The Consulate General of Israel to the Southeastern United States visited Gainesville on Thursday morning, including a visit to a local attorney's memorial for the hostages from a 2023 Hamas attack in Israel.
Consul General Eitan Weiss visited the memorial set up by Joseph Summer near Gainesville's Midland Greenway at the corner of Grove Street and Parker Street. Summer's memorial, set up to honor those taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, was originally set up in January 2024 in a parking lot on Bradford Street just north of the downtown Gainesville square.
Summer said he relocated the memorial in July of this year after selling the Bradford Street property.
"Thankfully, we have access to another parking lot that's pretty open and visible, and I thought, let's keep it going, let's keep the memory of the hostage situation alive," Summer said.
The memorial primarily consists of posters of the hostages attached to traffic cones that line the corner of Grove and Parker streets. A Star of David is painted on the face of a building adjoining the lot.
Consul General Weiss said he learned of the Gainesville memorial amid his transition to the Southeastern Consul General position. He had previously served as Consul General for Israel in Los Angeles, as well as Canada and Russia.
"When I came to Atlanta, even prior to that, I heard about the great communities living in the region, saying they were really really affected by the October 7 event, and I almost immediately heard about this endeavor (in Gainesville,)" Weiss said. "It's a place I have to see, and I have to come and meet the people who are behind this and visit."
Weiss added that Summer's memorial is a testament to the relationship between the United States and Israel.
"It symbolizes the strength and the commonalities that we have between our cultures and people, and we have to stand together against external threats, which (Summer) is definitely putting his name out there to do," Weiss said.
Summer said he was excited to meet Weiss.
"It's such an honor and a privilege to meet with an Israeli diplomat here in Gainesville, Georgia of all places," Summer said. "It's just awesome to have some awareness at the high levels of the Israeli diplomatic government knowing about this memorial here in a small town...it's been a great little project that's really kind of taken off."
Summer added that while he dealt with some instances of vandalism when the memorial was on Bradford Street in 2024, he has not dealt with any issues since relocating it to the Midland Greenway.
"I've got a camera up...I think posting on Facebook and kind of telling people, 'hey, there's been some vandalism,' and kind of exposing that has actually helped a little bit. I think this area right here is pretty visible," Summer said.
Summer said while there has been no direct vandalism, there has been derision directed at the memorial.
"We were painting this Star of Davis up on the building and we got a little bit of hate from the street, somebody yelled 'free Gaza' and kind of tried to get into it with us," Summer said. "Other than that, we haven't had any issues and I hope it stays that way."
Weiss also joined WDUN's "The Martha Zoller Show" while visiting Gainesville Thursday morning. To hear that conversation, click play on the video above.
