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All 20 living hostages back in Israel, 2 years after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack
(JTA) — All 20 of the Israeli hostages still alive two years after being taken hostage by Hamas have returned to Israel, following an emotional morning that commanded the attention of Jews around the world who had lobbied for their release.
Unlike in past hostage releases, Hamas did not stage release “ceremonies,” a condition of the deal the group in charge of Gaza made in striking a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal last week. But in another departure, the group provided phones for hostages waiting for Red Cross vehicles to use to call their families, creating jarring scenes of joyful conversations taking place with masked terrorists visible on screen.
The family of Bar Kupershtein released a video of him telling his ecstatic mother, “It’s OK, Mom. Don’t worry.”
Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Angrest, was filmed telling him, “The war is over. You’re all coming home. You are my world. I love you.”
Another photo, released by Israel, showed Gali and Ziv Berman, twins abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, reuniting after being held separately in captivity.
Alon Ohel, who was thought to have suffered injuries to his eyes, could be seen putting on sunglasses provided to him by the Israeli soldiers tasked with bringing him home.
Related: These are the 20 hostages released alive on Monday.
And Lishay Miran-Lavi, waiting for husband Omri Miran after speaking to him by FaceTime, called their two young daughters to tell them, “Daddy’s coming home.” Soon, she and her husband were reunited in person.
The hostages appeared pale and gaunt but were walking on their own and in some cases appeared to be in improved condition compared to past footage released by Hamas.
The videos and photographs elicited joyous cheers from the tens of thousands of people who gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where the site of pained prayer was transformed into a central address for jubilation. The massive “Bring Them Home” letters that had loomed over the square for most of the last two years were revised on Sunday night to say, “Welcome Back Home.”
Another crowd convened at Reim, the kibbutz near the Gaza border where many of the hostages were abducted during the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and which would mark their first stop in Israel en route to being reunited with their families. The gathering marked Hoshana Rabbah, the ritual to mark the end of Sukkot. Monday night marks the beginning of Simchat Torah, the Jewish holiday on which Hamas staged its attack and took roughly 250 hostages.
Of them, 37 who were killed on Oct. 7 or in captivity now remain in Gaza, along with the body of a soldier kidnapped in 2014. Under the terms of the deal, Hamas must release their bodies, too, but the group says it has not yet been able to locate all of them. Those that have been located will be released to Israel on Monday afternoon.
The post All 20 living hostages back in Israel, 2 years after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack appeared first on The Forward.
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Israelis are comparing Trump to Cyrus the Great – again
As their last living hostages returned home from Gaza after two years of war, Israelis gave visiting President Donald Trump a hero’s welcome — and threw out some lofty comparisons.
“Mr. President, you stand before the people of Israel not as another American president, but as a giant of Jewish history — one for whom we must look back, two-and-a-half millennia into the mists of time, to find a parallel, in Cyrus the Great,” Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, told Trump on Monday as he welcomed the president for a victory speech to the Israeli parliament.
To be compared to Cyrus is no small thing. Living around 600 BCE and shrouded in myth, the Persian ruler is traditionally credited with granting Jews permission to return from exile in Babylon to the land of Israel and for helping them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Because Cyrus was a pagan who by force seized and ruled over a vast empire, he tends to be treated as an imperfect yet essential vessel for God’s divine plan for the Jews, and is widely celebrated in Jewish history.
It’s a comparison that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also made. Visiting the White House in 2018 during Trump’s first term, shortly after the president moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Netanyahu situated Trump in a long line of friendly world leaders including Cyrus, Lord Balfour and President Harry Truman — all of whom he said helped return the Jews to their rightful homes in Israel. At the time a Jewish Israeli group, the Mikdash Educational Center, started selling commemorative coins imposing Trump’s face over Cyrus’s.
The Cyrus framing has also helped Christian Zionists embrace Trump since his first term, despite the community’s initial misgivings about Trump’s personal behavior and often crude demeanor.
