Hundreds gather for October 7 memorial service, remembering Israeli lives lost

SAN FRANCISCO - The events on October 7th, 2023 are being remembered tonight all over the Bay Area. In San Francisco, multiple Jewish synagogues and organizations came together for memorial service for the lives lost that day. 

Congregation Emanu-El in the Richmond District hosted the San Francisco Jewish Community's October 7 Memorial Service in partnership with the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest. 

Rabbis and leaders from Congregations Am Tikvah, Beth Sholom, Emanu-El, Magain David, Ner Tamid, Sha'ar Zahav, Sherith Israel, and JCCSF held the ceremony. 

Emanu-El’s Senior Rabbi Ryan Bauer said it was not an evening for politics, but instead for mourning. 

He said more than one thousand people gathered registered for the event, including Tali Flash and her family who were there to remember her parents, Cindy and Igal Flash, killed in Israel that day. 

"I miss my parents and I miss my home," she said. "At 5pm in the afternoon, terrorists shot down their saferoom door and killed both of them."

She said they were people of peace, and chooses not to associate them with the war. "I want to remember them on October 6, when they were making Friday night dinner."   

Others like Flash, filling the room as city and state leaders paid their respects, 

Mayor London Breed and State Senator Scott Weiner were also in attendance, along with San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Supervisors Randy Mandelman and Aaron Peskin.

The program was led the Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest Marco Sermoneta.

"We won’t stand by when our people no matter where they may be are being harassed discriminated and marginalized, and we won’t stand by while they’re massacred," he said before leading the congregation in prayer.

"Since October 7 last year, I believe there’s been 10,000 incidents of antisemitism in this country," said Rabbi Bauer.

Names of the fallen were read, a table was set for Israeli hostages, and photographs from photojournalist Ziv Koren lined the halls, capturing the moments from that day.

Tyler Gregory of the Jewish Community Relations Council said, "It’s our hope that this can end as quickly as possible and civilians and families can go back to living without fear of rocket fire."

For Dale Boutiette, he’s seeking healing after his wife was trapped in Israel during the attack.

"They were in Tel Aviv and they got trapped in a café during an air raid and overheard bombs," he described with tears in his eyes. "She called my daughter and thought she was going to die."

There was increased security, including metal detectors and armed security, as the program served as a place to worship safely.

"From graffiti on Jewish owned businesses to synagogues to verbally assaulting people walking with kippahs on, the comfort of being in a community of people that worship in the same way and know each other and break bread with one another is actually kind of holding us all up," said Boutiette.

It was a peaceful night without any protests surrounding the synagogue.