Rom El-Hai, a 29-year-old Israeli, never imagined his experience at a music festival would transform into a desperate fight for survival.
He shared his story with college students across North Carolina, offering a firsthand account of the October 7 Hamas attacks that shocked the world.
"You can call it luck, a miracle, that I'm still here," Mr. El-Hai told a hushed audience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as reported by ABC11.
Mr. El-Hai was volunteering at the Nova Music Festival near the Gaza border when the attack began. What started as a night of celebration quickly devolved into chaos as Hamas militants launched an assault that would claim over 1,200 lives.
"I saw missiles exploding, coming from Gaza. And they were very close to us," Mr. El-Hai recounted.
The next eight hours were a harrowing ordeal of evasion and survival, as he and his friends fled through wooded areas, desperately trying to avoid detection.
The aftermath has been challenging for El-Hai, who lost friends in the attack. "The first week was extremely hard. I was unable to sleep, unable to eat," he said. But through support services and by sharing his story, he's found a path forward.
His testimony has left a profound impact on students. Samantha Katz, a senior at Elon University, said, "It was hard to listen to. I could hear people sniffling. It was really hard to hold back those emotions."
Faces of October 7 organizes speaking engagements where survivors of the Hamas onslaught tell their stories to schools, churches, rallies, and politicians. Doron Gertzovski, from this non-profit, coordinated El-Hai's trip, which included presentations at Minnesota Hillel, several Twin Cities synagogues and in Chicago, Atlanta, and Durham, N.C.
El-Hai continues to share his story, his visits providing an important perspective on a conflict that often feels distant to many American students, against a backdrop of surging antisemitism on US college campuses.
Despite the trauma he's endured, El-Hai remains hopeful. "There is something I know for sure, and it's a promise. We are going to dance again," he said, his voice tinged with both sadness and determination.
El-Hai's story serves as a powerful reminder of the human cost of conflict and the resilience of those who survive it. His journey from festival volunteer to survivor and now to speaker underscores the complex ways in which global events can shape individual lives and, in turn, how those individuals can shape our understanding of those events.
