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Exhibit, memorial in L.A. re-create terror attack at Israeli music festival
In a cavernous, 50,000-square-foot industrial event space in Culver City stand the charred remnants of six cars destroyed by rocket-propelled grenade fire. There are portable toilet stalls, their doors riddled with bullet holes. There are tents, camping gear, clothes hanging on lines and tables labeled “Lost and Found” filled with rows of everyday items such as shoes, sunglasses, bags, toiletries and keys.
These and hundreds of other items — including a large canopy under which 3,000 partygoers danced — were salvaged after the Hamas-led terror attack on the Nova Music Festival in Israel on Oct. 7.
They are part of the “Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM — the Moment Music Stood Still,” an immersive memorial that re-creates a sense of the horrors that unfolded early that morning and its aftermath while honoring victims and survivors.
As festivalgoers danced, a barrage of rockets landed and thousands of Hamas gunmen and other insurgents from the Gaza Strip swarmed across the border into southern Israel. The attack killed about 1,200, including 405 Nova attendees, many of whom were ambushed as they attempted to escape in their cars or to hide in bomb shelters and nearby fields. More than 250 were abducted that day; 45 were festival participants — some of whom remain in captivity in Gaza.
Interspersed among the artifacts is harrowing real-time video taken by attendees — unknown to them that they were dancing in the last moments just as the onslaught began — as well as body-cam footage taken by Hamas terrorists, who then posted the contents online.
The burnt remnants of a car hit by rocket-propelled grenades were brought from Israel as part of the installation.
(Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images)
“I love everyone. I want to go home. I already miss everyone,” festival survivor Noa Kalash says in phone footage made while she hid during the attack.
In a heartbreaking audio exchange, Meirav Gonen tells her daughter Romi, who is shot and trying to flee, “Romily, you’re not alone. You’re with me, my beautiful one. Everything is OK.” Romi, who turns 24 on Sunday, was taken captive and remains in Gaza.
“Dad, I’m calling you from the phone of a Jew. I just killed her and her husband,” one of the terrorists says in a call broadcast on a video screen.
The exhibition is spread over several rooms and includes video testimonials of survivors, first responders and family members of those still held hostage. Portraits of those who were killed that day line three walls.
Survivors of the festival are on-site to share their experiences.
“I hope that people take out of this place the message of what happened to human beings,” said Millet Ben Haim, 28, who hid for more than six hours in bushes with her friends before being rescued.
“We’re shining a light on these atrocities not to rattle people but to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Also, she said, the goal is to focus on “love, compassion and life rather than on darkness and not to let hatred change our hearts.”
Irish Israelis Emily and Laura Damti want people to know about their younger sister Kim, 22, whom they described as a beautiful, gifted student. She was killed while seeking refuge in a bomb shelter with her friend Omer Wenkert, 23, who was taken hostage in Gaza, where he remains. “She was a radiant presence of positive energy and golden curls,” Emily said.
Scooter Braun, chief executive of entertainment company Hybe America and a music manager whose clients have included Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, was instrumental in bringing the exhibit to the U.S., as were Omri Sassi and Ofir Amir, co-founders and producers of the Nova Music Festival, creative director Reut Feingold and American partners Joe Teplow and Josh Kadden.
Braun said he was moved to act, angered at what he saw as the music industry’s silence after the massacre.
In 2017, two weeks after a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed 22 people at Grande’s concert in Manchester, England, Braun helped organize the all-star One Love Manchester benefit concert and television special, which raised nearly $3 million to help victims.
“That is what’s so frustrating to me,” he said. “We had no issue stepping forward against an ideology, the same ideology that caused this and demanding that this is not acceptable.”
Braun saw this as an opportunity to coalesce around shared values and humanity.
“I started to speak out and try to make people hear each other. I believe that we aren’t living in the Middle East, and this is a place where people of all shapes, sizes and colors come to find a new life. And I thought, ‘Why are we yelling at each other here but expecting them to have peace there?’ We need to set the example.”
Music manager Scooter Braun was instrumental in bringing the exhibition to the United States.
(Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)
In December, Braun flew to Israel. He visited Kibbutz Beeri, a community left in ruins by the Hamas-led attacks, where residents were tortured, killed or abducted. He also visited the field where the festival was held. “These people were the hippies of the country. They were peace-loving people who wanted better for everyone. And they were just massacred.”
Braun met with survivors at the Nova Healing Camp who invited him to an exhibition in Tel Aviv. It was a small re-creation of the festival set up in a hangar.
“It was simply a place for people to go and think of their loved ones and everyone who had been affected,” he said.
“When I saw it, I immediately thought to myself, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for to help tell this story because I just want to show people each other’s humanity.’ I think we all love music. So this is a way to show people, step out of the politics and realize what happened here.”
Although the organizers insist the exhibit is neither political theater nor agitprop, it was met with anti-Israel demonstrations in New York in June. Protesters lighted flares, waved banners and shouted slogans such as “Long live the Intifada,” “Israel go to hell” and “The Zionists are not Jews and not humans,” according to videos posted on social media and news reports.
The Oct. 7 attack set off Israel’s campaign in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas. The death toll among Palestinians has risen to nearly 40,000, according to the health ministry there, whose numbers do not demarcate between civilians and combatants. Much of Gaza’s 2.3-million population has been displaced and large parts of its cities have been reduced to rubble.
Nerdeen Kiswani, a pro-Palestinian activist, called the exhibition “propganda used to justify the genocide in Palestine” on her X account and wrote that the Nova festival was “a rave next to a concentration camp.”
The protest at the exhibition elicited a flood of denunciations, including from the White House, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the protest “atrocious antisemitism — plain and simple.”
Braun responded to the demonstration by extending the exhibition an additional week.
More than 100,000 people attended the exhibit during its New York run, including Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Of the protests, Braun says, “I think free speech was designed to create a dialogue between us. If someone is conscious and they want to protest, then I challenge them to be considerate enough to walk through the exhibit and give it the respect it deserves and maybe see a different point of view. I want everyone to see this. I want everyone to realize that we need to start seeing each other’s humanity and realizing music must be a safe place and see ourselves in this festival.”
Photos of festivalgoers killed and taken captive by Hamas-led militants during their attack on Israel last year populate the field where the Nova festival was held.
(Ohad Zwigenberg / Associated Press)
The exhibition is expected to be in L.A. through mid-October. Braun said organizers will commemorate the anniversary of the attacks on Oct. 7. During the exhibit’s run, educational events are planned with a focus on outreach to different communities in Los Angeles.
The organizers said they hope to bring the exhibition to other locations, including Miami, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
In the final room of the exhibit, a neon sign reads, “We will dance again.”
“That is not just for us,” Braun said. “That is for all people. We want to dance with all people. And I think that that message is what needs to be heard in these times.”
The Nova exhibition opens to the public Saturday. The privately funded exhibit is selling tickets for $8, $18, $36, $72 or $180, and students can attend free of charge; all proceeds go to the Tribe of Nova Foundation, an Israeli nonprofit and an IRS-approved U.S. public charity initiative, earmarked for medical and mental health treatment and other support projects for victims and families of the Oct. 7 attacks.
Retired nurse Nancy Reed has been through the ringer trying to get insurance for her home next to a San Diego County nature preserve.
First, she was dropped by her longtime carrier and forced onto the state’s insurer of last resort, the California FAIR Plan, which offers basic fire policies — something thousands of residents have experienced at the hands of fire-leery insurance companies.
But what she didn’t expect was how hard it would be to find the extra coverage she needed to augment her FAIR Plan policy, which doesn’t cover common perils such as water damage or liability if someone is injured on a property.
She secured the “difference-in-conditions” policies from two insurers, only to be dropped by both before finally finding another for her Escondido home.
“I’ve lived in this house for 25 years, and I went from a very fair price to ‘we’re not insuring you anymore’ — and I’ve had three different difference-in-conditions policies,” said Reed, 71, who is paying about $2,000 for 12 months of the extra coverage. “And I’m holding my breath to see if I will be renewed next year.”
Now, a Department of Insurance regulation that would have required the FAIR plan to offer that additional coverage has been blocked by a state appeals court — leaving the plan’s customers to find that insurance in a market widely considered dysfunctional.
