Organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, the rally will include a moment of silence and a candlelight vigil for murdered hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino.

“It’s going to be a really, hopefully, cathartic night,” event organizer Jessica Lipman told the Washington Examiner in an interview, expressing her hope that the experience will provide much-needed “healing” for everyone involved, on both sides of the political aisle.

The moment of silence for the six fallen hostages will happen at the beginning of the rally. Due to a local ordinance preventing the group from lighting real candles, the Women’s International Zionist Organization has donated plastic LED candles to be distributed for the vigil. The Anti-Defamation League has also been helping out by printing posters for the organizers.

“We really do hope that the things that separate us will be forgotten for at least the two hours of the rally,” Lipman said. “And we can just be bonded by what unifies us, which is that we have the common enemy of Hamas.”

Debbie Paperman, another event organizer, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that the “main purpose” of the rally is to “have people hear what’s going on, but also have our elected officials and the greater community see that we’re unified, and we won’t stop until all of the hostages are home, [both] living and dead.”

“We want to check politics at the door,” Lipman added. “We want to check the things that separate us at the door, and we just want to be unified by what brings us together,” which she described as a combination of “Jewish joy and Jewish pain.”

Lipman will be the first speaker before the vigil, and 13 others, including activists, politicians, and celebrities, are scheduled to speak after. Natalie Sanandaji, a survivor of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Nova Music Festival, will speak, as will the mayor and vice mayor of Beverly Hills, James Maslow of the band Big Time Rush, StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein, former Miss Universe Iraq Sarah Idan, and other prominent figures. Lipman said she told speakers to “speak from the heart.”

Lipman contrasted the Thursday rally to a recent event in Los Angeles on Sunday, which focused on sharing the stories of hostages and their families.

“The tone [Thursday night] will be very different. I think there’ll be more tears,” she said.

Something else that sets Thursday’s rally apart from previous events, according to Paperman, is that numerous organizations “were reaching out to us, wanting to get involved and wanting to be a part of it.”

“This is a message of unity,” Paperman said. “And more importantly, it’s to hopefully send a message to the families that have lost their loved ones and those who are still being held hostage because we can’t believe this is happening. It’s heartbreaking.”

Paperman mentioned that the event falls just after the beginning of Elul, a “time of reflection” and the sixth month of the religious year on the Jewish calendar. Reflecting on “what we can do this year to make it better,” she said, “we need to come together” to overcome political divisiveness, as the safe return of the hostages is a “human issue … not a partisan one.”

The event, which will take place outside Beverly Hills City Hall from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday night, is co-sponsored by 23 organizations, including StandWithUs, the ADL, #EndJewHatred, the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jewish Life Foundation, and WIZO California.

Beverly Hills police told the Washington Examiner that an “extended deployment” of officers will be present for the rally to ensure the safety of all participants and potential protesters.

Lipman said that while it is a “really difficult time” to be Jewish in 2024, as antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed since Oct. 7, she is “really moved at the response we’ve seen, and the cohesion of our Jewish community in LA has been really impressive.”