israel since joining Congress in 2023.
AIPAC mobilized against Thanedar when he ran in 2022 because of legislation he once co-sponsored in the Michigan House that described Israel as an “apartheid state” and urged Congress to end U.S. aid to Israel. Thanedar later walked back his legislation, telling Jewish Insider that it had been an “emotional reaction” to the 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and that he would support Israel in Congress.
Michigan: 7th Congressional District (Aug. 4)
A Democratic primary between three major candidates is unfolding in a swing district in Michigan, with its winner hoping to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in November.
William Lawrence, 35, is occupying the race’s left lane, with endorsements from Sanders, Khanna and Tlaib. He co-founded Sunrise Movement, a climate advocacy organization, in 2015. (The group, which he left in 2020, has since become increasingly vocal in advocating for Palestinians.)
Lawrence is facing off against retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, who’s said she resigned because Trump “kept siding” with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
At a candidates’ forum in June, Lawrence was the only participant to refer to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide. Lawrence opposes weapons sales and American military aid to Israel. Though not endorsed by the DSA, Lawrence is a member of the left-wing group.
Wisconsin: Governor (Aug. 11)
In the crowded Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s open gubernatorial seat — a seat that is seen as winnable by either party in November — state Rep. Francesca Hong has established herself as the left-wing candidate, with backing from two DSA chapters in the state.
She introduced statewide legislation earlier this year that would repeal a 2018 law banning state contracts with businesses that boycott Israel. In March, Hong criticized outgoing Gov. Tom Evers after he signed into law the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Progressives have criticized the definition for characterizing some criticism of Israel as antisemitism. Hong wrote that adopting it “will compromise free speech across the state and academic freedom at our universities.”
She recently appeared on both Hasan Piker’s show and on the stream hosted by Michael Beyer, an influencer known as “Mike from PA” who came under fire after saying that Jewish identity is “a constructed ethnicity, this demonic ethnicity, wholly invented.”
“If Wisconsin is going to be a state that actually values human rights, then we have to ensure that we’re supporting, we’re fighting for the pro-Palestine movement,” Hong said on Beyer’s show.
The race’s most recent polling, conducted in March, had Hong leading with 14% of votes ahead of former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, at 11%. Sixty-five percent of voters were undecided.
Florida: 25th Congressional District (Aug. 18)
Oliver Larkin, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, has made an effort to compare himself to Zohran Mamdani.
Larkin is up against the staunchly pro-Israel, AIPAC-backed Rep. Jared Moskowitz in the district that includes Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. Larkin is being backed by DSA and advocates for the suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, which he accuses of committing genocide. His platform also includes the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Now, some of the energy generated by the Mamdani-backed candidates’ success in New York appears to be lifting Larkin’s candidacy: His campaign reportedly raised $115,000 in the week after the New York primaries.
In an appearance on Piker’s show, Larkin differentiated his policies on Israel from those of Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, the anti-Israel, fringe GOP candidate who has courted the online far right.
“The key difference is that when we talk about banning U.S. military aid to Israel, banning U.S. colleges and government from investing in Israel bonds, we’re talking about universal economic benefits,” Larkin said, meaning those tax dollars would go toward domestic programs for all.
November’s general election for the recently redistricted seat is seen as a toss-up. Should Larkin win the primary, his candidacy could serve as a test of how left-wing candidates fare in swing seats as opposed to moderate Democrats.
A recent poll showed Moskowitz with a 32-point lead; 72% of voters were unfamiliar or had no opinion of Larkin.
Massachusetts: 4th Congressional District (Sept. 1)
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, another staunchly pro-Israel Democrat, is facing a primary challenge from AI and policy researcher Jason Poulos.
Poulos’ platform calls to end U.S. support for Israel by signing onto legislation like the Block the Bombs Act and Tlaib’s bill stating that Israel is committing genocide. He also calls for AIPAC and DMFI to register as foreign lobbying groups.
Poulos told the Newton Beacon that Israel was an animating force in his entrance into politics.
“What really was radicalizing for me was watching the United States send tens of billions of dollars in military arms to Israel and watch them participate actively in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” Poulos said. He also said that he sided with the campus pro-Palestinian encampments in 2024 and their aim of lobbying the schools to divest from Israel.
