The Arab Student Association held a candlelight vigil on Tuesday in remembrance of those who have recently died in Lebanon. Last month, Israel started carrying out airstrikes in Lebanon, targeting senior leaders of Hezbollah.
Approximately 100 community members gathered on the Green for a series of student-led speeches and prayers — marking the first ASA event open to campus since its founding in the winter of 2023, according to ASA president Ahmad Herzallah ’27.
The ASA planned the vigil with help from the Tucker Center for Spiritual and Ethical Life and Al-Nur, the Muslim student association, Herzallah said.
“I didn’t think a lot of students would come, honestly,” he said. “This is the first official ASA event campus-wise, and people came to the event. That was kind of exciting — ASA as an organization on campus can actually do a lot in the future.”
The event began with a speech from ASA vice president Amen Salha ’26. As club members held Lebanon’s flag at the top of the attendee circle, Salha spoke about the number of casualties reported from Lebanon and recited the poem “The War Will End” by Mahmoud Darwish in both Arabic and English. He also shared names of Lebanese people killed that day.
Eloisa Roach ’28 said they attended the vigil to show support for Arab students on campus. After the event, Roach added that the poems and the “powerful” speakers resonated with them.
“Hearing names is always tragic,” Roach said. “Whenever people tell us stories, … [that helps us] realize how many people that really is, and how much that amount of death can completely transform a community.”
Speaking through a bullhorn, Herzallah — an international student from Gaza — then gave remarks. In an interview after the event, he said that his pain was “one” with the Lebanese students’.
Herzallah requested a moment of silence before passing the bullhorn to Muslim Chaplain Abdul Rahman Latif. Latif and Reverend Nancy Vogele ’85, the College Chaplain, shared four prayers from Islam, Druze, Christianity and Maronite Catholicism in both Arabic and English.
“[The ASA] wanted a diversity of prayers,” Vogele said in an interview after the event. “Because Lebanon is so religiously diverse … the prayer that I did was from the Archbishop of Jerusalem, which covers Lebanon, and he’s an Arab Christian.”
After the prayers, Salha gave closing remarks before welcoming students to hot chocolate and cookies at One Wheelock.
“Where there is love, peace will flourish,” Salha said in his speech. “Lebanon is a land of love. Palestine is a land of love. These places are lands of love. God willing there will be peace all over the world.”
Jenin Obeidat ’25 and Oumiekhari Fatty-Hydara ’27, both members of Al-Nur, said they attended the vigil to support their friends in the ASA and mourn the deaths in Lebanon. Obeidat, who is Lebanese and Palestinian, said students had raw emotions on display throughout the event.
“Seeing a lot of my peers around me being very emotional and … crying… definitely made me emotional as well,” Obeidat said. “Even seeing students who aren’t Lebanese getting very upset about it made me realize that we have so many people on this campus who care.”
Fatty-Hydara said she “reflect[ed] on [her] place in the world” during the vigil and felt that there was “a lot of love” in the circle.
“Seeing so many different faces from the community … that I miss and haven’t seen in a while all come together was amazing,” she said.
