On a rainy Tuesday night on the Science Quad, the dark was punctuated by candlelight, words of mourning and reflective moments of silence.
On Sept. 24 at 9 p.m., a candlelight vigil organized by students and the Department of Religious and Spiritual Life was held to honor the more than 40,000 lives lost in Palestine, as the war with Israel continues to rage on. Earlier in the week, an email was sent out by Kurt Nelson, Director of Religious and Spiritual Life, to invite the campus community to join the vigil.
“The old Confucian saying goes, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” Kurt began the vigil. “So let’s go ahead and light a bunch of candles, as we gather.”
“It does my heart good to see you all this evening,” Kurt continued. “While our candlelight will not chase away the deeper shadows of this hard world, they will, we hope, make space simply to grieve and lament the 40-some-thousand lost lives in Gaza this year.”
Following Kurt were contributions from students in which they shared stories, sentiments, poems and prose.
Shaheryar Asghar ’28, the first student speaker of the night, shared with “The Bucknellian” some sentiments reminiscent of his speech at the vigil.
“As nearly a year passes since the tragedy began, it’s striking to see how alive it remains in the hearts and minds of so many,” Asghar wrote in an email. “Though we may not always voice it, moments like the vigil serve as a vessel for unspoken grief and unexpressed solidarity.”
“It becomes a collective act of remembrance, a way to channel the frustration that lingers within us—frustration born from our inability to do more for those who suffer. In our shared sorrow, there is solace, a reminder that we are not alone in bearing the weight of this ongoing anguish.”
Asghar continues on to say that he hopes this cause can unite the campus community, rather than divide it.
“We must allow the truth to guide us, not the noise of politics,” he wrote.
Defne Gumus ’27 then shared a piece of spoken word poetry that she had written about the ongoing conflict, reflecting on her feelings of grief.
“How can I speak for you without ever stepping foot in your land?” Gumus began. “Without truly knowing your struggle? How can I stand up for a country I am not from?”
Gumus went on to reflect on the contrast between her own everyday life and that of those in Palestine.
“I go to sleep with my biggest worry being if I finished my to-do list for the day; you go to bed wondering if you will wake up breathing tomorrow morning,” she read to the quiet crowd of candlelight. “I wake up to an alarm clock; you wake up to the sound of warplanes and bombs.”
“I brush my teeth; you brush off your wounds, but can you ever really heal your inner trauma? I watch the news; you are the news. I listen to music; you hear nothing but the shameful silence of a world that looks away.”
The final student speakers were Colton Beach ’27 and Malika Ali ’26, who shared stories of Palestinian people who have lost their lives amidst the ongoing war.
“Perhaps Dr. Mahmoud Nujaila said it best,” Beach shared towards the beginning of the speech. “On a whiteboard in Al-Awda Hospital that is typically reserved for planning surgeries, he wrote a message that would speak beyond his death. It read, ‘Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us.’”
“This is my purpose here tonight,” he continued. “To simply speak their words and to listen in turn, that we might transcend the self and exist purely in recognition of those humanity has lost.”
“I tried to be a source of strength for the family, but I cried once, twice and three times, and we cried with each other and over each other,” read Beach, as he shared the story of a father and his daughter. “We cried for the past and the present. We did not cry for the future because we did not know if we had a place in it.”
The speakers went on to share a story from Tarek Loubani, a physician and friend of Hammam Alloh, a nephrologist who was stationed at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
“An American journalist once asked Alloh why he refused to heed Israel’s demands to evacuate the hospital. To this, he responded, ‘If I go, who will treat my patients?… You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so I think only about my life and not my patients?’”
They then shared a story from Esam Hani Hajjaj, a writer in Gaza who posts his journalings each day.
“On December 4th, he wrote, ‘Life is within us. We live it everywhere, even if there is destruction. But how can I ignore these sounds that kill our loved ones every second? I now sit on the pavement of the hospital and the bombs are shaking all around. It is 5:36 pm.’”
The students brought their stories to a close, ending by encouraging the crowd to “engage in conversations, educate yourselves and those around you about the realities facing Gaza and its people.”
“Support organizations working to help amplify the voices of those affected and advocate for change. Each of us has the power to make some difference, however small or big that may be. We urge you to keep that light alive, not just tonight, but everyday moving forward.”
The vigil was then closed by Muslim Chaplain Muhammad Ali, thanking the students for sharing and everyone for attending.
A QR code was made available for donations, in collaboration with the student group “Peace by Piece” where students have contributed artworks and crafts to be available for purchase by donation. Donors would be given the opportunity to choose from three different Palestinian charity groups: food, clothes and hygiene kits through “ActionAid USA;” menstrual care through “Heart to Heart International” and medical supplies, food and clean water through the “Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.”
In the upcoming weeks, there will be more opportunities extended to the campus community to engage with and learn about the conflict.
