Please join us in commemorating the third anniversary of October 7 and its aftermath by honoring both our shared pain and our shared humanity on Tuesday, October 6 at 1:00 pm ET | 10:00 am PT | 6:00 pm UK | 7:00 pm Central Europe | 8:00 pm Israel + Palestine.
Listen to bereaved Israelis and Palestinians, members of Parents Circle – Families Forum – those who have paid the highest price – as they share their stories of loss, survival, and their hope for the future. Their stories are deeply personal, and hold a collective truth: that even in the face of October 7th and its aftermath, people can choose a hopeful path forward.
October 7, 2026 marks three years of the darkest years in recent history for Palestinians and Israelis alike. The pain and destruction is heavy in our hearts.
For Palestinians in Gaza, the devastation is beyond words: cities wiped out, millions displaced, and tens of thousands killed. In the West Bank, lives are currently at risk from settler and military violence under occupation.
For Israelis, families still carry the pain and loss from October 7, 2023, as well as ensuing war and missile attacks.
Meet the Speakers:
Abdelrahman Amer is a Palestinian father from Gaza. In August 2024, his son was killed by the Israeli military. Abdelrahman was recently granted asylum in the UK, and works there as a peace activist and educator while supporting the remainder of his family still in Gaza.
Adva Finkelstein is an Israeli mother of three from Rishon LeZion. On October 7, 2023, her ex-husband and father to her children was killed by Hamas. Since then, Adva left her high tech job and joined the Parents Circle. She supports divorced families dealing with bereavement by channeling their grief into peacebuilding.
With introductory remarks by Idit Klein, VP of Public Engagement at NIF and moderated by Shiri Ourian, Executive Director of the American Friends of the Parents Circle.
*This webinar will be in English, with simultaneous translation to Arabic available.
Tuesday, October 6
1:00 pm ET | 10:00 am PT | 6:00 pm UK | 7:00 pm Central Europe | 8:00 pm Israel + Palestine
Co-presented by:
New Israel Fund
Parents Circle – Families Forum
Sponsored by:
J Street
Truah
Reconstructing Judaism
Partners for Progressive Israel
Members of Progressive Israel Network
About the Parents Circle
The Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 850 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. The members have undertaken a joint effort amid ongoing and escalating violence to transform their loss and pain into a public and collective demand for peace and reconciliation.
PCFF’s Theory of Change is rooted in the understanding that personal transformation, processing loss, grief and anger, can disrupt cycles of violence, enabling both interpersonal connection and collective action. When those who have paid the highest personal price for the conflict publicly reject the logic of endless war, they challenge dominant narratives of war’s inevitability, revenge and dehumanization.
About NIF
The New Israel Fund is the leading organization advancing and defending democracy in Israel. Widely credited with building Israeli progressive civil society, we have provided over $345 million to more than 950 organizations since our inception in 1979.