Painting Flowers, Honoring Memory

When the Merage JCC of Orange County set out to mark the anniversary of October 7, they wanted to do more than hold a ceremony. They wanted their community to be part of creating something meaningful together.

Together with IAC (Israeli-American Council), JCC members and staff gathered to glaze ceramic Kalaniot flowers, the red anemones that have become a symbol of remembrance for the lives lost on October 7. 

“As people painted, they talked: about what happened that day, about Israel, about antisemitism, about what it looks like to actually show up for each other.” 

The finished flowers were fired and planted out front of the JCC as a living memorial, part of a larger effort to create hundreds of them.

The project came out of Tzedek: Jewish Service Learning Cohort in partnership with Repair the World, and it was intentionally open to everyone, Jewish and non-Jewish members alike. That openness was the point. Tzedek cohort members anchored the experience in the value all of Israel is responsible for one another, Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh La Zeh. 

“Not as an abstract principle, but as a reason to pull up a chair, pick up a brush, and be in the room together.”

The flowers are beautiful, and they’ll stand outside the JCC as a reminder of what was lost. But the volunteers who made them also left with something: a deeper understanding of October 7, a clearer sense of why it matters to address antisemitism, and the feeling that comes from doing something impactful, together. 

“That’s what remembrance can look like when a community chooses to be in it together.”