Latest news with #NovaMusicFestivalExhibition
Toronto Sun
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
OPINION: Why Canadians should bear witness to the NOVA massacre
The Nova Music Festival Exhibition is in Toronto. Photo by HANDOUT / NOVA EXHIBITION HANDOUT A visit to the NOVA Music Festival exhibit is a must for all. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The exhibit reveals the graphic truth about the attack by Hamas on the festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and allows one to bear witness and pay homage to the victims and their families. It's a powerful, deeply moving exhibit that takes one to the scene of the actual site. Visitors can take their own time to witness the aftermath of the shocking attack — as I did — in disbelief, sadness and outrage. The exhibit, brought to Toronto with the help of Allied Voices for Israel, authentically recreates the attack and its aftermath on the festival grounds. It shows images and videos of the joyful exuberant young people celebrating life when the attack happened. They were there to dance, to be in a 'trance' of movement while waiting to watch a magical sunrise on the horizon. But at 6:29 a.m., their celebration turned to horror. The terrorists murdered hundreds in cold blood and kidnapped many more. They filmed themselves exulting in these acts, sickeningly proud to share them with the world. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As I move around in the darkened space, I saw scenes recreated of the festival aftermath — campsites uprooted as young people fled the scene, their personal belongings strewn around. On one chair I saw a book with a person in a meditation pose. A fellow visitor translated the title of the book to me, heart-wrenchingly ironic: the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, the sacred text on philosophy of Yoga that teaches about how to quieten the mind and find inner peace. One exhibit board displayed the last phone call of a daughter to her mother as she hid in terror. In another corner, I heard a Hamas fighter calling home to boast of killing ten Jews. A screen showed the body of a young Jewish woman paraded naked through Gaza as jihadis cheered. The exhibit is haunting and deeply disturbing. I felt as if my heart would literally break. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The experience would have been unbearable but for the resilience of the survivors. In a debriefing session after the exhibit, I sat in silence as two young people who survived the attack spoke bravely about their horrific experience. One of the women who spoke had Hindu-Jewish ancestry from Bombay and I was able to meet her and give her a hug. As a Hindu of Indian heritage, in that moment, I felt our communities stand together in grief — and in resolve. The exhibit served as a stark reminder of the atrocities committed by Islamist jihadi ideology against Hindus for over 1,400 years, continuing even today. Thousands of Hindus is Kashmir, India were killed and tortured in 1990s, resulting in their seventh exodus from the valley. Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir, Pakistan and Bangladesh continue to face a genocide, losing over 80% of their populations there. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The ideology that drove the NOVA massacre is not confined to one place. Nor is it ancient history. It thrives wherever hatred is allowed to spread unchecked through radicalization, propaganda, and the willful blindness of those who excuse it. Here in Canada, we must confront this reality. Antisemitism is rising. Violent hate is on our streets. Before going to bed that night, I sat down to meditate, to quiet my agitated heart and mind. After that I sent blessing to the souls of the departed, their grieving families and to the whole Jewish community facing this trauma. I prayed for peace in Israel, Am Chai Israel. There can be no darkness in the presence of light. We shall overcome, someday, as the song goes. But we cannot overcome hate with silence. We must stand united — Jews, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, and all Canadians — in affirming the dignity of every human being. We must name the ideologies that seek to divide and destroy, and refuse to normalize them in our schools, media, or public discourse. The NOVA exhibit is more than an act of remembrance. It is a call to conscience. I thank all those who brought it to Toronto. I urge every Canadian to go, and to bear witness. RECOMMENDED VIDEO Toronto & GTA Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto Blue Jays Toronto & GTA NBA
Calgary Herald
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Ottawa Jewish leaders decry 'brazen act of desecration' at National Holocaust Monument
Article content Crews are in the process of removing the graffiti. Article content The incident is one of the latest to underscore growing antisemitism in Canada and Western nations in general, as hostilities between Israel and Hamas have escalated since the terrorist organization's attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Article content 'As a son of a Holocaust survivor, I never expected that my daughter would be living in a world where antisemitism is at the level that it is at,' Greenspon said. Article content Silver said the growth 'underscores the urgent need for education, vigilance, and action,' not just remembrance. Article content The hate and bias crime unit is handling the investigation, according to OPS, which said in a statement it 'treats incidents of this nature seriously and recognizes the profound impact they have on the community.' Article content Article content Article content Greenspon said that while he appreciates OPS's quick response and celebrates prosecutions for crimes like these, it will take more than the usual condemnation from political leaders if they truly hope to address the root cause of antisemitism. Article content Canada, he said, needs 'to stop blaming, along with England and France, Israel for a situation that it did not create.' Article content 'They need to stop blaming Israel for the food and water and medical aid that is much needed but is not