Ten-foot tall milk cartons, a burned and bloodied tree, and hastily drawn sketches drew a crowd to Hostage Square Chicago on Tuesday.
Staged in an empty lot for a single day just one mile down the street from the Democratic National Convention, the artistic display spotlighted the eight American hostages captured or killed by Hamas on October 7.
“When a kid goes missing, you see their face on a milk carton. These people have been missing and taken hostage now for 319 days,” said Chicago philanthropist Jeff Aeder who organized the event along with the Israeli American Council.
Andrea Weinstein stood beside a large milk carton bearing pictures of her sister and brother-in-law, Judith Weinstein and Gadi Haggai. They were out for an early morning walk near their home at Kibbutz Nir Oz when they were ambushed by terrorists on motorcycles, Weinstein said.
It took months to confirm they were murdered.
“I lost my sister to something beyond imaginable,” she said, as she pulled out a piece of paper with the words of a poem written in Haiku by her sister.
A sample of the poem
It reads, in part:
Now more than everKindness and tolerance Within an open heart
“We don’t want to see any more suffering for our families and for innocent civilians, Palestinians. No family should ever have to go through this ever again,” she said.
Maya Rudnick has spent the last month traveling across the US to tell the story of her cousin, Carmel Gat, one of the only women still held hostage.
“We know that she was held with two teenagers who were released. They told us she is alive, but they told us they were held under quite harsh physical conditions,” said Rudnick. She shared that the teens said Gat practiced yoga and meditation with them and made them keep a journal. “This is who she is. She is a caretaker. We were very heartened to know that she stayed herself during that time.”
Tribute to Nova
In the middle of the square stood a tree blackened to suggest it had been scorched and covered with dark green leaves dripping with red glass drops. Its Israeli artist, Neil Salti, created it after losing more than 20 friends at the Nova Music Festival.
“I had a huge urge to go to the site of the festival to see what they’d really been through. It was so quiet, and I thought to myself, I wished these trees could talk because they saw everything,” he said.
“It’s important that we’re here at this time while all eyes are on Chicago so that people can hear these stories,” said Noah Elder, a Chicago tattoo artist.
He spoke while painting a traditional Japanese image of a Koi fish.
“In Japanese tattooing, Koi fish represent perseverance because it’s always swimming against the tide. It’s a sign of strength,” he said, explaining he’d recently traveled to Israel to tattoo survivors and help them “reclaim their trauma.”
Nearby, Eric Rutzick, whose artistic name is Shmutz, quickly sketched faces of the hostages.
“I get five minutes to draw each hostage. The idea is that it’s very urgent. We need to get them free as quick as we can,” he said, highlighting the main mission of the exhibit:
“It’s all about awareness. A lot of people are not aware that there are even American hostages. Giving them that information and letting them know that’s the truth and that we can all come together on a human issue to bring them home.”