Poulos has slammed Auchincloss for his endorsement from AIPAC. At a recent town hall, Auchincloss said it “concerns” him that there are numerous lobbying groups influencing politics, but only “one group of people get pummeled above all others.”
The next day, Poulos called Auchincloss “comically out-of-touch.”
“The reason why AIPAC is singled out is because it has already poured nearly $50m into congressional races nationwide, is bankrolled by MAGA mega-donors, and is in lockstep with the foreign policy interests of a foreign gov’t,” he wrote.
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Quiz: For America 250, how well do you know U.S. Jewish history?
The Forward produced The Great American Jewish History Quiz! using Claude, a generative artificial intelligence tool by Anthropic. All questions and answers were researched and written by Louis Keene, who prompted Claude to create the user interface and underlying code and to track statistics.
Questions or feedback? Send us an email: forwardquiz@forward.com.
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Mazel tov, Taylor and Travis: A rabbi’s imagined wedding speech under the celebrity chuppah
I have to admit, as a rabbi, I never imagined I’d be standing at a wedding bringing together two of America’s great religions: football and Taylor Swift.
And yet here we are. I’ve officiated weddings in synagogues, in backyards, on beaches. I was not prepared for Madison Square Garden.
Before I get to the blessings, I need to share a little Torah with you. Don’t worry: I’ll keep it short. Half this room is Swifties and half is Chiefs fans, and the only thing you agree on is that you didn’t come here for a sermon.
The very first matchmaking story in the Torah involves a man named Eliezer, sent by the patriarch Abraham on a mission: find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. Eliezer travels far, he arrives at a well, and he devises a test. A test that looked past beauty, past pedigree, past fame, past achievement.
The test is simple: When a stranger arrives tired and thirsty, what do you do?
Rebecca does more than just offer water to Eliezer. She sees his camels are also thirsty, and without being asked, she waters every single one. Ten camels. Anyone who has ever watered a camel knows this is not a small thing.
And the Torah stops to tell us: this is the wife for Isaac.
The Torah could have stopped to admire her talent or her beauty. Instead, it stopped to admire her kindness. Because she saw need in the world and responded to it, just because that’s who she was.
Taylor and Travis, I think about that story when I think about the two of you. Because what we know about you isn’t just about the Grammys or the Super Bowls. It’s about the friendships. It’s about the family. It’s the way Travis’s eyes light up when he talks about his brother Jason. It’s the way Taylor has shown up, year after year, for her crew — the people who have been with her since the beginning, long before the sold-out stadiums.
These are people who know how to love. Eliezer traveled hundreds of miles looking for exactly that. Turns out it was worth the trip.
Red zones and red carpets
Now, because we have a professional athlete here, permit me a football analogy.
Every great quarterback needs protection from a tight end like Travis. Every championship team depends on its offensive line. The line doesn’t get the glory. They don’t score the touchdowns. But without them, nothing works.
Marriage is the same. Protect one another. Protect each other’s dignity. Protect each other’s dreams. Protect each other’s hearts. Be each other’s offensive line on the hard days.
And because we also have one of the greatest songwriters in history standing before me — someone who has written the soundtrack to a generation — permit me a music analogy as well.
Every beautiful song has both melody and rhythm. Sometimes one instrument leads. Sometimes another does. But what makes the song truly beautiful is that each makes room for the other. The goal is never the solo. The goal is the harmony.
Marriage is exactly the same. There will be seasons when one of you carries more. Seasons when one of you needs extra support. Seasons of celebration and seasons of challenge. The goal is to reflect each other’s light. The goal is to create something together that neither of you could have created alone.
So, Taylor and Travis, here is my blessing for you: May you always remember what drew you to each other, the soul beneath the spotlight. May you protect each other fiercely and gently, in the stadiums and in the quiet rooms where no one is watching. May you make room for one another — to lead and to follow, season by season, era by era.
And may the love you build together — the real love, the private love, the love that has absolutely nothing to do with cameras or crowds — be the greatest thing either of you ever creates.
Mazel tov.
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