getting through to the Gazans because of Hamas, and that's been the case for years.' Article content Greenspon also said Canada and other nations should no longer contribute money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East because he alleged those funds are being appropriated by Hamas to support their terrorism. Article content Last year, the outreach agency fired nine employees with suspected ties to Hamas and the Oct. 7 attack. Israel had sent UNWRA a list of 108 employees it deemed to be Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, demanding that they immediately be fired. Article content Article content In a post to X earlier Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said 'we can't look away' from the rising antisemitism in Canada after visiting the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto, a travelling display dedicated to the victims of Oct 7. Article content The Nova Music Festival Exhibition tells the story of the brutal massacre carried out by the terrorist entity Hamas on October 7, 2023. Young Israeli revellers came together that day to dance and celebrate, and were targeted by inconceivable violence. I came to witness… — Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) June 9, 2025
Toronto Sun
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
MANCINELLI: It's important to bear witness and see evil with your own eyes
Silence in the face of this kind of horror isn't neutrality — it's complicity The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto in remembrance of the people murdered and taken hostage at the event in Israel. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / Postmedia Recently, I took the time to visit the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, which is currently in Toronto. For me, a strong ally to the Jewish community, especially in the post-October 7 era, as we witness denialism of the atrocities and a disturbing rise in antisemitism across Canada, it was important for me to bear witness. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account I walked into the Nova exhibit expecting it to be heavy, but I wasn't prepared for the way it would reach into the deepest corners of my heart. Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for what I saw and heard inside those walls. The exhibit begins by painting a picture of what that day was like, showing the lights and music reminiscent of a vibrant festival. You can feel the joy, the unity, the freedom that filled the air before the horror began. Then, like a jarring shift in a dream, the mood darkens. You're surrounded by remnants of that day — charred tents, blood-stained clothes, twisted metal, porta-potties where people tried to hide, full of bullet holes. But it's not just the physical artifacts that hit hardest, it's the stories. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Listening to survivors recount what they lived through was gut-wrenching. One young woman described hiding for hours in a field, texting her family goodbye. Another man showed photos of his friends, now gone, whose laughter once filled the air just moments before everything changed. Their voices cracked, not just from pain, but from the weight of needing to be heard. And as someone outside of the Jewish community, I realized how vital it is for people like me to listen. The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto in remembrance of the people murdered and taken hostage at the event in Israel. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / Postmedia This exhibit isn't about politics. It's about people. It's about lives lost and lives shattered. It's about the raw human toll of hate and violence. The Nova massacre wasn't just an attack on Jews — it was an attack on humanity, on joy, on the right to dance freely under the stars. I saw myself in those young people. I saw my friends. My siblings. And that's when it truly clicked: Silence in the face of this kind of horror isn't neutrality — it's complicity. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. We must speak because every hateful act chips away at the dignity of us all. We must speak because our Jewish neighbours, friends and family deserve to live without fear. We must speak because justice demands it. What makes the exhibit so powerful is its refusal to let you look away. It doesn't sanitize the suffering, but it doesn't sensationalize it either. It simply tells the truth. And that truth demands a response. As Canadians, we weren't untouched by this massacre. Canadians who went to Nova festival to dance with their friends were also victims, including Ben Mizrachi from Vancouver and Alexandre Look, a young man from Montreal, a hero who was murdered trying to save others hiding in a bomb shelter. The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Toronto in remembrance of the people murdered and taken hostage at the event in Israel. Photo by Peter J. Thompson / Postmedia It's easy to think, 'This isn't my community,' or 'This doesn't affect me.' But it does. Antisemitism, hatred and terrorism are not just Jewish problems. They're human problems. And if we let them go unanswered, we're all at risk of losing something precious — our shared sense of dignity and justice. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. I left the exhibit changed. Humbled. Angry. Heartbroken. But also, more committed than ever to standing with the Jewish community — not just in words, but in action. Sharing these stories. Challenging hate when I see it. And encouraging others to experience this exhibit for themselves. To anyone who isn't Jewish and wonders if this exhibit is 'for them,' let me be clear: It is. In fact, it might be especially for you. Because we need to bridge the gap between witnessing and action. Between sympathy and solidarity. Visit the Nova exhibit. Bring your friends. Bring your questions. And most importantly, bring your open heart. You'll walk out different than you walked in — and that's exactly the point. — Victoria Mancinelli is Director, PR, Communications and Strategic Partnerships, with LiUNA NHL Columnists Columnists Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls
