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Survivors of Holocaust and October 7 Speak Out Ahead of Holocaust Day
Nusia Bondriansky. Credit: Mishel Amzallag, IFCJ
As the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day with the horrors of October 7 still fresh, Holocaust survivors in Israel who also survived Hamas’ onslaught are reliving parts of their tortured childhood.
Ruth Haran was the same age as her abducted great granddaughter, Yahel, when she went through the terrors of the Holocaust. Born in Romania in 1935, her mother said her birth, given its timing at the peak of Nazism’s advent, was “unlucky.” Her father, born in Poland and forcibly exiled from Romania for not being a citizen, left his mother to fend for the family amid growing anti-Jewish violence in Romania.
“For years we were on the run and I can still remember the freezing cold and the starving nights we had to endure during our run from the Nazis,” Haran said.
Eight decades later, Haran said she experienced “a second Holocaust” when her kibbutz, Be’eri, was invaded on Oct. 7, murdering or kidnapping almost a tenth of the residents.
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ruth Haran says she experienced a “second Holocaust” during the invasion of her kibbutz, Be’eri.
Her son, Avshalom, and two other family members were murdered.
Seven other members of her family, including her daughter Sharon, son Noam, daughter-in-law Shoshan, grandchildren Adi and her husband Tal, and their two children, Neve and Yahel, were kidnapped to Gaza. Six were released. Tal remains in captivity.
“I’ve endured pain before but this time it refuses to be internalized. I wake up and see the images [of Oct.7] in the night, it’s horrific,” Haran said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.
“On the lawns outside, babies and children were scattered everywhere, dead bodies. I will never forget it.”
Haran is part of an exhibition called ‘Humans of the Holocaust’, by photographer Erez Kaganovitz, himself the grandson of Holocaust survivors. Kaganovitz has recently added several survivors of Oct. 7 to the project.
Like Haran, Haim Ranaan, who is also part of Kaganovitz’s project, described October 7 as a “second Holocaust.” But unlike Haran, Ranaan, a co-founder of Be’eri, did not have any family members killed or murdered that day. “I don’t know what I would do if one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren were kidnapped to Gaza,” he said.
Also from Be’eri is Yosef Avi Yair Engel, the son of two Holocaust survivors and a grandfather of released hostage Ofir Engel, 17.
“Don’t think only about what started 8 October,” Engel told journalists on Friday. “People are looking at the children of Gaza dying] but they have forgotten about the seventh of October.”
“For me as a specialist about the Holocaust, it was a day out of the Holocaust. What I feel now is the same.”
Yosi Shnaider, the third generation to holocaust survivors, is the cousin of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz with her two sons, Ariel, 4, and 9-month-old, Kfir. His aunt was also murdered.
“Five generations of my family have been persecuted because they are Jews,” Shnaider told reporters. “In two days, 33% of Kfir’s life will have been in captivity.”
Shnaider compared the list of hostages set for release in November’s truce to Schindler’s List from the Holocaust.
“We saw with this list of who will be alive, who isn’t, who will be freed and who will be kept in captivity,” he said. Every day of the staged prisoner swap, hopes were dashed as the Bibas family failed to appear on the list. “I don’t know if you can ever imagine it.”
At 102 years old, Nusia Bondriansky suffered the atrocities of the Holocaust already as an adult. Bondriansky has a different take about October 7, although she wasn’t directly impacted by the atrocities that unfolded in the Gaza periphery communities. Living in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, Bondriansky’s home, however, has been a target of Hamas rockets for nearly two decades. Beginning on October 8, the city sustained hundreds of direct impacts. Still, Bondriansky says at her age, she’s “not afraid of anything.”
“I actually want to look out the window and see how the Iron Dome manages to intercept the missiles,” she said. Her own house does not have a safe room and she’s too infirm to make it to the nearest public bomb shelter. These days, Bondriansky’s son looks after her and she also receives aid from the humanitarian organization, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
At 19 and pregnant, her life turned upside down overnight when World War II broke out. Her husband, who was enlisted in the Red Army, was killed, leaving her to flee Odessa after the Nazis came. Along with her sister, who was also pregnant, the two fled for many months, while bombs fell around them. She survived for years in Siberia, raising her son alone.
“Contrary to the feeling of fear I had in World War II, I feel safe. I live in Israel, we have an army that protects us,” she said.
Bondriansky expressed sorrow over the deaths of IDF soldiers, which has reached 216 since Israel’s military campaign against Hamas began.
“The most painful thing now is to hear about our young boys dying in the war. I am sad for everyone who died,” she said.
The post Survivors of Holocaust and October 7 Speak Out Ahead of Holocaust Day first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Confirms Death of Terror Chief Mohammed Deif Months After Israeli Strike
Picture said to show leader of Hamas’s military wing, known as Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif in a location given as Gaza Strip in this handout picture released on Jan. 7, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas officially confirmed on Thursday that its military chief, Mohammed Deif, was killed during the Gaza war, almost six months after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported his death.
Deif, the architect of Hamas’s military capabilities, is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — which sparked the Gaza war.
Abu Ubaida, a Hamas spokesperson, also reported the deaths of Deif’s deputy, Khan Younis Brigade commander Rafa Salama, as well as senior operatives Marwan Issa, Ghazi Abu Tama’a, Raad Thabet, Ahmed Ghandour, and Ayman Nofal.
According to the IDF, Deif was killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on July 13 of last year.
Following weeks of intelligence assessments, Israeli authorities gathered evidence to confirm Deif’s death before publicly announcing it in early August.
“IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis, and … it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” the military said. “His elimination serves the objectives of the war and demonstrates Israel’s ability to carry out targeted strikes with precision.”
At the time, Hamas neither confirmed nor denied Deif’s death, but one official, Ezzat Rashaq, stated that any announcements regarding the deaths of its leaders would be made solely by the organization.
“Unless either of them [the Hamas political and military leadership] announces it, no news published in the media or by any other parties can be confirmed,” Rashaq said.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Deif, as well as for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Deif is believed to have collaborated closely with the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, managing military operations and coordinating with the group’s top commanders throughout the conflict.
After Deif’s assassination, then-defense minister Gallant posted an image on social media praising the Israeli military’s accomplishment.
“The assassination of mass murderer Mohammed Deif — ‘Gaza’s Bin Laden’ — is a major step toward dismantling Hamas as a military and governing entity, and achieving the war’s objectives,” he said.
The post Hamas Confirms Death of Terror Chief Mohammed Deif Months After Israeli Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free
Oran Almog, right, addressing the UN Security Council next to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on July 25, 2017. Photo: Screenshot
While the release of three Israeli hostages on Thursday brought relief and elation across Israel, it also triggered a wave of mixed emotions, especially among victims who saw the terrorists responsible for their suffering set free. One of them is Oran Almog, who was just ten years old when a Palestinian terrorist disguised as a pregnant woman blew up the restaurant he was in, killing five members of his family and leaving him blind.
Yet, while Thursday’s release of Sami Jaradat — the mastermind behind the October 2003 massacre of Almog’s family — was a deeply personal blow, the return of hostages remained a necessary step, he said.
“That the terrorist who killed my family will find himself free is deeply painful, heartbreaking even,” he told The Algemeiner. “But at the same time, I know that even today — especially today — I must set aside my personal pain and focus on the significance of this deal. And the significance is clear. We are getting our hostages home, and that is the only thing that matters.”
Almog’s father, Moshe Almog, his younger brother, Tomer, his grandparents Admiral (res.) Ze’ev and Ruth Almog, and his cousin, Asaf, were murdered when the suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past the security guard of the Maxim restaurant — jointly owned by a Jewish Israeli and an Arab Israeli — and blow herself up. Sixteen other people were also murdered in the attack, among them four children. Almog lost his eyesight, and his mother, sister, and aunt were among the 60 injured Israelis.
“Sami Jaradat’s continued imprisonment will never bring my family back, but his release can bring the hostages back home alive,” Almog explained.
Emotional meeting between Agam Berger and her family at Beilinson Hospital in Israel. Photo: Haim Zach (GPO)
Almog knows firsthand what it means to be on the receiving end of a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Just two weeks after marking the 20th anniversary of the Maxim restaurant attack, another tragedy struck his family. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered Nadav and Yam and abducted Chen, Agam, Gal, and Tal from the Almog-Goldstein family in Kfar Azza.
Fifty-one days later, in November 2023, they were released from Hamas captivity in a temporary ceasefire deal.
Under the current ceasefire agreement reached earlier this month, Hamas will release a total 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, according to the terrorist group. In exchange, Israel will free over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were serving multiple life sentences on terrorism offenses. Thursday saw the release of three Israelis — including IDF surveillance soldier Agam Berger, 20, and civilians Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80 — and five Thai nationals, who were working in Israeli kibbutzim when they were abducted.
