Courtesy of Jake Garza Seymour

Early Saturday morning, Mika Bardin ’26 woke up to learn that her father was gone. On her phone, a text read, “Left for the war, I love you.” 

“People Not Numbers,” an event that Bardin organized, brought members of the Yale community to Cross Campus on Wednesday afternoon to share stories of loved ones who have been kidnapped or killed by Hamas over the past week.

“It’s important to share these stories in a larger Yale context,” Bardin told the News. “They see the numbers of murdered civilians, of kidnapped children, and don’t understand that these numbers are also people that the Yale community knows and loves.”

Bardin began the event by telling the story of Eitan Neeman, a former fellow at the School of Medicine who had been called up to serve as a physician in a military reserve unit Saturday morning. 

That day, Neeman was killed by Hamas near the Israeli city of Sderot. 

“Eitan was taken from his family,” Bardin said. “His wife, his mother, his seven children.” 

The crowd of about 200 people stood in a densely packed semi-circle as speakers took turns coming to the microphone. 

Aaron Schorr ’24, an Israeli native, told the crowd he wanted to provide a sense of “what it means to be a 24-year-old from Jerusalem this weekend” and shared short anecdotes from family and friends in Israel.

Schorr spoke of his sister — who he said was scared to check her phone and see the name of another dead friend — and his brother, an artillery commander who he said had to bear the weight of responsibility for the 30 soldiers from his unit.

“I don’t know what message to give you today,” Schorr said. “I have only pain to offer. And anxiety. Because this is not over.”

Israel has a fixed-term military service requirement for all citizens. Typically, Israelis serve from the ages of 18 to 21 and remain on military reserve until around age 40.

Since formally declaring war on Hamas on Sunday, Israel’s military has called up 360,000 reservists. Violence broke out early Saturday after Hamas launched a surprise attack, prompting Israeli military retaliation and a “complete siege” of Gaza. 

Over 1,300 deaths have been reported in Israel and 1,560 in Gaza as of Thursday evening, according to the Associated Press.

“We have known tragedy. Our entire history is pain and suffering,” Schorr continued. “Our entire generation grew up thinking this was just history, things that happened to our ancestors. Now we know … this is our present.”

He finished with the words “Am Yisrael Chai” — Hebrew for “the people of Israel live.”

Netanel Schwartz ’25 spoke of feeling “invisible” on campus. He said that only one non-Jewish friend had asked him about his Israeli relatives’ well-being. 

“There’s people that say, ‘Keep going to class.’ I tried to go to English, 9 a.m. on Monday morning,” Schwartz said. “Ten minutes in, I’m just sitting there. Who cares about Moby Dick? Who cares about the whale? My people are dying!”

CJ Glicksman LAW ’26 said that he experienced “suffocating dread” on Saturday and Sunday as an observant Jew who does not use his phone or electronic devices on holidays. Hamas’s attacks came during Shemini Atzeret, a two-day religious celebration that follows the holiday of Sukkot. 

Glicksman recounted turning on his phone Sunday night to find out that his mother and sister had spent the holiday in a bomb shelter, his cousin had cancelled his wedding party and his wife’s 22-year-old friend had become a widow. 

“I weep for my people, I pray for an end to the bloodshed,” he said. “Most of all, I hope for everlasting peace.”

The event ended with the singing of “Acheinu kol beit yisrael,” which is Hebrew for “our siblings, the whole house of Israel.”

The Israel Defense Forces was established on May 31, 1948, two weeks after Israel declared independence.

Correction 11/13: The phrasing of Schorr’s statement was changed to reflect that the soldiers in his brother’s unit are alive, not dead.