In 2018 the Evangelical leader Mike Evans, who founded the Jerusalem-based Friends of Zion Museum, declared that Cyrus “was used as an instrument of God for deliverance in the Bible, and God has used this imperfect vessel, this flawed human being like you or I, this imperfect vessel, and he’s using him in an incredible, amazing way to fulfill his plans and purposes.”
As the return of the living hostages seemed imminent, Evans’ group placed “Cyrus the Great is Alive!” billboards in Jerusalem. The billboards feature images of Trump and the American and Israeli flags intertwined.
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The post Israelis are comparing Trump to Cyrus the Great – again appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Its sukkah lost to devastating wildfire, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center builds a new one with help from friends
When the Eaton wildfires in Southern California razed the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center last January, its Torahs were all that remained.
That meant the synagogue was in the market for a new sukkah this month when the harvest holiday of Sukkot neared. It found one with the help of another local synagogue.
The Men’s Club of Temple Isaiah, located in Lafayette, California, near San Francisco, donated a sukkah to PJTC, a 100-year-old Conservative synagogue now operating out of temporary accommodations.
“While this past year was a tragic one for the congregants and clergy of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, it has been inspiring to witness the incredible resilience and the determination of this sacred community,” said Anshei Isaiah President Andy Shapiro in a statement. “As Jews, we could think of no greater mitzvah than by helping rebuild their Sukkah and joining with our brothers and sisters to welcome the new year.”
The Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center smolders after burning in the Eaton Fire in Pasadena, California, Jan. 8, 2025. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The sukkah, which was purchased from The Sukkah Project in Grand Junction, Colorado, was built on Oct. 5 by members of PJTC’s men’s club as well as members of Anshei Isaiah, who travelled over 350 miles to see its completion.
It was open during the holiday to PTJC’s 400 families, who are reeling from a fire that devastated their community. The synagogue has plans to rebuild on its former site.
Last Monday, on the first day of Sukkot, the two congregations participated in a joint virtual observance in their sukkahs.
“We are all one interconnected Jewish family,” said Temple Isaiah’s Senior Rabbi Jill Perlman in a statement. “Building the sukkah for our community has long been a beloved yearly tradition of our men’s club here at Isaiah, and I am glad they are able to share the love of this tradition with Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center through the donation of a sukkah.”
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The post Its sukkah lost to devastating wildfire, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center builds a new one with help from friends appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘The world needs more Trumps’: US president receives a hero’s welcome in Israeli parliament
(JTA) — The Israeli government will wage a campaign to promote President Donald Trump as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, the a top lawmaker announced Monday as Trump visited the Knesset to mark the ceasefire deal he brokered between Israel and Hamas.
Trump received a lengthy standing ovation — over two minutes — when he first arrived in the parliament after landing in Israel on Monday, just after the 20 living hostages who remained in Gaza returned to their country.
A series of speakers then lavished him with praise, emphasizing his devotion to the hostages and the peace that may follow in the region. Trump was scheduled to leave Israel Monday afternoon for a peace summit in Egypt.
“The world needs more Trumps,” said Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who said he would work with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to rally world leaders to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Nominations for the prize, which was awarded for this year on Friday, in January.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would nominate Trump to become the first-ever non-Israeli to win the Israel Prize. Listing Trump’s pro-Israel bona fides, he repeated a sentiment that he has shared before: “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”
And opposition leader Yair Lapid, too, praised Trump. “The fact that you were not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is a grave mistake by the committee, but they will have no choice, Mr. President, they will have to award it to you next year,” he said. “Peace will not come by waiting. It will come by building, by reaching out and by daring, once again, to believe. You, Mr. President, have done the unimaginable. We will be eternally grateful.”
Israelis have celebrated Trump for pressing for the ceasefire deal that resulted in the release of the hostages. Signs praising him have popped up at rallies around the country.
The post ‘The world needs more Trumps’: US president receives a hero’s welcome in Israeli parliament appeared first on The Forward.