“This is a bad deal, very bad, but the alternative is that much worse,” Almog said. “We must look ahead, put today aside, and recognize that releasing prisoners serves a greater purpose.”
However, Almog expressed hope that Israel would move toward a more decisive and uncompromising approach in its fight against terrorism.
“I sincerely hope that as a country, we will have the wisdom to decisively thwart terrorism,” he said, emphasizing the need to break free from the ongoing cycle of prisoner exchanges.
“I don’t want us to find ourselves trapped in a cycle of releasing terrorists, only for them to return to terror, and then repeat the process again and again,” he added.
Almog has previously addressed the UN Security Council, urging action against the so-called “pay-for-slay” scheme, in which terrorists and their families receive monthly stipends from the Palestinian Authority. The terrorist behind the murder of Almog’s family received $3,000 a month while behind bars, making him almost a millionaire by the time of his release.
Still, Almog concluded with a deeply uplifting message for the returning hostages, confident that they would have a chance at a good life, drawing from his own experiences since the terror attack.
Oran Almog. Photo: Facebook
After his release from the hospital, he began a long rehabilitation process, culminating in third place at the World Blind Sailing Championship with Etgarim, a nonprofit founded by disabled veterans and rehabilitation experts, and supported by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). He was chosen to light a torch at Israel’s Independence Day ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the state and, despite his disability, insisted on enlisting in the IDF, serving in an elite unit. Today, he is a managing partner at a financial technology fund, works with Etgarim, and shares his story globally through lectures.
“I know the hostages will be able to return, to live, and to live well. With enough support — and a great deal of willpower — it is truly possible to rebuild life, even after the deepest catastrophes,” he said.
The post ‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Israel Lawmaker Randy Fine Wins Florida GOP Primary, Favorite to Replace Trump Adviser Mike Waltz in Congress
Florida state Sen. Randy Fine. Photo: Reuters
Florida state Sen. Randy Fine emerged victorious on Tuesday in the Republican primary election for the Sunshine State’s 6th Congressional District in the US Congress, making the firebrand conservative the overwhelming favorite to secure the highly-coveted seat to replace now-former Rep. Mike Waltz.
The congressional seat became vacant after Waltz stepped down to become the national security adviser for US President Donald Trump in the White House. Waltz had managed to secure reelection in November with 66 percent of the vote.
Fine, who is Jewish, has established himself as a stalwart ally of Israel. In the year following the Hamas-led slaughter of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 hostages during a cross-border invasion into southern Israel, Fine has spearheaded efforts to uproot antisemitism within the state of Florida.
In August 2024, he chided Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for taking a trip to Ireland, repudiating the country as “antisemitic.”
“I was certainly disappointed to see not only folks go to what is clearly an antisemitic country that supports Muslim terror, but I was also disappointed that the game wasn’t cancelled, which it should have been,” Fine said.
Ireland has been a fierce critic of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, even joining a legal case brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice accusing the Jewish state of genocide in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The move, which came after the Irish government in May officially recognized a Palestinian state, led Israel to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
In August 2024, Fine launched an investigation into alleged antisemitic and pro-terrorist ideology within instructional materials at Florida public universities. Fine suggested that activist professors were using textbooks that were indoctrinating students with anti-Israel sentiment.
“When we learned that Florida universities were using a factually inaccurate, openly antisemitic textbook, we realized there was a problem that had to be addressed,” Fine said.
Following the New Year’s Day ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans, Fine raised eyebrows by repudiating Islam as a “fundamentally broken and dangerous culture.”
“Muslim terror has attacked the United States — again. The blood is on the hands of those who refuse to acknowledge the worldwide #MuslimProblem. It is high time to deal with this fundamentally broken and dangerous culture,” Fine posted on X/Twitter.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US congratulated Fine for his primary victory on Tuesday.
“We are proud to support pro-Israel candidates who help strengthen and expand the US-Israel relationship. Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics,” AIPAC, which endorsed Fine, posted on social media.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), an organization that attempts to forge closer ties between the Jewish community and the Republican Party, touted Fine’s vigorous crusade against antisemitism within the Florida state legislature.
“Randy Fine is a warrior for his constituents and has served for years in the Florida legislature with distinction,” RJC wrote on X/Twitter. “Randy Fine will be a fierce advocate for the Jewish community in the House of Representatives. Importantly, he has led the fight and been the loudest voice against the rise of antisemitism in Florida and across the country.”
The post Pro-Israel Lawmaker Randy Fine Wins Florida GOP Primary, Favorite to Replace Trump Adviser Mike Waltz in Congress first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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