‘Adopting’ Hostages: Connecting from Afar

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, my birthday, at 7:15 a.m., there was a knock on the door of my home in Westchester. Standing there were two members of my synagogue, in their pajamas, with a message none of us was sure would ever come: “Almog is free.” It didn’t register the first time so they had to repeat it. “Almog is free.” I have repeated this story countless times since then and tears well up in my eyes at those words each time. On that day, our community in Scarsdale was given the most extraordinary gift imaginable, one that continues to reverberate due to the 115 hostages incomprehensibly still in Gaza, and rings even louder today, as a potential regional war threatens to obscure 10 months of their unrelenting captivity. Our story begins on day 194.

In early April, a few weeks before Pesach, my synagogue, the Young Israel of Scarsdale, was approached about the Adopt-a-Hostage program, an initiative created by the Miryam Institute, a forum for a broad range of Israeli leaders and thinkers to discuss critical issues facing Israel. Adopt-a-Hostage is an attempt to utilize the influence of American Jewish communities to accomplish three goals: apply consistent pressure on the U.S. government to help negotiate a deal to free the hostages, ensure that the names and cause of the hostages, especially those with little name recognition, remain top-of-mind in Jewish communities, and to give hope to hostage families by communicating ongoing efforts.

This effort fit seamlessly into the activism and advocacy that are part of the DNA of our community and the broader Jewish community. Years of rallying for Soviet Jewry in the 70’s and 80’s, and other causes in subsequent decades, have taught us that at a minimum, we can’t stand idly by while others suffer, and at a maximum, these efforts can effect change. So on Wednesday, April 17th, a small committee of synagogue members met on Zoom with the family of “our” hostage, Almog Meir Jan. Almog was one of over 40 people kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival, where 363 others were brutally murdered. He was 21 at the time, and about to start a job at a tech company. We were told that he was a foodie, had an eye for fashion and, of course, loved music and dancing. His mother, Orit, and uncle, Aviram, reviewed with us their round-the-clock efforts to that point to achieve his release and we brainstormed ideas that our committee could pursue in America. As the meeting was ending and I was about to say to my fellow committee members and Almog’s family that we should all regroup after Pesach, Orit, anticipating my closing, said, “Please don’t wait until after Pesach.” Of course. For hostage families, there was no Pesach. There was no Monday or Thursday or morning or night. There was, and is, only time ticking by.

We immediately organized a social media campaign to encourage families to leave an empty seat for Almog or another hostage at their Pesach Seders, photos of which came pouring in. A week after the Zoom call, and in Israel with my family for Pesach, I joined Orit and other members of the family on a heart-wrenching visit to the Nova site, and then sat with them at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, a gathering place for hostage families since shortly after October 7th. Both their pain and their resolve were immeasurable. After Pesach, we Zoomed and WhatsApped with the family often. The committee shared pictures of Almog on social media, and celebrated his 22nd birthday on May 11th by having birthday cakes at synagogues throughout Westchester, and delivering mock birthday cards to members of Congress. We communicated each of these initiatives to Almog’s family, proud of our efforts, but always aware of how much more could be done.

On Monday, June 3rd, we met on Zoom to brainstorm new ideas, and calendared a meeting for the same time the following week. Monday mornings were to become our weekly meeting time. Thankfully, that first “weekly” turned out to be the last, as Almog was one of four hostages heroically rescued from Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces on the following Saturday. Like in Israel that day, when secular Israelis rushed to tell their strictly Sabbath-observant, non-phone or TV-using neighbors about the rescue, the two pajama-clad friends at my door had received the news from a friend in Israel who knew that our community had been working with the family, and ran over to tell me.

The scene in the synagogue that Shabbat morning was euphoria, the opposite of the shock and fear on Saturday morning October 7th. And while on this Shabbat we celebrated four lives, a drop in the bucket compared to the deaths of over 1200 people on October 7th, the Talmud states that whoever saves one life it’s as if they had saved a world. There are many explanations of this statement but in that moment, this one seemed apt: These rescued hostages meant the world to their families and to so many around the globe, and our community had a brief but incalculably meaningful encounter with one of those worlds.

While many of the synagogue attendees had heard the news over the course of the morning, the rabbi wanted to acknowledge the miraculous events as a community and asked me to share the news. Representing the committee, I communicated the following message: On the happiest days on the Jewish calendar, a special prayer called Hallel is added, the peak of which is a sentence from the book of Psalms, “This is the day that God has made, let us rejoice and be happy in it.” The very next sentence, though, is, “Please God, save us.” How is it possible to be at the top of the mountain and yet, in the next instant, be at the bottom? The late Israeli scholar, Pinchas Peli, said the message is that life is a series of peaks and valleys and we need to be able to respond appropriately to both. Our community’s response would be to celebrate Almog Meir Jan’s freedom with all of our hearts and then to adopt another hostage. Immediately after Shabbat ended, we reached out to Almog’s family and the Miryam Institute, and soon after, met with the families of brothers, Yossi and Eli Sharabi. 

Yossi and Eli were kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th and taken to Gaza. Eli’s wife, Lianne, and daughters Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were murdered that day. Yossi was declared dead on January 16th and his body is still in Gaza. Eli is presumed to be alive. The Sharabi families have been doing everything possible to achieve Eli’s release and the return of Yossi’s body, but after nine months, they need to find more pathways to get them back.

Unfortunately, there are 113 other hostages to “adopt,” but each deserves at least this kind of dedicated attention. Each is a world that we can enter, impact, and be transformed in the process. Our community looks forward to an opportunity to meet Almog in person. But that can wait. What can’t wait is the return of Eli, all remaining hostages, and the bodies of Yossi and others who have been murdered. Bring them home now.

—

For more information on Adopt-a-Hostage, go to miryaminstitute.org.