Ed. Note: This article has been updated with additional information about October 7th hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who appears in a video released by Hamas on April 24.
On Sunday, April 7, more than 2,000 people gathered on Homer Street for the rededication of “the Hostage Wall,” a long fence in front of a home displaying the faces and information about hostages taken in Hamas’s attack on Israel. In a cordoned-off area on Homer Street – about three blocks – people milled around tables with art supplies for making posters and writing to hostage families, and taking “Kidnapped” lawn signs with hostages’ pictures, as well as “We Stand Against Antisemitism” signs. There were small American and Israeli flags on tables and in people’s hands, and a number of people were wearing Israeli flags. There was a large banner proclaiming “Newton No Place for Hate.” Behzad Dayanim, a musician, oversaw a recorded selection of Hebrew ballads.
Some of the more than 2000 gathered to rededicate posters of Israeli hostages taken October 7th 
Jeff and Miriam Kosowsky 
Jeff Kosowsky addressing the gathering, with Miriam Kosowsky 
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, MA Rep. Ruth Balser, MA Sen. Cynthia Creem, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, MA Rep. Tommy Vitolo 
NNHS student Ben Spira speaking of his friend, hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, with Miriam Kosowsky holding a Goldber-Polin’s poster 
NNHS student Ben Spira speaking of his friend, hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin 
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller 
Rep. Jake Auchincloss and Jeff Kosowsky 
Rep. Jake Auchincloss 
Students waiting to rededicate hostage posters. 
The hostage posters, which had been on display since the end of October, were all vandalized in the early morning hours of March 17. Homeowners Miriam and Jeff Kosowsky had mounted the pictures and brief biographical descriptions to put a human face on those taken by Hamas and to emphasize that the hostages are children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters — real people and family members. The Kosowskys wanted to focus on their return. The vandalism to their display was among the most violent in a series of many recent attacks on “Stand with Israel” signs and hostage flyers. Unwilling to let acts of vandalism and hate crimes prevail, the Kosowskys determined to rededicate their fence with flyers of 106 remaining hostages and, at the same time, “bring the community together” to stand up to the attacks and antisemitism. They chose April 7 for the rededication because it was the six-month anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel. Signs advertising the event invited people to “Join the Community to Remember the Hostages,” and “Show that Hate Won’t Win in Massachusetts.”
Jeffrey Kosowsky thanked his neighbors for their support and all the Jewish and non-Jewish residents who came to the rededication. He expressed particular gratitude to the people seated in front of him: Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, who was first to offer them comfort on March 17, and to Rep Jake Auchincloss for “his strong support of the Jewish community here and in Israel.” In addition, Mr. Kosowsky acknowledged State Senator Cynthia Creem, State Representative Ruth Balser, and their State Representative Kay Khan, as well as Brookline State Representative Tommy Vitolo and Newton Police Chief John Carmichael. Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan and members of Newton’s City Council were in the audience.
Mr. Kosowsky spoke of his gratitude for the community’s care and concern after the attack. But, he said, he wanted to focus on antisemitism “as someone whose property was recently defaced and who worries about the future of our proudly Jewish children and grandchildren growing up in America today.” He called out overt antisemitism “in centers of learning, media and culture where Jews in general and Israel in particular are held to a double standard.”
Among the local examples on his national and local list of “double standards,” Mr. Kosowsky noted:
- Residents putting up yard signs decrying all types of hate near-and-far but not putting up signs calling out the rise in local Antisemitism
- A world where racial slurs are beyond the pale, but swastikas appear regularly in Newton Public School bathrooms
After each example, the audience was invited to join him in saying “that FEELS LIKE ANTISEMITISM,” and many called out, “it is.” He closed by urging people — Jewish and non-Jewish — to “not succumb to that double standard with yourself and do not tolerate it in others.”
Mayor Fuller, who is Jewish, also called out antisemitism, noting that while Jews make up 2% of the total population, they represent 50% of the victims of overt hate. She told the audience that they were demonstrating their right to assemble and demonstrate as well as stand up for the fundamentals of democracy.
