Winnipeggers reflect on Oct. 7th attacks, 1 year later

For many people throughout Winnipeg, Oct. 7, one year later, marks a day of mourning.

Chana Thau had a candle burning in her Winnipeg home for 24 hours on Oct. 7 with the Hebrew word ‘remember’ written on it.

“It’s a very emotional day I think for most Jewish people all over the world because Israel is an important country to us,” Thau told Global News. “And most of us have friends and relatives over there and many have lost people, and when you know somebody, the impact is even greater.”

For Thau, that person is her friend, Vivian Silver. Silver was one of the 1,200 people killed in the Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli authorities. Hundreds more were taken hostage.

“She was an amazing person. She was small, maybe even smaller than I was, and mighty. She was a force to be reckoned with, I didn’t even realize how much so until the last year,” Thau said.

“But she was very bright, she was very warm, and she really walked the walk and talked the talk for her beliefs.”

Silver was a Jewish humanitarian from Winnipeg that dedicated much of her adult life to campaigning for peace and human rights for Palestinians.

“Vivian moved to the Kibbutz, very close to the Gaza border because she really believed in forming peace, that there has to be peaceful co-existence. Ironically, she was massacred,” Thau said.

“All those people that were in Kibbutz were very idealistic or they wouldn’t have been living there. And sadly they were the ones that were killed, cruelly killed or taken hostage.”