v Eilat Tibi, full from her Simchat Torah meal the night before, was late to the annual Nova trance festival in southern Israel, arriving with her friend, Hen, at 6:25am.
By 6:29am, the music abruptly stopped. “The first thing we did was clap for the DJ because we thought there was an electricity problem,” Eilat recalled.
Then the red alert was sounded, followed by rockets, paragliders and trucks of Hamas terrorists carrying AK-47 assault rifles, penetrating Israeli territory, gunning down 368 Nova festival-goers and kidnapping at least 40 more in what became the deadliest concert attack in music history – making up almost a third of the 1,200 people murdered in Israel that day. The last slaughter of Jews of that magnitude took place during the Holocaust.
Eilat sprinted through a field with her two friends, with bullets flying above and beside her and with lifeless bodies everywhere. She eventually survived after jumping into a car with six other passengers and driving all the way to Afula in northern Israel, where the driver, Itamar, who she had never met before, lived. Traumatised but indefatigable, Eilat returned to her air force unit in Tel Aviv the next day on 8 October. “I have a country and family to defend,” she said.
For the past month, Eilat has been based in New York City’s Financial District a few doors down from the iconic marble facade of the New York Stock Exchange. She’s one of a handful of survivors stationed at 35 Wall Street, talking to visitors at the Nova Festival exhibition, “October 7th, 06.29am: The Moment Music Stood Still,” which is open until June 16 before moving around the US.
Since opening in mid-April under intense security, some 60,000 visitors have walked through the 50,000 square foot Nova installation in New York, says Josh Kadden who, alongside entrepreneur Joe Teplow and music mogul Scooter Braun, helped bring the exhibition to the US. The expansive space, typically used for movie sets (such as Batman Dark Knight), was picked in part because of its proximity to the 9/11 Memorial and the ability to see the Statue of Liberty upon exiting. “Music is a universal language,” Kadden told the JC. “When you walk around and see this was the largest massacre in music history, you can have empathy regardless of your beliefs.”
Scooter Braun is no stranger to terror attacks at concerts, having been Ariana Grande’s manager during the 2017 suicide bombing attack in Manchester Arena that killed 22 people and injured 100 more. In response, Braun helped organise the “One Love Manchester” benefit concert, raising $12 million for victims’ families.
Proceeds from the Nova exhibition, which first premiered in Tel Aviv, go directly to rehabilitation and mental health programs for survivors and victims’ families of the attack.
The New York exhibition is set up exactly like the festival camp grounds in southern Israel. Everything inside is carefully extracted from the site of the Nova Festival in Israel. A punctured volleyball. Incinerated vehicles. A row of bullet-ridden Porta-Potties where festival-goers hid, albeit unsuccessfully, from Hamas gunmen. Unfurled sleeping bags tucked underneath colourful tents and beside camping chairs. An open backgammon set. Books on meditation and psychedelics. Countless make-up bags, shoes, shirts and socks. A bar stocked bottles of beer and spirits, alongside a sign reiterating the festival’s ‘Eco-Nova’ policy of being plastic-free.
Interactive television screens with testimonies from survivors and paramedics play on repeat. “Not a day goes by that I don’t cry,” said Shneor Gal, a team leader in ZAKA’s emergency search and rescue unit who witnessed victims of mutilations and sexual assaults at the sites of the surprise attacks on October 7. “We’ve all become a bereaved family.”
Phones are propped up showing people dancing with unbridled joy before the attacks, juxtaposed with harrowing screen grabs of final WhatsApp voice notes victims sent their loved ones.
Social media pro-Israel activist Lizzy Savetsky broke down when she first walked through the exhibition on opening night alongside Nova survivor Natalie Sanandaji. “It all felt so real, so chaotic and so eerie,” Savetsky said. “When I saw the looted belongings of the murdered on display I broke down – everything from a makeup compact with a shattered mirror to a blood stained prayer book. These items show the humanity of the victims, young people with their whole lives in front of them. Their hopes and dreams died along with them.”
Toward the end of the installation is the “Lost and Found” section displaying tables of intimate belongings retrieved from the Nova site, including house keys, sunglasses and underwear. “The lost and found exhibit was deeply impactful, especially knowing that a Nova survivor discovered some of her own belongings as she walked through,” said Doreen Benyamin, who helped organise a group visit to the exhibition.
Company executives, faith leaders and ambassadors have all visited the exhibition since opening, as have Jewish and non-Jewish high schoolers and college students. “Almost eight months later, it’s absolutely critical to ensure not only that people of all backgrounds don’t look aware, but that we never forget what happened,” said Alexandra Ahdoot, a student at Duke University. “We’re all scarred, but this exhibition allows us to open ourselves to vulnerability and pain on the path to collective healing. We will dance again.”
