Mayor Steven Meiner, members of the City Commission and a slate of county officials gathered Wednesday morning at Miami Beach Fire Station No. 2 for the city's "We Stand With Israel" ceremony, marking three years since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

The roughly 70-minute program was held at the station at 2300 Pine Tree Drive and livestreamed by the City of Miami Beach. The city's events calendar listed it for 9 a.m. and described it as an invitation from the mayor and Commission to honor the victims of the attack.

Who attended

Officials recognized from the podium included Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, county Commissioner Micky Steinberg, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez and Chief Assistant State Attorney Stephen Talpins.

Meiner and Commissioners Tanya Bhatt, Monica Matteo-Salinas, Laura Dominguez, Alex Fernandez and Joseph Magazine represented the city. Commissioner David Suarez was recognized by the master of ceremonies, who said she did not yet see him, and he was not among the commissioners Meiner thanked later in the program. It was not immediately clear why he was not in attendance. Israel's consul general in Miami, Zuri Siso, also spoke.

The program opened with an invocation by Rabbi Daniel Hadar and the Pledge of Allegiance. Hebrew Academy kindergarten students sang the American and Israeli national anthems, and an honor guard retired the colors.

Meiner: 'We stand with Israel'

Meiner delivered the longest address of the morning. He opened with an account of a mayors' conference last year in Sderot, a city near the Gaza border, where he said the local mayor told attendees the city had absorbed 10,000 rockets fired from Gaza since 2001.

He argued that criticism of Israel since Oct. 7 reflects a double standard that he called antisemitism, pointing to boycotts, campus protests and statements by university student groups. He also criticized New York's mayor, citing what he described as a refusal to denounce the slogan "globalize the intifada," a decision not to attend the Israel Day parade, and a threat to arrest Israel's prime minister.

In defending Israel's conduct in Gaza, Meiner cited a West Point scholar and a UNICEF malnutrition report. Those characterizations are disputed internationally, and the Journal did not independently verify them.

Meiner also pointed to local actions he said the city has taken: donating an ambulance to Nahariya, Miami Beach's sister city in Israel; passing, by unanimous Commission vote, legislation he said preserves free speech while protecting residents from harassment ("Free speech, yes. Harassment and assault, no."); and his own court testimony in hate-crime cases.

He closed by calling himself a Zionist and saying, "We stand with Israel always and forever." He invited attendees to visit the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach after the ceremony. According to WSVN, the memorial is the first in the world to engrave the names of Oct. 7 victims in English and Hebrew, and held its own commemoration Wednesday.

Other speakers

Levine Cava said she is Miami-Dade's first Jewish mayor and cited about 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage in the attack. She recalled Israeli rescuers' help after the 2021 Surfside condominium collapse and urged residents to call out antisemitism and hate.

Siso, the consul general, thanked Florida and the U.S. government for their support and praised Miami Beach for sending firefighters to Israel, saying that is "showing up when it matters." He noted this year's anniversary comes with all hostages back home.

Dr. Sapir Saadon of the La'Aretz Foundation, which provides direct financial aid to Israeli families affected by the security situation, said the group is in its second year partnering with the city. She said it has supported more than 1,300 households and mobilized over $11 million since Oct. 7, figures the Journal did not verify. Saadon told the story of the Zak family of Kibbutz Kissufim: parents Itay and Eti and their teenage son Sagi were killed in their home on Oct. 7, and two of their children, who were not home, survived. The program included a Washington Post clip and a La'Aretz video.

Ben Ladany, a former Israel Defense Forces K-9 soldier, said he was shot seven times during a mission in Gaza on Nov. 12, 2023, and that his dog, Jack, was killed. He said he spent two months in an induced coma and about two years in a wheelchair. Ladany, who said he was in Israel on Oct. 7 and moved between kibbutzim for several days, shared "seven lessons" from his injuries and said he has vowed not to hold hate in his heart.

A Hebrew Academy High School junior described waking to alarms in Israel on Oct. 7, where her family had recently moved. She said they left within days, via London, for Miami with little more than a change of clothes, and thanked the city and its first responders. Another Hebrew Academy student sang "God Bless America" and recited a prayer for Israeli soldiers as attendees lit candles.

Several figures cited by speakers, including casualty counts and rocket totals, are the speakers' own and were not independently verified by the Journal.

Background

Eight Miami Beach firefighters volunteered in November 2023 to serve in Israel for about two weeks, filling in for first responders called up for military service, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters. The union said the city approved the international travel.

Previously covered by the Journal

City Expands "Forever Proud" Banners, Adds Israeli Flag Initiative

Watch the ceremony