WashU students host memorial marking two years since Oct. 7

Avi Holzman, Staff Intern

Published October 9, 2025

Washington University hostage memorial — Senior Tim Mellman stands next to table honoring hostages. (Avi Holzman)

On Thursday, Oct. 9, Washington University seniors Tim Mellman and Charlie Weingarten organized a hostage memorial on the main campus quad to honor the hostages and mark two years since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

The event comes as news of hostage deal is currently unfolding between Israel and Hamas. Two years ago there was a similar style event for the hostages. This time Mellman and Weingarten set up dinner tables each with empty chairs and posters for each hostage still in captivity.

“[The tables] symbolize the hostages who have been missing from their families and haven’t been able to join Shabbat dinners for two years now,” Mellman said. They didn’t stage the memorial on Oct. 7 of this year because students were on fall break.

WashU hostage memorial St. Louis — Tables set up on WashU’s main quad honoring the hostages. (Avi Holzman)

Hostage memorial is raising awareness

They intentionally set up the tables on a central part of campus so that more than just the Jewish community, who might already be aware of the two-year anniversary, would see it.

“We’re really hoping to capture the attention of folks who are walking between classes,” Mellman said. “We’re hoping to have a few people around the memorial to be able to answer any questions, not to start any arguments.”

Weingarten described a sense of “apathy” among the majority of WashU students she encounters when it comes to discussing the Israel-Hamas war. She wants the tables to be a reminder.

“We can sit on our campuses and have these discussions but at the end of the day there are still 44 human beings who cannot come home to their families,” she said. “We want to show people that our pain is not only reasonable and expected but it’s still very much there.”

Remembering Oct. 7 and hoping for peace

Weingarten emphasized how the Jewish community is not going to stop talking about the hostages even when others might be exasperated or frustrated with Israel actions following the initial Oct. 7th attacks.

“I hope that it reminds people of the deeply personal and profound impact this event had on every single Jewish person in the entire world and certainly on campus,” she said.

On Oct. 8, President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had signed off on the “first phase” of his peace plan.

Mellman said he initially could not believe the news was real. He described the experience of learning about the deal being like hearing about the Oct. 7 attacks two years earlier — except this time it elicited an opposite reaction.

“I know people keeping the first few days of Sukkot and when they turned on their phones this is the news that greeted them,” he said. “It’s incredible when you think about two years ago, we were turning on our phones after Simchat Torah and seeing the news of Oct. 7 and this awful massacre.”