A vigil was held in Culver City on Sunday night just hours after Israeli authorities shared the news that Hamas had killed six hostages after nearly a year in captivity.
One of the hostages killed was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a California-born man whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month and who has become widely known in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
Sunday night's vigil was held at the site of a memorial exhibition dedicated to the October 7 massacre in Israel. The memorial, housed in a 4,600-square-meter industrial event space, was unveiled on August 17.
Shortly before the event, Scooter Braun, a music executive and lead organizer of the memorial service, told The Times that after the killings, the decision was made to hold the vigil in the middle of the exhibit, which recreates the attack at the Nova music festival in Israel.
By 6 p.m. on Sunday, several hundred people had gathered. Many wore a piece of tape on their chests with the number 331 on it, to indicate the number of days since the hostages were taken. The service was held in a part of the exhibition known as the “healing room.”
Braun said the exhibit was inspired by stories told by survivors of the music festival.
“It has nothing to do with politics. There are no flags here,” Braun said. “It’s strictly about the music festival and what happened there. So people can see that this could have been Coachella, this could have been Stagecoach.”
Music executive Scooter Braun speaks at a vigil at the Nova exhibition on September 1, 2024 in Culver City. The vigil was held to honor the six hostages captured on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel and recently killed by Hamas militants.
(Eric Thayer / For The Times)
Most of the recently killed hostages had attended the Nova music festival on October 7.
Israeli authorities confirmed Sunday morning that the bodies of the six hostages, including Goldberg-Polin, were found in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Authorities found the bodies Saturday night and an autopsy revealed that four men and two women died sometime on Thursday or Friday from gunshot wounds.
Speaking at the Democratic convention in Chicago on Aug. 21, Rachel Goldberg said her son, whom she described as a fan of music and travel, attended the festival in Israel's Negev desert with his best friend to celebrate Goldberg-Polin's birthday.
Goldberg stood alongside her husband, Jon Polin, during a tearful speech. The parents, who had met with numerous political leaders in the months since their son's abduction, spoke at the convention nearly two weeks before news of his death broke.
The activist went on to describe the horrific series of events that unfolded on the morning of October 7, saying that Goldberg-Polin and her friend, along with 27 other festival-goers, hid in a 1.50 x 2.50-meter bomb shelter as militants lobbed grenades into the shelter. Goldberg-Polin was taken prisoner. Her friend, Goldberg said, heroically deflected eight grenades until a ninth killed him.
People attend a vigil at the Nova Expo on Sept. 1, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. The vigil was held to honor the six hostages who were taken on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed by Hamas. (Eric Thayer/For The Times)
View from the vigil at the Nova Expo held on Sept. 1, 2024, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
“Hersh’s left forearm, his dominant arm, was torn off by the explosion before he was loaded into a van and robbed of his life,” his mother said.
“At this moment, 109 precious human beings are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza,” he said. “Among the hostages are eight American citizens. One of those Americans is our only son.”
The other hostages who died, besides Goldberg-Polin, who was the only American citizen among them, were identified by the Israeli military as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40.
In a preliminary assessment, the Israeli military said the six died “shortly” before troops arrived to rescue them.
On Oct. 7, Hamas-led Palestinian militants carried out multiple attacks across Israel, including at the music festival, where 364 festival-goers were killed and about 250 people taken hostage. About half of those hostages were released in a hostage-for-prisoner swap last year. In total, 1,200 Israelis were killed, including at least 42 Americans.
Since those attacks, Israel has retaliated with an airstrike on densely populated Gaza and ground troops, waging a war that has since killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
People attend a vigil at the Nova exhibition on September 1, 2024 in Culver City. The exhibition, which commemorates the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants, was inspired by stories told by survivors of the music festival in Israel.
(Eric Thayer / For The Times)
