College campuses around the U.S. are seeing intense protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, which shows no signs of ending more than six months after Hamas’ attacks. At the same time, one survivor of the October 7th massacre continues to speak out about his experiences.
Matan Boltax is a 23-year-old Israeli-American, originally from Great Neck, Long Island. He moved to Israel with family in 2009 and served in the Israel Defense Forces for three years as a sniper, on the Gaza border, Lebanon border and West Bank. But his close call with death came October 7th at the Supernova music festival.
“There's a very large electronic music scene in Israel," said Boltax. "A lot of popular DJs that play in parties, festivals around the world actually are from Israel. My dad likes to call these raves or festivals that we go to, like a modern day Grateful Dead concert. Nova is a production that has festivals around like two or three times a year. And this was by far their biggest one.”
The producers had collaborated with a festival from Brazil and 3,000 fans turned out. “The festival took place on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot," Boltax said. "I live in Mateh Binyamin which is about 40 minutes off the coast from the Gaza border. So it was about an hour drive away from our home. It's a popular festival spot because it's usually green year round, and there's lots of open spaces in between the small towns for there to be able to blast loud music. The festival started at midnight, and it was supposed to go on until 5pm. So everyone's really in for a long haul. So everyone's bringing a lot of camping gear and food and snacks, water drinks, whatever they need for such a long haul. So we got there at around 2 a.m."
Boltax says the last day of the holiday in Israel is comparable to the last day of summer in the U.S., with a new school year about to begin. At the campsite Boltax met 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a U.S. citizen who lived in Virginia until recently moving to Israel with his family.
"At around 6:15 we all got up, got ready for the day. We're about to take like the five minute walk over the dance floor," said Boltax. "And then we looked up in the sky at around 6:30 and saw rockets."
Boltax says although Israelis are somewhat accustomed to seeing rockets, it was alarming to see them while situated in a huge open area. He says festivalgoers dashed to their vehicles and began a mass exodus.
Boltax was one of the last people to see Goldberg-Polin, who lost an arm to a grenade while seeking shelter and was subsequently taken captive by Hamas and is being held hostage in Gaza.
Boltax and his group stayed at their campsite, a decision that saved their lives. He says by 6:55 the festival ground was nearly empty. Police patrolling the area told them to go home. They arrived at the parking lot at 7:10 a.m.
"We drove about 500 yards to the intersection to get back on the highway to head home," Boltax said. "And we hit standstill traffic. We got out of our car, I was with one of my friends in our car, we got out, tried to get an idea of what was going on, because there was really like nowhere to go. This whole time the rocket fires still being shot at us. And I mean just loud explosions, which is making everything way more hectic. Police were doing a very good job of kind of controlling the crowd until they started getting shot at."
Boltax says things went downhill quickly. Police blocked off the main entrance to get back on the highway. Boltax says people were driving against traffic, coming back with shattered windows, flattened tires, some bleeding with bullet wounds. A lot of people began running away, but Boltax and his friends pushed abandoned vehicles out of the way so they could drive through.
Boltax says minutes later, Hamas reached the highway and festival grounds and shot anyone in sight.
Boltax and friends drove for about a mile before hitting a dead end.
"And then up ahead, we saw a pickup truck with these Hamas militants in the back," Boltax said. "Not looking at us but looking the other way. And so we quickly made a U-turn. All the communications were knocked down. So like Google Maps wasn't working, couldn't call our friends."
Boltax says they picked up a couple in their 30's who were apparently in shock, and drove on along an unfamiliar highway.
"Really we had no clue where we were going. We stopped in the first town we saw to take shelter in this family's house. We don't know who they were, but they kindly let us in," said Boltax.
The group stayed at the house for 12 hours, then cautiously drove home. During that time Boltax appeared on "missing person" lists being circulated on social media.
Boltax says he is lucky to have made it out alive and uninjured. He recently traveled to the U.S., sharing his story with students at seven colleges and universities along the East Coast. He says he never thought he'd see this much anti-Semitism.
"So I did get to speak to a lot of Jewish students on the campuses I went to also, when I spoke at SUNY Albany, which my dad actually happened to go to school there. I mean, just the fact that I spoke to a bunch of students who were losing friends or had to move out of their apartment because all of a sudden, these college students who have no idea what they're talking about, think that it's trendy, or woke or cool to support Palestine when they have no base to their claim. And now all of a sudden, they find these Jewish students who are going to Albany or these schools find themselves with people they thought Who are their friends who actually dislike them or hate them or are calling them names or yelling, anti-Semitic chants at them," Boltax said.
Boltax wishes protestors could visit Israel to better understand what the country is really like. He says he and his friends vowed to keep on staying optimistic, celebrating life and dancing again in memory of all the other friends they have lost.
A study released this month by the Anti-Defamation League found that during 2023, anti-Semitic activity reported on U.S. college and university campuses increased by 321 percent from 2022.
The states with the highest number of incidents reported were California with 1,266, New York 1,218, New Jersey 830, Florida 463 and Massachusetts 440. Those five states accounted for 48 percent of the total incidents.
