Exhibit honoring victims of Nova Music Festival terror attack in Israel comes to Chicago
By Noel Brennan
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CHICAGO, Illinois (WBBM) — Just over two years after the deadly Hamas terrorist attack on the Nova Music Festival in Israel, a traveling tribute to the victims and survivors has arrived in Chicago.
The exhibit has been seen by a half million people around the world. It opens Tuesday at in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
“Especially in these dark times, you really understand the meaning of bright spots,” said Nitzan Schlezinger.
For her, the brightest light was her dad.
“My father’s name is Asaf Schlezinger,” she said. “Being a dad was the most important mission in his life. … He had these really great hugs.”
Asaf was a paramedic working the Nova Music Festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a dark day for Nitzan and every family who lost a loved one when Hamas terrorists killed hundreds of festivalgoers.
On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants broke through the border fence of Gaza at 60 different locations. Israel says some 1,200 people were murdered and more than 251 taken hostage in the Hamas assault, according to Israel.
Of the more than 3,000 people who went to the Nova Music Festival, 364 were murdered and 44 others were taken as hostages back into Gaza. Hundreds more were wounded, and thousands are still receiving psychological counseling. Some have taken their own lives.
“More than a thousand people were murdered in this day,” she said.
Evidence from the attack in Israel has traveled all the way to Chicago, including burned-out cars, bullet-riddled bathroom stalls, and personal belongings left behind after the attack.
Reut Feingold is the creative mind behind “Oct. 7, 6:29 a.m., The Moment Music Stood Still: The Nova Music Festival Exhibition.”
“We really want people to feel that they are in the festival, to feel the values, to recognize themselves in those moments,” he said.
The exhibition recreates the festival site from the day of the attack. Tents, clothes, bags, and shoes left behind are on display.
“We invite people to touch and feel and smell and – it’s not fake. It’s real,” Feingold said.
The exhibit also features photos of the victims, each of whom has a story to tell.
“Each one of them has his own story and his family,” Feingold said.
Mark Shindel was 23. The civil engineering student was killed at the Nova Music Festival just days after visiting his parents in Chicago.
“All of the stories are stories of people who we lost, and people who were there, and now they have a story to tell about this attack,” Nitzan said.
The exhibition runs through Nov. 30 at 1800 N. Clybourn Av.
Proceeds from ticket sales go to support mental health treatment for victims and families.
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