California Student Uses Graduation Stage to Shine a Light on the Hostages

At a time when graduation ceremonies have become platforms for protest and polarization—especially around Israel—an 18-year-old Jewish student in Sacramento chose a different path: one of inspiration and moral courage.

Graduation season is often filled with joy, relief, and pride. Yet this year, the spotlight has often shifted from celebration to controversy. More and more, student commencement speeches have become stages for political posturing, nowhere more visible than at MIT, where class president Megha Vemuri recently used her address to single out Israel for condemnation.

Her remarks were part of a troubling trend this spring, as multiple graduation speeches have been hijacked to harshly single out Israel, turning moments of celebration into ones that have alienated Jewish students and their families.

But contrast that with a quieter, more powerful gesture made thousands of miles away by an 18-year-old high school senior in Sacramento.

Vanessa Huckleby, the only Jewish student in her graduating class at Natomas Homeschool Alliance, asked for the opportunity to sing at her school’s commencement ceremony. She told the principal she would like to perform an Italian aria, and a Hebrew song.

That song was Acheinu, a relatively obscure prayer recited during weekday services at a synagogue, usually after the reading of the Torah. Since October 7, 2023, the musical rendition of the prayer composed by Abie Rotenberg, has become a global anthem of solidarity and grief, sung in synagogues, at rallies, and outside government offices in Israel, where families of hostages still gather in anguish.

Vanessa first heard Acheinu during a presentation on Israel. The haunting melody struck a deep chord within her. She looked up the meaning of the words and listened to the song again and again. It stirred something in her, and she knew it was the song she had to sing.

“I had to do it,” she told me. “Because I feel like there’s only so much I can do for Israel. I post things on social media, but it’s hard. People want to make everything political. This song felt like something real, like I could help make sure the hostages aren’t forgotten.”

When I watched the video of her performance, I was deeply moved. It’s uncommon to hear a Hebrew song—one about captivity, compassion, and deliverance—performed with such heartfelt emotion on a secular high school stage.

The lyrics express a heartfelt prayer that speaks to anyone who has ever hoped for a loved one’s safe return:

Our brothers and sisters, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and captivity, whether they are found over sea or over dry land—May the Omnipresent have mercy on them and bring them from distress to comfort, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption, now, swiftly, and soon.

After the ceremony, students and parents came up to Vanessa to ask about the song’s meaning. Though none were Jewish, as she explained, their faces showed genuine empathy and understanding.

“I didn’t realize it would move so many people,” she said. “And I’m so grateful for that.”

Vanessa and her sisters Vyvyan and Valerie have been raised in a home rooted in Jewish learning and community life. Her parents, Donna and Scott, are active members at our synagogue in Sacramento. This summer, she’ll travel to Israel for the first time with students from UC Davis Hillel on a Birthright Israel trip. She also plans to attend the North American Jewish Choral Festival in July, and hopes to spend a gap year volunteering in Israel before college.

I asked Vanessa what Israel means to her. She paused and said, “Growing up I always felt I have a deep connection to Israel as a Jew. It feels like home, even though I’ve never been there. I just know it’s part of who I am. It is my home.”

That sense of belonging, of rootedness and resolve, was etched onto her graduation cap: עם ישראל חי, Am Yisrael Chai! (The People of Israel Lives!) It wasn’t just decoration. It was a declaration—of identity, of solidarity, and of courage.

(Photo Courtesy of Huckleby Family)

Vanessa’s courage wasn’t defiant; it was uplifting. In a moment when so many commencement stages have been hijacked to stir outrage, she used hers to inspire.

Which brings us back to MIT.

At MIT, class president Megha Vemuri turned her address into a condemnation. Her words were carefully crafted, but the message was unmistakable: Israel is the problem. There was no nuance—no mention of the October 7 massacre, no acknowledgment of Hamas’s brutal kidnappings of civilians, including children and Holocaust survivors. No recognition of Hamas’s use of civilians in Gaza as human shields, embedding itself in hospitals, mosques, and schools.

Nor did Vemuri acknowledge the staggering human suffering in other parts of the world—like the over 230,000 civilians killed under Syria’s Assad regime, including 23,058 children and 12,010 women; the conflict in Yemen, claiming over 377,000 lives and displacing 4.5 million people; or Sudan, where more than 150,000 have been killed since April, 2023. Even the 234 million people living in poverty in her own native India were completely ignored.  Her failure to acknowledge this widespread suffering speaks volumes; she weaponized selective outrage to condemn Israel alone—while excusing the terror inflicted by its enemies.

Vanessa’s message was different. She didn’t speak a single word of politics.

She sang a song.

She didn’t call anyone out. She called out to God.

She didn’t go viral. She made something sacred.

Amid rising antisemitism, young people like Vanessa Huckleby lead boldly, embracing their Jewish identity with courage and conviction. Sometimes, the most radical act is simply to sing—for peace, for people, and for those still waiting to be brought home.

Take a moment to watch Vanessa sing Acheinu.

It’s an expression of grace and courage, an act of quiet faith in a world that desperately needs both.