(Image Credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

Local support for Israel

Dozens join candlelit vigil for Kamloops Jewish community

Oct 11, 2023 | 8:49 PM

KAMLOOPS– Dozens gathered at City Hall on Wednesday night to show support for Israel and the local Jewish community.

“We just feel so sad and broken. We just had to come together and talk and that’s what we did tonight,” Heidi Coleman, President of the Jewish Community Centre of Kamloops and the vigil organizer said.

(Image Credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC News)

“It was really great to have people in the Jewish community and then some people in the non-Jewish community as well supporting us.”

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Participants gathered in a circle downtown, sharing their personal experiences and stories of strength around the ongoing attacks in Israel.

Illuminated by candlelight, the group sang Israel’s national anthem.

(Image Credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC News)

“I think it did help, it did help me feel a little bit better because I feel that I’m walking around with a lump similar to 9/11, like when you just couldn’t believe that that could happen,” Coleman told CFJC News following the vigil.

“And that’s how I’m feeling about what I’m seeing on social media and speaking with people who’ve lost family.”

Coleman believes public gatherings like this are important right now, even in places like Kamloops, 10,000 km away from the war zone.

(Image Credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC News)

“We’re constantly talking to one another,” she said.

“But I think it was important to say we’re here, we’re alive, we breathe and we’re not going anywhere, though people are trying to kill us.”

(Image Credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC News)

(Image Credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC News)