‘My’ hostage was released on Thursday
Of course he is not mine in any real sense, but Gadi Moses is the hostage I have been praying for since I first learned his name back in October of 2023.
A few days after Hamas’ brutal invasion of Israel on October 7th, some local Israeli women organized a rally at the state capital in Raleigh. Somehow, we each got a poster of a hostage. People know these iconic posters: vertical with a large photo in the center, a top banner with each hostage’s name and age, and the bottom caption which reads BRING THEM HOME.
On that day, 477 days ago, my husband Roger got a poster of a young woman, Doron Asher, who was abducted with her daughters: Aviv, age 2 and Raz, age 4. I got a poster of an elderly man, Gadi Moses, 79.
At that rally, we listened to speeches, were led in prayer and chanted Bring Them Home. I felt an awful dread. How in the world would any of them come home? The Israel Defense Forces are an amazing military, but getting 250 hostages out of Gaza would require a major miracle ~ something like splitting the Red Sea.
We kept going to rallies and marches, and in November even joined 300,000 people on the Mall in Washington. We hung Israeli flags on our mailbox, and put signs on our lawn. We placed Doron and Gadi’s posters up in the front windows of our house. We wore those hats and t-shirts with the yellow ribbon. It was all a desperate attempt to just do something.
I’m not such a devout person, but I joined a group of women who recite Psalms. We divide up the entire book among us. The goal is to say all 150 each week. I pick a different block of 8 or 10 every Friday and say King David’s words specifically with the hostages in mind.
Amazingly, there was a cease fire in late November when 105 hostages were exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Roger’s Doron and her daughters were in that group. My guy, Gadi Moses, was not.
In May, we were in Portugal on a Jewish history tour. The man who ran the Lisbon JCC, had Gadi’s picture up too. Is he still alive? I asked. I’m not sure but I don’t think so, he answered. It made sense. Gadi went into captivity at age 79. I have no idea about his medical history, but how could an elderly man survive those brutal conditions?
During these wrenching 15 months, many people have been praying for rescue. People have been hoping for another Entebbe, that 1976 heroic rescue of 100 Israeli hostages from a plane hijacked by Palestinains and brought to Idi Amin’s Uganda.
We have come to expect such heroics from the IDF. During this war alone, Israel has remade the entire Middle East with stunning victories in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran.
So while the IDF did rescue 8 hostages from Gaza, more often than not, they have recovered dead bodies, including in August, the body of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, made known to Americans by the steely, tireless advocacy of his parents, Rachel and Jon.
When we finally got to Israel in October of 2024, we walked the airport’s long entrance corridor flanked by posters of the remaining hostages. I was surprised to find Gadi’s picture among them. Could it be possible that he was still alive?
We stayed for a time with Roger’s cousins in the South. They attend a rally every Saturday night in support of the hostage families. These gatherings are absolutely heartbreaking. Family, friends and fiancés of the hostages speak and the rest of us just stand there with them.
There is no agony like this agony: someone you love with your whole heart is right now, and has been for over one year, in the monstrous hands of Hamas, deep in the tunnels of Gaza.
Leaving this rally in Kiryat Gat, the temporary home of the survivors of Kibbutz Nir Oz, I saw Gadi’s poster again. So he is alive. Or at least there is no confirmation that he is dead. His family must have been right there in the crowd with us.
Last November, the deal was that Hamas would release all the women and children, that’s how Roger’s Doron and her daughters got out. To no one’s surprise, Hamas violated the deal and kept some women. This time, civilian women are supposed to be released first, then female Israeli soldiers, and then the elderly, that’s how Gadi got out last Thursday.
But what of the others? There are still 80 or more hostages in those dreadful tunnels. Those left are supposedly the men ~ civilians and soldiers ~ and the dead.
And what about the price? The thousands of convicted Hamas terrorists, with blood on their hands who, in a morally asymmetrical exchange are being released from prison right back into Gaza? Will the world allow that terrorist state to rebuild itself again right where it is, on Israel’s border? If you think too long on this you just won’t sleep.
But for today, look at the picture. Gadi Moses, now 80 years old, released into a raging mob of Hamas terrorists after 477 days of bondage, most of it in solitary confinement in a 2 meter square cell. This is Gadi ~ thinner for sure, but dignified ~ walking under his own power, with the hint of a smile. What a giant of a man.
I’ve seen the video of his reunion with his 3 children many times. If you watch, you’ll see him sitting alone in a room waiting for them to be brought in. He says quietly to himself in Hebrew, “we must rebuild Nir Oz.” (his kibbutz)
So Gadi is alive in Israel with his family, but he is still not really home. He was a founding member of his kibbutz, and it lies in ruins. We would understand if he chose to live the rest of his life with his family somewhere else, somewhere far away from Gaza. But on his first day of freedom, he spoke of rebuilding.
What is it about Israelis? How does a society produce people of such courage and strength generation after generation?
I give thanks that my prayer was answered. Gadi Moses is no longer my hostage, he is my hero. Now may all the remaining hostages be returned soon, speedily, now.