Members of Sudbury's Jewish community, its allies within the city and members of council gathered at Tom Davies Square on Wednesday for a vigil.
Dubbed ‘A Vigil for Peace,’ Mayor Paul Lefebvre and the president of the local synagogue shared their thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war.
Roughly 100 people were in attendance, some wearing the Israeli flag.
They said combatting anti-Semitism and Islamophobia is going to take meaningful action from everyone.
“I had seen the edict by a former Hamas leader of violence against Jewish people across the world and I'm saying that's not only an issue for people in the Middle East, it's an issue for the people in my community,” Lefebvre said.
Emily Caruso-Parnell, president of Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, said the violence has shocked the world.
"In the one place that Jews should feel safest, our ancestral homeland, we were suddenly and violently shocked by how unsafe we were,” Caruso-Parnell said.
“Kibbutzim and moshavim that many of us had visited, where many of us have friends and family were destroyed by terrorists."
"I think of the children,” said Chad Savard, a student of Jewish history.
“I think of the Muslim ambulance driver who was shot point-blank because they didn't even bother to ask, things like that. All the people, the tourists that were there, the citizens of Israel. It was traumatizing."
While there is only one synagogue in the city, the Jewish community in Sudbury dates back more than 100 years.
