A Hopeful Postscript to Atlanta’s Hostage Vigil
But the ordeal continues for one of the three families represented at the October 2023 event at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
As you read this column, keep in mind this quote: “Too many are still there, living in the darkness, suffering the unimaginable. We must bring them all home.”
If you doubt the truth of this statement, compare photos of the three Israeli hostages released on Feb. 8, with pictures of them before their 491-day ordeal as captives in Gaza.
The words above come from Aviva Siegel, who on Feb. 1 welcomed home her husband, North Carolina-native Keith Siegel. They were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
After Aviva was released 51 days later, in a Nov. 26, 2023, exchange of hostages for a larger number of Palestinians jailed in Israel, she campaigned tirelessly for Keith’s freedom and spoke of the physical and psychological abuse that the hostages endured.
The Siegels were one of three sets of hostages represented by relatives at an Oct. 30, 2023, vigil at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue. Posters of the hostages were prominently displayed on the bimah.
Barely three weeks earlier, Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 men, women and children were slaughtered and kidnapped another 250. The shocking and brutal nature of the attacks on kibbutzim, towns, and an outdoor music festival in the “Gaza envelope” brought nearly 2,000 people to the Ahavath Achim sanctuary.
The news for the three families has been mixed.
The Siegels have been reunited.
On the day of the Atlanta vigil, Hamas released a video of three women held hostage, Rimon Kirsch among them. She and her husband, Yagev Buchstav, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim.
Kirsch was freed in a Nov. 28, 2023, exchange. You may remember the video of Kirsch, clad in pink pajamas, staring down an armed, masked, and uniformed Hamas terrorist, before putting an arm around another released hostage and walking to a Red Cross vehicle.
This past July, I wrote a column titled, “A Tragic Postscript to Atlanta’s Hostage Vigil.”
The postscript was that on July 22, 2024, Israel confirmed that Buchstav, z”l, had died in Gaza. His mother told the Knesset that, according to an autopsy report, her son was executed by Hamas in February 2024, as Israeli forces neared the tunnel where he was held.
[Z”l is a shorthand for the Hebrew phrase zichrono livracha, meaning “of blessed memory.”]
By the time of the Ahavath Achim vigil, the third family represented already had buried three people murdered on Oct. 7 at Kibbutz B‘eri: Avshalom Haran, z”l; Lilach Kipnis, z”l, and her husband, Eviatar Kipnis, z”l.
At the time, seven others kidnapped that day were captives in Gaza: Shoshan Haran (Avshalom’s wife and Lilach’s sister); her daughter, Adi Shoham; Adi’s husband, Tal Shoham; their children, 8-year-old Naveh, and 3-year-old Yahel, along with Avshalom’s sister, Sharon Avigdori, and her 12-year-old daughter, Noam.
The six women and children were freed in a hostage exchange on Nov. 25, 2023, after 50 days in captivity.
That left Tal Shoham, whose name was on the list of 33 Israeli hostages to be released in the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire agreement that took effect Jan. 19.
Tal turned 39 as a hostage. He turned 40 as a hostage on Jan. 30.
Throughout the 16-month ordeal, multiple branches of this family have made sure that Tal is not forgotten, while also actively supporting other hostage families. I am particularly aware of their efforts, because they are from the Israeli side of my family tree.
As of Feb. 8, 16 living Israeli hostages have been freed. Israel had said that eight of the 33 on the phase one list were believed dead. Phase one is scheduled to end March 1. Of the remaining Israeli hostages, the government believes that 24 are alive and 35 dead.
“I’m grateful beyond words that Keith is back,” Aviva Siegel told Israel’s Channel 12. “But our fight is not over. Too many are still there, living in the darkness, suffering the unimaginable. We must bring them all home.”
The conversation with the hostage families at Ahavath Achim was moderated by Dov Wilker, Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee, who expressed his admiration for the men and women who spoke on behalf of their kidnapped relatives.
“We have to share their stories,” Wilker told the nearly full sanctuary. “We have a responsibility. We are the ones who are able to amplify that message. We are the ones who own that responsibility.”
That remains as true now as it was on Oct. 30, 2023.
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