The Israeli embassy in Washington held a memorial to mark the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on Monday at Washington Hebrew Congregation, a Reform synagogue in the District.

Michael Needham, U.S. deputy national security advisor, described the Hamas massacre in southern Israel as evidence of a struggle between “civilization and barbarism” that unites Israel and the United States.

“The war between the people of Israel and the terrorists of Hamas is a war that is playing out in various forms here in the United States and in Europe and all over the Western world,” he told about 400 attendees.

Members of the Trump administration, U.S. and Israeli military officials, members of the Washington diplomatic corps and leaders of Jewish community groups attended the event, where Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, was notable for his absence.

Leiter has been in Israel since September to support the recovery of his son Neriyah, who was critically injured when a Palestinian terrorist rammed him with a car at an Israeli military checkpoint in Samaria. Another of Leiter’s sons, Moshe, was killed serving in Gaza in 2023.

Needham quoted Leiter’s comment about the attack on his younger son. “They choose death,” he said, echoing the envoy. “We choose life.”

“Those who choose to defend civilization may be willing to die for our cause, but it is only because we love and value life that we choose to sacrifice to defend it,” Needham said. “Over the last three years, the people of Israel have chosen life—to fight and suffer and sacrifice for it—and civilization will continue to prevail so long as our nations are blessed by heroes like Yechiel and Moshe and Neriyah and their brothers and sisters across the United States and across Israel.”

Speaking in Leiter’s place, Nevo Barchad, chief of mission, credited those who served in the Israeli military after Oct. 7 as “the greatest generation of Israelis.”

“Oct. 7 showed us that our greatest enemies sought to ruin us and couldn’t,” he told attendees. “We suffered many losses, but our enemies cannot and will never destroy our soul, courage or resourcefulness.”