Harvard Chaplains Urge ‘Peace’ at Vigil to Mourn Victims of Israel-Hamas War

More than 25 people, including University President Alan M. Garber ’76 and College Dean Rakesh Khurana, gathered on the patio of Memorial Church Tuesday afternoon for an interfaith vigil to mourn the victims of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Tuesday’s vigil, hosted by the Harvard Chaplains and Memorial Church, follows multiple events last week meant to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, including one vigil organized by Harvard’s Jewish groups and one by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

At the event, Harvard Hillel Campus Rabbi Getzel Davis addressed recent “attacks” on Jewish and Muslim students at Harvard.

He specifically mentioned antisemitic stickers found Monday near Hillel and the vandalization of University Hall last week — an attack he attributed to “an international group calling for violence against Jews.”

The vandalism was filmed and posted on Instagram by a since-deactivated account called “Unity of Fields,” which described the video as an “anonymous submission.” The Harvard University Police Department said it was investigating both the vandalization and the stickers.

Davis also acknowledged reports of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias from affiliates since Oct. 7, including a doxxing truck targeting members of student groups who signed a controversial statement following the attacks.

“We know well that we are not the only ones who are scared on this campus,” Davis said. “We hear the pain of our Muslim and Arab brothers and sisters targeted by the doxxing trucks that are still to this day around campus.”

“Just as many of my community are afraid to wear kippah in public, I know that it is the same with hijab,” he added.

Davis urged affiliates to “rebuild a campus environment that is both safe, physically and emotionally, for all of us” as global events impact life on campus.

Harvard’s Muslim chaplain Khalil Abdur-Rashid commemorated the loss of innocent lives during his speech.

“To all the innocents whose lives have been taken, held captive, lost, beat down, forgotten, abandoned,” he said. “May God bless you, support you, uplift you, honor you.”

Abdur-Rashid also prayed for peace, both globally and on campus.

“Let us witness and participate in peacemaking,” he said. “Despite our diversity and our differences, we never abandon the unity of peace.”

Harvard President Alan M. Garber '76 looks on at the interfaith vigil on the steps of Memorial Church Tuesday afternoon. By Frank S. Zhou

During his opening remarks, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church Matthew Ichihashi Potts recognized the “anguish and sadness” being felt globally, telling attendees that “it is an act of love to grieve.”

Potts continued by acknowledging the climate in which the interfaith vigil was taking place.

“Those of us gathered here are not naive,” he said. “We know that this gathering here will not halt violence, or free captives, or broker peace there. But love and peace anywhere are their own justification.”

“So despite all we cannot do and all we cannot undo, we can still hold one another in compassion and care right now, right here on these steps,” he added.

Memorial Church Assistant Minister Alanna C. Sullivan led a final prayer acknowledging those afflicted by the war.

“We come together to be so bold as to believe in the possibilities of peace and the power of love,” she said. “We uplift those today who are so desperately in need of your love, justice, and peace.”

The vigil ended with the ringing of the Memorial Church bells, which Potts said was “dedicated to the memory of the dead.”

Potts concluded the ceremony by urging attendees “to care for one another and for the world.”

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Aisatu J. Nakoulima can be reached at aisatu.nakoulima@thecrimson.com.