10/09/2025

1,200 Hear Oct. 7 Survivor’s Story

Tags: Federation, Israel, Overseas

Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News.

by Ellie Evans

Two Israelis shared their personal experiences of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel with more than 1,200 community members and dignitaries at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 10-7-23 Commemoration.

Yahel Lipshitz, a survivor of the attack, and Lior Carmel, chairman of Kibbutz Kissufim in Israel, a kibbutz with which the Federation partnered to aid it in the restoration process post-Oct. 7, were the featured speakers at the event on Oct. 5 at Landerhaven in Mayfield Heights.

Lipshitz’s testimony and Carmel’s message offered attendees a deeper insight into the attack, its aftermath and the future of its memory.

“As a survivor of the horrific massacre that took place in Israel on Oct. 7, telling my story serves two purposes: asking for help, and gaining back control,” Lipshitz said. “Trauma is about losing control, but by choosing what to share, and how to share it, I regain a little of what was taken from me.”

Lipshitz said she was on a team of lead volunteers for Israel’s Midburn Festival – comparable to the western U.S.’s “Burning Man” – in 2023, which brought her and around 120 others to the Gaza border the weekend of Oct. 7, though that year’s Midburn event was not scheduled to take place for a few weeks. Lipshitz said it’s tradition for Midburn’s “core team” to gather at the event’s future site to celebrate as a group in advance of the festival.

“We arrived Friday, just a few miles from where the Nova festival was happening at the same time,” she said. “That night felt joyful and calm. We were dancing, having conversations and playing music under the clear sky. I remember breathing in the clean air and thinking, ‘How lucky I am, how privileged I am, to be a part of such a wonderful community,’ and how amazing the human spirit is. The contrast with the next morning couldn’t have been sharper. On the morning of Oct. 7, I woke up at 6:29 a.m. to what I thought was the sound of rain hitting my tent. It took me a few minutes to realize it was the sound of missiles.”

Lipshitz recalled quickly packing to go home, but being told to stay where she was – “the terrain around us was flat, exposed fields, with almost nowhere to hide” – because of terrorists flooding the border. As armed people approached the gate, and panic broke out, Lipshitz said she remembers becoming acutely aware of what she was wearing.

“I pressed myself against a wall, looking down at my shorts and sweatshirt with a broken zipper and thought, ‘This is it. This is what I’m wearing, and they’re going to find me. They’re going to kill me, kidnap me or worse,’” she said. “I texted my husband, ‘I love you,’ believing those would be my last words to him.”

Lipshitz noted while she did not die that day, the moment she thought she would stayed with her long after the initial attack.

“That certainty that death was seconds away has never left me,” she said. “But surviving Oct. 7 was only the beginning of the struggle. The weeks after were filled with confusion, exhaustion and guilt. I told myself I had no right to feel bad, because nothing happened to me. But I was haunted by ‘what-ifs,’ and struggled to return to myself.”

Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, former Clevelander who moved to Columbus this year, attended the event and had the chance to hear Lipshitz’s testimony.

“It was a beautiful ceremony, highlighted by (Lipshitz’s) story,” Brown told the Cleveland Jewish News. “She was there, and is dealing with all the trauma that comes from (that experience). She’s courageous, and she came to Cleveland to explain it all to us, knowing she will have the support of the whole community, Jews and non-Jews alike.”

Carmel spoke on behalf of the community of Kibbutz Kissufim, which was heavily impacted by the Oct. 7 attack, as it is adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians invaded our community with the goal of murdering, raping, kidnapping and destroying everything that symbolized Israeli and Jewish life,” Carmel said. “We will never forget those who were killed during those days. We will never forget how community members of Kissufim were forced to leave their homes and everything they had behind.”

Joe Cimperman, president and CEO of Global Cleveland, first traveled to Kibbutz Kissufim with Federation leadership in April 2024, where he met the daughter of Shlomo Mantzur, an 85-year-old man killed by terrorists during the Hamas attack on the kibbutz, and received insight into the lives of those most directly affected. He spoke at the event, recalling what his Jewish friends at the Federation told him after Oct. 7.

“‘Joe, it’s going to get a lot worse,’” Cimperman said, quoting his friends. “We were just beginning to see the videos, hear the stories and learn the horrors of that day, and I could not understand how it could get any worse. Over the last two years, with incidences of antisemitism and double standards, I began to understand what that meant.”