Rep. Auchincloss, who is also Jewish and lives in Newton, struck a similar theme, saying, “Hate does not end unless we drag these cowardly antisemitic actions into the daylight, bear witness as a community to their personal and penetrating effects, and resolve together that we are our neighbor’s keeper.” He told the group: “Your solidarity gives strength to my work…”
Noting that there were people in Newton and surrounding communities with relatives and friends who were taken hostage, and some had died, Mr. Kosowsky introduced Ben Spira, a 17-year-old Newton North High School student who spoke about the hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year old friend from Israel who was one of the attendees at the October 7th Nova Dance and Music Festival killed or kidnapped by Hamas. Spira spoke movingly about their friendship and said it was “maddening” that the vandalism “occurred in my hometown.” As he spoke, Mrs. Kosowsky held up a large poster of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
UPDATE: Hersh had been Ben’s counselor on a program in Israel during Ben’s senior year in high school. They texted frequently after Ben returned to Newton in May, 2023. At the rededication, Ben said, “Hersh’s authentic and loving personality really stuck with my friends and I, and when it was time to leave Israel and go back to Boston, some of my friends were even crying at the airport saying goodbye to him.” On April 24, the second day of the Jewish holiday, Passover, Hamas released an undated video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in which he criticizes the Israeli government, but ends with the hope that his family may remain strong.
Before the actual rededication of the Hostage Wall, the audience observed a moment of silence followed by the Hebrew prayer, Achienu – Our Brothers – for the release of the hostages. The rededication concluded with students from Newton Public Schools and local Jewish day schools, each noting the name of a hostage and a brief biography on each. In thanking the children, Miriam Kosowsky said, “You are our future and we are not going to be silenced – no way.” When each poster had been rededicated, the audience, led by the Jewish Day School chorus, sang the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah – The Hope.
Mr.Kosowsky invited people to take writing supplies from designated tables to write letters to hostage families and to take “Kidnapped” and “We Stand Against Antisemitism” lawn signs, along with pictures of all the hostages.
State Representative Khan — who represents the side of Homer Street where the Kosowskys live and was wearing a hostage picture — told Fig City News, “It is a great honor to live in and represent an amazing community that does not tolerate hate, and witness the incredible outpouring of elected leaders and 2,000 others from near and far, who came together in front of a home in my district to rebuild a vandalized Hostage Wall of photos representing those still being held in captivity by Hamas. Just being present, an event like this helps us stay strong during this difficult time.”
For David Micley, the Ward 2 Councilor and a fifth-generation Newtonian who grew up near Homer Street, Newton seemed a safe place to be Jewish. He praised the day’s peaceful demonstration and was heartened to drive around after the rededication and see so many hostage lawn signs. At the same time, he told Fig City News, a high school student on the way to school took down a Stand With Israel lawn sign on his property. The act frightened his young children, but he pursued the student and engaged him and his parents in a discussion about antisemitism.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Kosowsky praised his neighbors for their support of both the original and the new Hostage Wall. Nancy Tener, who lives nearby, told Fig City News:
I walk up and down Homer Street several times every week. After the posters for the hostages on the fence went up, I stopped many times and was so moved to see the faces and to read the information about them. Around my neighborhood, many posters of the hostages were affixed to trees and telephone poles too. These were all critical reminders of the painful reality that over 150 people of all ages were kidnapped and held by terrorists, somewhere in Gaza. Then I began to notice the posters on the trees were missing and eventually, the shocking sight of the defaced fence in front of Koslowsky’s house. Here in Newton! Witnessing this cruel expression of anti-Semitism in my own neighborhood made palpable the reality of hate and the fear it inspires. I am grateful for the rededication of the fence as an example of how to stand up to hate. And as a reminder of the hostages that are still captive. Sadly, I have to hope that the fence is protected by police presence. It seems that it is necessary, at least for now.
