Walk and Ceremony in Plainview in Honor of Omer Neutra z"l

 by Shir Levenson, SSLI '26

Yesterday, over one thousand Long Island residents gathered for a ceremony to honor and commemorate Omer Neutra z”l. The community gathered to mourn his loss and find strength together in Plainview, Omer’s hometown.

Since the war began, an organization called “Run for Their Lives” has pledged to host runs and walks to advocate for the release of the hostages and fight until they come home. On Long Island, two chapters have formed: one in Plainview and one in Commack. The weekly runs in Plainview begin at the parking lot near ShopRite and end with a community-wide ceremony at the Wall of Hope in front of the Mid-Island Y JCC. The wall has images of the hostages, Israeli flags, and prayers for the hostages and peace in Israel.

Schechter parent Rabbi Joel Levenson is the senior Rabbi of Midway Jewish Center. Omer z”l grew up at Midway and Schechter, and Rabbi Levenson has been non-stop advocating for the hostages and for Omer’s release.

Rabbi Levenson explained that when he spoke, he quoted “from the Ba’al Shem Tov, who in the 17th century said that there are three ways to mourn: with tears, with silence, and with song. The ceremony focused on these aspects of the tradition and began with a group of Rabbis and cantors from around Long Island singing the song, ‘Ozi Ve-Zimrat Yah’ together where they asked for strength from G-d in these difficult times.”

Levenson continued by sharing with the audience, “We should remember that one of the things that Orna said to many people at the Shiva was… ‘Please don’t stop’ [because] Omer z”l deserves a proper burial. We will continue our advocacy.”

The ceremony continued with prayers for Israel, prayers for the Israeli Defense Forces, and "Acheinu." Other speakers included Hayden Roth, one of Omer’s z”l good friends from both high school and USY. He spoke about his friendship with Omer z”l and the legacy that Omer z”l has left behind.

In addition to people who knew Omer z”l and those wanting to show their support for Israel and efforts to bring the hostages home, many local and state politicians attended the ceremony. Rabbi Levenson shared, “The program included hearing from a number of elected officials, including Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino … Receiver of Taxes [and Schechter parent] Jeffery Pravato, State Senators Steve Stern, Steve Rhodes, and Nassau County legislator Arnie Drucker.”

Congresspeople, local clergypeople, and friends of Omer z"l stood on stage to honor Omer z"l. (Jewish Community Relations Council Facebook)

Many Schechter students and families attended the ceremony. Sara Rosenthal shared her experience at the memorial: “It’s always really impactful to see so many people that gave up their Sunday morning to walk for this…. I know so many people do it every single week, and it gives me hope to see people from Jewish communities all across Long Island coming together to bring home the hostages any way we can.”

Rosenthal shared that as part of the memorial, teens who are members of the Israeli Scouts, the Tsofim, gave out signs “with a picture of Omer on one side…we all wrote a message of hope on the other side.” She shared that at the “end, we all stuck them in the ground under the fence…facing the street for everyone to see.”

Each person had the opportunity to write a personal message and prayer. Rosenthal wrote the last line from Eden Golan’s Eurovision song, “Hurricane.” It reads, “תמיד אתה משאיר לי אור אחד קטן,” and translates to, “You always leave me one little light.” Rosenthal feels that this part of the song “pretty much summed up how [she] was feeling about [Omer’s] death and about continuing to fight to bring him and the other 100 hostages home. Even though the walk was very sad, [she] thinks it made everyone feel better to mourn together and continue to pray and fight together, and to see that we were all united.”

זכרונו לברכה

May his memory forever be a blessing.

Shir Levenson is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since December 2022. Shir is currently a junior at Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: slevenson26@schechterli.org