In the wake of the attack, many Jewish people and Israeli organizations helped Kissufim feel less alone – “but especially, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland,” Carmel told the CJN before the event. Federation partnered with Kibbutz Kissufim in February 2024 to help it rebuild what they lost Oct. 7 and beyond.

“We needed to feel like we weren’t alone,” Carmel said. “After Oct. 7, when many people’s friends were murdered or in the middle of war, with no home to go back to, they felt lonely. In our darkest days, we found rays of light in all those who reached out from Israeli society and the Jewish world to help us.

“When we started our partnership with the JFC, we felt connection, and as Jewish people and human beings, we needed to feel that. They have hugged, supported and listened to us for the last two years. Our family in Cleveland has made sure we know we are not alone. (They) have embraced us on so many levels. Thanks to (their) support, we rebuild our welfare services and education system, and thanks to (their) professional aid, our children start to heal.”

Jared Miller, the chair of Federation’s Kissufim partnership subcommittee, shared the nature of the partnership from the Federation’s viewpoint.

“We are grateful to stand side-by-side with the people of Kissufim,” Miller said. “Together, we have faced the painful reality of loss, not as distant supporters, but as partners in grief and resilience, helping to repair, rebuild and bear witness. We continue to walk this path of healing, offering support in both big and small ways, with an enduring and unwavering commitment.”

Rachel Glickman, who delivered opening remarks as co-chair of the event, said Oct. 7, 2023, is “not yet history,” explaining the effects of the attack are still felt everywhere, two years later.

“Our world was forever changed by the deadliest day in the history of the modern state of Israel,” Glickman said. “Today, the trauma sits with us all, and, for many, the healing has not even begun. As the war that Hamas launched with Israel rages on, Oct. 7 is an active and ongoing horror for the people of Israel and for Jews worldwide. ... Let us unite in memory and in purpose. Let us commit to finding meaning in the suffering and using our pain as fuel to come together for eternity.”

Green Road Synagogue’s Rabbi Binyamin Blau delivered remarks at the event, prompting the community to consider how they are leading their lives two years after the initial attack.

“Two painful years have passed, and so many sacrifices have been made on behalf of the state of Israel and the Jewish people,” Blau said. “We must ask ourselves, ‘Are we living meaningful lives, worthy of their sacrifices?’”

Jeffrey Wild, Federation board chair, said while the Federation continues to aid the people of Israel overseas, it is also intensifying commitments to its Jewish community here at home.

“In Cleveland, we are doubling down on our efforts to fight antisemitism, and expanding our work with independent and public schools throughout the region that are facing historic levels of hate and antisemitism,” Wild said. “We are increasing our involvement on college campuses to support our students, families, administrators and faculty. We are engaging with city, county, state and federal governments to call out antisemitism when we see it, and to make sure we support the programs that are so important to our community.”

Other presenters were Michael Stovsky, event co-chair; Dave Matkowsky; Mark Holz, chair of Federation’s overseas connections committee, and Leah Spector, recently retired principal of the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School; Alain de Wolff and Dr. Monty Mazer; Cleveland shlichim; Rabbi Raffi Glickman, event co-chair; Neil Waxman, chair of the Federation’s Israel Emergency Campaign, Elisabeth Sherman, vice chair of Federation; Stanislav Golovin; Gary Isakov; Rabbi Hal Rudin-Luria of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation; Rabbi Yael Dadoun and Senior Rabbi and Will and Jan Sukenik Chair in Rabbinics Robert Nosanchuk, both of Congregation Mishkan Or; Lydia Frankel and Rabbi Joshua Skoff of Park Synagogue.

Carmel said two years later, with the war persisting and recurrent instances of hatred aimed toward Jews, he hopes to spread a message of togetherness and make a call to action by traveling to share his community’s Oct. 7, 2023, story.

“The community of Cleveland is not alone, and Kissufim is not alone,” he told the CJN. “The Jewish people are having a very hard time, with antisemitism rising all over the world, and the feeling that no Jew is secure. We all have the same destination. We are a partner of something huge – the Jewish nation, and I have a small part in it, and so does Cleveland. We have Jewish solidarity, and we must take responsibility for the connection.”

Learn More: Federation, Israel, Overseas