The court ruled earlier this month that the order would have forced the plan to offer liability insurance, which was not the intent of the Legislature when it established the plan in 1968 to offer essential insurance for those who couldn’t get it.
“We appreciate that the court confirmed the California FAIR Plan is designed and intended to operate as California’s insurer of last resort, providing basic property coverage when it cannot be obtained in the voluntary market,” said spokesperson Hilary McLean.
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said he is “looking at all available options” following the decision. “I’ve been fighting so people can have access to all of the coverage the FAIR Plan is required by law to provide,” he said in a statement.
Lara has faced criticism from consumer advocates who’ve called for his resignation over his response to the state’s ongoing property insurance crisis.
A FAIR Plan policy covers fires, lightning, smoke damage and internal explosions, as well as vandalism and some other hazards at an additional cost. But in addition to water damage and liability protection, it doesn’t cover such common perils as theft and the damage caused by trees falling on a house.
The demand for the additional coverage — commonly referred to as a “wrap-around” policy — has become even greater than in 2021 when Lara issued the order overturned on appeal.
The FAIR Plan at the time had about 160,000 active dwelling policies following a series of catastrophic wildfires, including the 2018 fire that nearly destroyed the mountain town of Paradise. By September, that number had grown to 646,000.
The insurance department lists less than two dozen companies that offer wrap-around policies, including major California home insurers such as Mercury and Farmers and a a number of smaller carriers.
Broker Dina Smith said that to find the coverage for her home insurance clients she needs to place about 90% of them with carriers not regulated by the state — with the combined coverage typically costing at least twice as much as a regular policy.
“The [market] is very limited,” said Smith, a managing director at Gallagher.
Safeco has not written California wrap-around coverage since the beginning of the year and will begin non-renewing existing policies next month. Smith also said carriers are being selective, with the ones that offer the coverage often demanding exclusions, such as for certain types of water damage.
“If I’ve got a newer home with no prior claims … for liability losses, it’s going to be easy to write. If I get a home that is built in the 1950s that might still have galvanized pipes … that’s going to be a tough one,” she said.
Attorney Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a San Francisco consumer group, said the difference-in-conditions, or DIC, market is getting just as problematic for homeowners as the overall market.
“The market is not as strong as it needs to be … given how many people are in the FAIR Plan, and there aren’t as many DIC options — with the DIC companies being just as picky as the primary insurers,” she said.
There is also confusion about the policies, she said. Her group is considering pushing for a law next year that would clearly label the coverage so consumers better understand what they are buying.
The Trump administration will begin to garnish the pay of student loan borrowers in January, the Department of Education said Tuesday, stepping up a repayment enforcement effort that began this year.
Beginning the week of Jan. 7, roughly 1,000 borrowers who are in default will receive notices informing them of their status, according to an email from the department. The number of notices will increase on a monthly basis.
The collection activities are “conducted only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay their loans,” according to the email, which was unsigned.
The announcement comes as many Americans are already struggling financially, and the cost of living is top of mind. The wage garnishing could compound the effects on lower-income families contending with a stressed economy, employment concerns and health care premiums that are set to rise for millions of people.
The email did not contain any details about the nature of the garnishment, such as how much would be deducted from wages, but according to the government’s student aid website, up to 15 percent of a borrower’s take-home pay can be withheld. The government typically directs employers to withhold a certain amount, similar to a payroll tax.
A borrower should be sent a notice of the government’s intent 30 days before the seizure begins, according to the website, StudentAid.gov.
The administration ended a five-year reprieve on student loan repayments in May, paving the way for forced collections — meaning tax refunds and other federal payments, like Social Security, could be withheld and applied toward debt payments.
That move ushered in the end of pandemic-era relief that began in March 2020, when payments were paused. More than 9 percent of total student debt reported between July and September was more than 90 days delinquent or in default, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In April, only one-third of the 38 million Americans who owed money for college or graduate school and should have been making payments actually were, according to government data.
“It’s going to be more painful as you move down the income distribution,” said Michael Roberts, a professor of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. But, he added, borrowers have to contend with the fact that they did take out money, even as government policies allowed many to put the loans at the back of their minds.
After several extensions by the Biden administration, payments resumed in October 2023, but borrowers were not penalized for defaulting until last year. About five million borrowers are in default, and millions more are expected to be close to missing payments.
