UAlbany students with Matan Boltax (brown and white shirt, behind podium), survivor of Hamas massacre at Israel’s Oct. 7 NOVA music festival. Boltax, was speaker at a recent program at The Shabbos House Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at the University at Albany.
The Shabbos House Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center recently hosted a survivor of Israel’s NOVA music festival of October 7. Twenty-three year-old American-Israeli Matan Boltax was the speaker. Coincidentally, his father Jonathan had graduated from the University of Albany (UAlbany) in 1994. The family had moved to Israel around the time of Matan’s bar mitzvah.
Boltax shared a slideshow, which included a selfie taken at the NOVA music festival close to the time that the terror began. Among those pictured in that selfie was Hersh Goldberg-Polin who remains hostage in Gaza. Boltax showed how he escaped, some of his short service afterwards in Gaza and how he and his friends have been dealing with the trauma in the ensuing months.
The Faces of October 7th organizational chaperone would not allow any political or military questions, but Boltax did conclude with two uplifting and encouraging messages: First, he spoke to the deeply appreciated value of every seemingly small act done on behalf of Israel: any mitzvah, an extra psalm or lighting candles (as Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s mother requested to do as a merit for her son), or a supportive social-media post. He also spoke to how much the post-Oct. 7 sense of unity in Israel and with Jewish people around the world means to him. He reviewed what he sees as a contrast to the divisive lack of unity in the months prior to Oct. 7.
Yirshalem Pinkus of Orange County, a UAlbany student who spent a summer program in Israel with one of the hostages, opened the event by reciting “Acheinu” (a prayer for brethren in captivity) in Hebrew and English. Ari Klein of Buffalo, a UAlbany student on Shabbos House Lchaim Student Board and UAlbany Hillel Board and UAlbany’s CAMERA on Campus fellow, introduced how impactful the events and aftermath of Oct.7 have been and how it has been a catalyst for greater Jewish involvement, engagement and observance.
The speaker followed a series of a varied additional Israel-related programming added since October 7th at Shabbos House to support students during this time and to increase awareness and opportunities of connection. The event was co-sponsored by Shabbos House, UAlbany Hillel, and CAMERA on Campus, and facilitated by the Faces of October 7th organization.
