https://novaexhibition.com/london-exhibition

On Tuesday I visited the Nova – I don’t want to call it ‘exhibition’ – rather, I’ll say I visited the Nova Testimony, because testimony is what it truly is. In whatever state you walk in, through the necessarily tight security, you walk out different.

I shall not try to describe the testimony. The evidence is taken, all of it, – objects, pictures, videos, recordings, – directly from the grounds of the Nova Festival at Re’im, or from survivors and rescuers shortly afterwards. It would be as inappropriate as it is impossible to put all this into words. The testimony needs to be seen, heard and witnessed.

But I shall mention three features that struck me.

I never thought about what that festival meant prior to 6.29am on that appalling morning of October 7. I’m not a dancer, so I was all the more struck and smitten by the joy of so many people rejoicing together in music they love. And when the sun rose that dawn over those who had danced all night, the whole space glowed with wonder. Nor had I realised that this was an EcoNova Project, banning single use plastics and creating a green culture with a dedicated team ensuring ‘commitment to Mother Earth.’ Then, at 6.29, came the missiles, followed by the murderers.

I had met Romi Gonen’s father in early 2024. ‘There is only one phone-call I want to hear,’ he said. For everything else he had no interest in his phone whatsoever. I rejoiced when, a further terrible twelve months later, Romi, a passionate student of all kinds of dance, returned from captivity to the embrace of her family. We put a picture of her with her mother in the synagogue. But I had before heard the call she made to her mother while trying to hide in the terrible minutes before she was taken hostage. Romi’s mother says, and repeats in desperation: ‘Everything is going to be Okay. I’m with you, sweetie…’

I knew only small parts of the extraordinary work of care and healing that survivors, those who saved others, and supporters have undertaken since 2023. ‘Despite my trauma I had to help others,’ testifies one courageous rescuer. As, with an aching heart, one leaves the room with all the pictures of the dead, one is guided through the work of healing to which the Nova community has committed itself since just two months after the horrors. They support the ‘hundreds of families [who] must now navigate the desolate landscape of insufferable loss and unending longing, desperate for the presence of those they can no longer embrace.’ As The Tribe of Nova they have established workshops, healing centres, memorials, and therapeutic activities including horse riding, surfing, nature trips, sound and meditative healing and the provision of emergency micro grants.

The Nova Exhibition / Testimony is about remembering and preserving the spirit of the 413 people, mostly under the age of 25, who were murdered there:

‘We will forever remember the beautiful angels who shined on the dancefloor and are now dancing in heaven. Your light will never be extinguished.’

But it is no less about working for a world of healing and hope, a world in which We Will Dance Again:

We are the flame

That remembers

The voice

That carries healing

Into the world

We are here

We are Nova

You can support Nova’s healing work through the UJIA, specifying that your donation is for Nova. The UJIA helps fund retreats for Nova survivors. These include Group Therapy and professionally facilitated Sharing Circles, led by clinical social workers and therapists, providing a safe space for participants to share experiences, process grief and trauma, and build mutual support within the group.