The government had signaled this year that it would send notices that could lead to the garnishing of a portion of a borrower’s paycheck. Being in collections and in default can damage credit scores.
The government garnished wages before the pandemic pause, said Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, which provides free advice for borrowers. But the 2020 collections pause was the first she was aware of, she said, and that may make the deductions more shocking for people who have not had to pay for years.
“There’s a lot of defaulted borrowers that think that there was a mistake made somewhere along the line, or the Department of Education forgot about them,” Ms. Mayotte said. “I think this is going to catch a lot of them off guard.”
The first day after a missed payment, a loan becomes delinquent. After a certain amount of time in delinquency, usually 270 days, the loan is considered in default — the kind of loan determines the time period. If someone defaults on a federal student loan, the entire balance becomes due immediately. Then the loan holder can begin collections, including on wages.
But there are options to reorganize the defaulted loans, including consolidation or rehabilitation, which requires making a certain number of consecutive payments determined by the holder.
Often, people who default on debt owe the smallest amounts, said Constantine Yannelis, an economics professor at the University of Cambridge who researches U.S. student loans.
“They’re often dropouts or they went to two-year, for-profit colleges, and people who spent many, many years in schools, like doctors or lawyers, have very low default rates,” he said.
This year, millions of borrowers saw their credit scores drop after the pause on penalties was lifted. If someone does not earn an income, the government can take the person to court. But, practically speaking, a borrower’s credit score will plummet.
Dr. Yannelis added that a common reason people default was that they were not aware of the repayment options. There are plans that allow borrowers to pay 10 percent of their income rather than having 15 percent garnished, for example.
The whiplash policy changes around the time of the pandemic were “a terrible thing from a borrower-welfare perspective,” Dr. Yannelis said. “Policy uncertainty is really terrible for borrowers.”
In the midst of attempting to complete filming on his western anthology ”Horizon: An American Saga,” Kevin Costner is facing another legal dispute over the production.
On Monday, Western Costume Co. sued Costner and the production companies behind the epic western, claiming unpaid costume fees and damages to some of the clothing during the filming of the series’ second episode.
“The costumes are costly to replace if damaged or not returned,” states the complaint, which included copies of invoices for about $134,000 in costume rentals. “Without a reasonable basis for doing so and/or with reckless regard to the consequences, defendants failed to pay for the rented costumes and failed to return the costumes undamaged.”
Western Costume, the iconic business based in North Hollywood, is seeking to recover roughly $440,000, including legal fees, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
A spokesperson for Costner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal and financial problems that have dogged the sprawling western drama, which Costner directed, co-wrote, starred in and partially funded.
In May, United Costume Corp., sued the production, claiming $350,000 in unpaid fees for the first two chapters of “Horizon.” Two months later, the costume firm filed to dismiss the suit with prejudice.
In May, Devyn LaBella, a stunt performer on “Chapter 2,” sued the production for sexual discrimination, harassment and retaliation in Los Angeles Superior Court. LaBella alleged an unscripted rape scene was filmed without the presence of a contractually mandated intimacy coordinator.
In a motion filed in August to get the suit tossed, Costner said he had reviewed LaBella’s complaint and was “shocked at the false and misleading allegations she was making.”
In October, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied Costner’s anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss the case. The judge also denied LaBella’s claim that Costner had interfered with her civil rights through the use of intimidation or coercion with respect to her participation in the filming of a rape scene, but allowed several of her other claims to proceed.
The case is pending.
The production is also facing an arbitration claim for alleged breaches in its co-financing agreement with its distributor New Line Cinema and City National Bank, “Horizon” bondholder, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
In June 2024, “Chapter 1” of the planned four-part series was released in theaters followed by a streaming broadcast on HBO Max, but it was largely panned by critics.
In its review, The Times described “Horizon” as “a massive boondoggle, a misguided and excruciatingly tedious cinematic experience.”
It failed at the box office, grossing just $38.8 million worldwide, on a reported $100 million budget.
“Chapter 2” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last September, but its theatrical release was pulled and remains indefinitely delayed, while the final two chapters remain in production or development, according to IMDb.
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