Yoni Viloga, an Israeli survivor of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by militant group Hamas, spoke about his experience to members of the IU community Wednesday in the IMU’s Alumni Hall.
Viloga spoke as part of “Faces of October Seventh,” a group that schedules events with survivors of the attack for college campuses. The event Wednesday was organized by Chabad at IU, IU Hillel and Students Supporting Israel. Organizers hung photos of people who were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Hamas’ attack killed around 1,200 Israelis, and as of Jan. 25 over 25,700 Palestinian people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. During the attack, 253 Israeli hostages were taken, and 121 have since been released.
Viloga said it was the largest crowd he’d spoken in front of yet. Over 320 people registered to attend the speech, according to Chabad co-director and Rabbi Levi Cunin. Cunin also said eight police officers oversaw the event.
A member of Chabad at IU livestreamed and uploaded the event to the organization’s Instagram.
Using time-stamped photos, Viloga described being woken up by rocket fire, hearing gunfire outside and taking shelter with his family and neighbors Oct. 7. Viloga, who said he, his brother and father had served in the Israel Defense Force, knew the gunfire was not from Israel because they used manual, rather than automatic firearms, and knew they were being attacked. Throughout the day, Viloga received photos and videos of Hamas attacking other kibbutzim. Kibbutzim are small towns historically centered on collective farms and communal living.
“I thought for a second that I was in a dream or something — some nightmare,” Viloga said in his speech. “But it wasn’t a nightmare. It was the reality at the time.”
In the evening, when the shooting temporarily stopped, Viloga said he and a friend decided to run to the kibbutz’s war room to receive updates. After learning some families had left the kibbutz, Viloga decided that he would go to Tel Aviv with his family.
Viloga said the family took three cars because his father did not want to lose the whole family if they were attacked. He said that upon leaving their home, they saw dead bodies and burned cars in the street. As he was driving, Viloga received a call to join his IDF unit that evening, and he split from his family, who now reside in Tel Aviv.
“If you talk about body, they are okay, but here, in the soul, all of us in some trauma,” Viloga said.
Viloga also spoke about a friend who he said was kidnapped by Hamas and is still being held in Gaza, and another person who was killed in the Oct. 7 attack. He told the audience the two were proud of their Jewish heritage, and that Jewish people should not be ashamed of their heritage because now is a difficult time to be Jewish around the world.
“Thank you so much that you are here. You give me so, so much power to continue my life, and I appreciate that all of you are here to hear my story, and see so many people, and I’m full of hope that our future will be better.”
Viloga then answered questions from the crowd. One attendee asked about the morale in Israel, and Viloga said Israelis are connected and putting aside their differences in the context of the war.
Cunin concluded the event with a prayer. Members of the audience sang and clapped along.
“You never see someone winning a fight when they come in depressed or sad,” Cunin said at the end of the prayer. “You have to be happy, and you have to be proud to be Jewish.”
Cunin said that hearing Viloga’s speech was important education in response to recent antisemitic sentiment on college campuses across the country. A report from the Anti-Defamation League released Jan. 10 also documented a rise in antisemitism across the country in the months following the Oct. 7 attack, with 361% more antisemitic incidents occurring than in the same timeframe between 2022-23. The report includes incidents of “antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.”
“You were able to hear the emotions in his voice, it was hard for him to talk, it was almost like he was reliving what he went through,” Cunin said. “It was powerful that he was speaking from the heart.”
Freshman Jared Zeltner said the event was an emotional experience.
“This event is very important for us, because you’re having someone with real experiences and real family and people that are affected by what happened,” Zeltner said. “We can’t ignore their stories, and the more events we have like this in the U.S., the better it will be just for spreading awareness about the struggle of the Jewish people and to raise awareness about why Israel is so important as a whole.”
Zeltner, who said two of his childhood friends were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, said the event was therapeutic for him.
“To hear stories like this, and see other people who were involved, it was very therapeutic, not just for me, but for the entire Jewish community as a whole, because when one of us feels pain, we all feel it,” he said.
