Coral Gables postpones Oct. 7 interfaith vigil, citing Jewish holiday
The city of Coral Gables has postponed plans to host an interfaith vigil on the anniversary of Oct. 7 due to a holiday-related scheduling conflict.
The decision was made last week “due to the beginning of Sukkot,” Coral Gables spokeswoman Martha Pantin told the Miami Herald in an email Monday.
Sukkot is one of the three major festivals in Judaism and is “both an agricultural festival of thanksgiving and a commemoration of the forty-year period during which the children of Israel wandered in the desert after leaving slavery in Egypt, living in temporary shelters as they traveled,” according to the American Jewish Committee.
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago on Monday said the city was in the midst of coordinating the vigil with faith leaders from different religions across the community when rabbis said they would not be able to attend due to the important Jewish holiday. Sukkot begins this year at sundown Monday and ends at sundown next Monday, Oct. 13.
The interfaith vigil was part of a discussion among commissioners about raising Israel’s flag at City Hall on Oct. 7, the second anniversary of the deadly 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants. At a meeting last month, after hearing from residents, city commissioners set aside the flag-raising idea and instead agreed to display a more neutral banner honoring all victims of the war and to hold the interfaith vigil. They also agreed to light up City Hall.
Lago, who had sponsored the resolution to commemorate Oct. 7 by raising the Israeli flag, said the city is now in talks with faith leaders to finalize a plan to host the vigil at the end of the month to ensure it honors all the lives lost and the people who are still being held hostage in the latest war between Israel and Hamas. The city said it also plans to raise the banner, and light up City Hall, at that time.
This Oct. 7 marks two years since Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostage, an attack that sparked the ongoing war. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed over 67,000 Palestinians since then, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
READ MORE: Two years later, South Florida Jews remember a dark day. Here’s how to mark October 7
