Oct. 7 still taking its toll on B.C.’s Jewish community [Video]

Outside Rutie Mizrahi’s Vancouver home hang blue and white lights on her front porch doorway. They were put up and turned on one year ago, and haven’t been turned off since.

“I said that I’m not going to turn them off until all the hostages will be safe at home,” said Mizrahi, an Israeli-Canadian.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Mizrahi’s aunt and uncle were taken by Hamas fighters from Kibbutz Nir Oz, located near the Israel-Gaza border.

“I feel very sad,” said Mizrahi, telling CTV News how she’s feeling on the grim one-year anniversary. “I’m very angry.”

The Kibbutz was burned and many people were either killed or kidnapped. Her aunt Yocheved Lifshitz was released early on in the war, but her 84-year-old uncle Oded remains among the more than 100 hostages whose whereabouts are unknown.

Mizrahi says she thinks about her uncle “every day.” She says he was a retired …