Ahead of the 1,000th day since the October 7 massacre, the Kumu movement and October 7 families announced on Wednesday morning that production has begun on the national memorial ceremony for the events of October 7 and the Israel-Hamas War, now for the third year.
“Three years after the failure and the disaster, with hearts that still ache, countless questions awaiting answers and memories that must continue to resonate, we are once again coming together to present the failure as it occurred, amplify the voices of the families, those who were murdered, the wounded, captivity survivors and the communities that were destroyed, to remember and to offer hope,” the organization announced.
The ceremony will be held on the evening of Wednesday, October 7, with the participation of hundreds of bereaved families, hostage survivors, representatives of affected communities, leading Israeli artists, and members of the public.
The Kumu movement is once again asking the public to help finance the event through crowdfunding, allowing the ceremony to be held once more at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. For the first time, it will be held in an “open park” format, without grandstands or assigned seating, to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to participate in what organizers say will be the largest memorial event in the country’s history.
The national memorial ceremony, which began as an initiative by the families and received unprecedented public support and participation, has become the central event marking the anniversary of the massacre over the past two years, as well as a significant event in international public diplomacy. Since its second year, the national memorial ceremony has been the only major national memorial event.
Millions drawn to ‘historically significant’ memorial ceremony
The October 7 victims’ families view the ceremony, which connects different parts of Israeli society and commemorates the day of the disaster, as historically significant. “October 7 remains an open and bleeding wound for millions of Israelis who seek to gather together for healing and comfort,” the families stated.
Previous years’ ceremonies have attracted millions of viewers and drawn attention worldwide. It was broadcast by dozens of foreign networks, as well as television channels, radio stations and online media outlets in Israel. It also established a tradition of hundreds of well-attended community screenings across Israel and in major Diaspora cities, including New York and London.
The organizers emphasized that, as with the previous ceremonies, they are committed to holding an inclusive and unifying Israeli ceremony representing every part of Israeli society and all the populations affected by the massacre.
The 2026 ceremony will again be broadcast live by media outlets throughout Israel, including television and radio stations and online media sites, as well as by foreign networks and streaming services for community screenings in Israel and around the world.
Kumu also launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance the ceremony on Wednesday. As in the previous two years, the ceremony is funded entirely by the public. The organizers called on the public to support the campaign and help make the event possible.
Memorial ceremony to be largest in Israel’s history, founder says
Yonatan Shamriz, the brother of the late Alon Shamriz and one of the ceremony’s founders, said that the ceremony “is already becoming a tradition that will continue in the years ahead.
“This year, we are planning for the ceremony to be the largest memorial event in the country’s history,” Shamriz stated. “I call on the entire people of Israel to come together and support the ceremony’s crowdfunding campaign again this year. Only in this way will we be able to stage a formative and historic event that will unite the people in pain and hope and remind millions of people around the world of what we went through.”
Omri Shifroni, another of the ceremony’s founders, said the families of the victims cannot forget the events of October 7, or allow the events to be blurred. “We took responsibility for telling the truth about what happened on a national stage, in the most respectful and unifying way possible. We have a responsibility to ensure that every household in Israel feels it is part of this, because we are all part of the pain and part of the hope. This is the only ceremony held on a national scale, and it is funded entirely by the public. I call on everyone to join, support and donate. We have no one else. It is up to us.”
Ashira Grinberg, widow of fallen soldier Lt.-Col. Tomer Grinberg and the host of last year’s National Memorial Ceremony, said that “The idea behind the ceremony is to unite the Israeli public around a shared memory and represent all the communities that were affected in the most authentic way possible, the towns and kibbutzim, the hostages and captivity survivors, those who attended the parties and the security forces who risked their lives to defend the homeland.
“The ceremony is presented in the most moving and painful way possible, but it also provides space for healing and hope,” Grinberg added. “As someone who hosted the ceremony last year, what I remember most are the expressions on the faces of the hostage families in the audience and the thought that came to me at that moment, that my Tomer might not return, but they still had a chance. It is difficult for me to describe how moved I will be to see the families this year, when this time their loved ones who survived captivity will be sitting beside them in the audience.”
Haviva Man-Izikson, the bereaved sister of the late paramedic Amit Man, who was murdered at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, said: “There is not an hour of the day in which I do not remember, reconstruct and relive October 7. The National Memorial Ceremony on October 7 is essential so that the entire world remembers what happened here on Simchat Torah, and so that the pain and the truth are not blurred with the passage of time. This is the responsibility of all of us.”
“Remembering October 7 is a national obligation, so that the truth is not blurred and the testimonies are not forgotten, so that the heroism is told in full, along with the abandonment and helplessness,” Shirel Hogeg, one of the founders of the Kumu Movement, said. “The October 7 families have taken upon themselves something they never asked to bear: responsibility for the national memory of the State of Israel. This is our historic duty to those who fell and to future generations.”
October 7 victim families to march around Gaza
On Tuesday, families of October 7 victims, along with the October Council, announced that they will gather on Thursday in the Gaza envelope communities to commemorate the 1,000 days since the October 7 Massacre and demand an investigation into the failures that led to the attack.
The convoy plans to gather in Kibbutz Re’im’s parking lot on Thursday and march around the Gaza border, passing by sites attacked by Hamas on October 7.
Additionally, Israeli media also reported that protests are being planned in the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem and at major intersections across the country.
Finally, the October Council asked all Israelis to have a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims at 10 a.m., while the main rally is expected to happen at 8:00 p.m.
Tobias Holcman contributed to this report.
