The Boston University Hillel community is commemorating Ezra Schwartz, a Massachusetts student and resident killed in Israel on Thursday, Nov. 19, by introducing an art installation and performing community service in his name.
Schwartz, a native of Sharon, was killed when delivering food to Israeli soldiers on the West Bank. United States Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro wrote on his official Facebook page Friday that, “we mourn with the family and friends of Ezra Schwartz … an American citizen murdered yesterday in a terrorist attack.”
Hillel Student Board Vice President Rebekah Heath said the art project manifested in a three-dimensional installation in the form of a sun, built by a collection of triangular cards. The BU community can participate throughout this week, Heath said.
“[Hillel] will be making a card-stock triangle, [on which] people write down any memory that they have of Ezra or anything they would like to write,” Heath, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “Currently, the triangle pieces of paper are in Hillel right now, people can participate in that.”
Heath highlighted certain themes of the memorial, meant to signify compassion and service, respectively.
“[The card-stock triangles are] hung to show something specific, and our theme for this is Chesed, translated as ‘loving-kindness,’ which we know Ezra embodied,” Heath said. “[Schwartz] had a knack for community service; we’re going to do a Tikkun Olam, an act of community service. It means ‘repair the world.’”
Schwartz was in Israel for a study abroad program, Heath said. His death gravely affects the Boston Jewish community, as his venture to study abroad reflects the hopes of a number of other students, she said.
“Many of our students and many of the BU community [have] actually taken years abroad, and then in the Jewish community we find that a lot of students actually study in Israel for a year before coming to school,” Heath said. “We expect from this tribute a solemn atmosphere [and] we hope this will bring a sense of support that Hillel will provide for anyone who needs it.”
Chava Schwartz, a Hillel staff advisor and co-director of Orthodox Union Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at BU said a “community-wide charity project in Ezra’s memories” is planned as a longer form of tribute.
In accordance with the Jewish view on tragedy, Schwartz said, the central aim of the tribute is to honor memories of Ezra with action.
“The hope is to inspire change in people,” she said. “A lot of what we know about Ezra is that he was a very giving person, a very happy person who inspired people around him. So [students] have chosen to use that as a starting work for the project.”
Chava Schwartz said Ezra Schwartz’s death “hit a lot closer to home” compared to other tragedies in the region and around the world because it happened to a Massachusetts resident.
“[Ezra’s death] really impacted the community gravely because so many Hillel students and the students on campus did know Ezra,” she said. “They went to school with him, they went to camp with him, they were in the same social circle as well as the same age.”
BU Hillel’s choice to honor Ezra Schwartz’s memory through action-oriented projects is something Chava Schwartz said she takes pride in.
“The closer our bond as a community as a whole, the better we’ll be able to fight back,” she said, “and shed more light to the world and more goodness.”
