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Weinstein approached me ‘Jew to Jew’: Jodi Kantor opens up on the ‘She Said’ movie’s Jewish moments
(JTA) — When the New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor was reporting the 2017 Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story that earned her a Pulitzer prize, the powerful Hollywood producer and his team tried to influence her by using something they had in common: They are both Jewish.
“Weinstein put [Jewishness] on the table and seemed to expect that I was going to have some sort of tribal loyalty to him,” Kantor told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on a video call from the New York Times newsroom. “And that was just not going to be the case.”
Now, that exchange has been immortalized in “She Said,” a new film adaptation of the nonfiction book of the same name by Kantor and her collaborator Megan Twohey that details their investigation into Weinstein’s conduct, which helped launch the #MeToo movement.
The film, directed by Maria Schrader with stars Zoe Kazan as Kantor and Carey Mulligan as Twohey, is an understated thriller that has drawn comparisons to “All the President’s Men” — and multiple subtle but powerful Jewish-themed subplots reveal the way Kantor’s Jewishness arose during and at times intersected with the investigation.
In one scene, the Kantor character notes that a Jewish member of Weinstein’s team tried to appeal to her “Jew to Jew.” In another, Kantor shares a moving moment with Weinstein’s longtime accountant, the child of Holocaust survivors, as they discuss the importance of speaking up about wrongdoing.
Kantor, 47, grew up between New York and New Jersey, the first grandchild of Holocaust survivors — born “almost 30 years to the day after my grandparents were liberated,” she notes. She calls her grandmother Hana Kantor, a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor, her “lodestar.” Kantor — who doesn’t often speak publicly about her personal life, including her Jewish background, which involved some education in Jewish schools — led a segment for CBS in May 2021 on her grandmother and their relationship. Before her journalism career, she spent a year in Israel on a Dorot Fellowship, working with Israeli and Palestinian organizations. She’s now a “proud member” of a Reform synagogue in Brooklyn.
Kantor spoke with JTA about the film’s Jewish threads, the portrayal of the New York Times newsroom and what Zoe Kazan’s performance captures about journalism.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
JTA: How did you feel having Zoe Kazan, who is not Jewish, play you? Kazan has played some notably Jewish characters before, for example in the HBO miniseries “The Plot Against America.”
JK: I feel Zoe’s performance is so sensitive and so layered. What I really appreciate about her performance is that she captures so many of the emotions I was feeling under the surface in the investigation. You know, when you’re a reporter and especially a reporter handling that sensitive a story, it’s your responsibility to present a really smooth professional exterior to the world. At the end of the investigation, I had the job of reading Harvey Weinstein some of the allegations and really confronting him. And in dealing with the victims, I wanted to be a rock for them and it was my job to get them to believe in the investigation. And so on the one hand, you have that smooth, professional exterior, but then below that, of course you’re feeling all the feelings. You’re feeling the power of the material, you’re feeling the urgency of getting the story, you’re feeling the fear that Weinstein could hurt somebody else. You’re feeling the loss that these women are expressing, including over their careers. And so I think Zoe’s performance just communicates that so beautifully.
What Zoe says about the character is that there are elements of me, there are elements of herself, and then there are elements of pure invention because she’s an artist, and that’s what she does.
I think the screenplay gets at a small but significant line of Jewish sub-drama that ran through the investigation. It went like this: Harvey Weinstein and his representatives were constantly trying to approach me as a Jew. And they’ve done this more recently, as well. There have been times when Harvey Weinstein was trying to approach me “Jew to Jew,” like almost in a tone of “you and I are the same, we understand each other.” We found dossiers later that they had compiled on me and it was clear that they knew that I was the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and they tried to sort of deploy that. So speaking of keeping things under the surface, I privately thought that was offensive, that he was citing that. But your job as a reporter is to be completely professional. And I wasn’t looking to get into a fight with Weinstein. I just wanted to find out the truth and I actually wanted to be fair to the guy. Anyway, even as he was approaching me “Jew to Jew” in private, he was hiring Black Cube — sort of Israeli private intelligence agents — to try to dupe me. And they actually sent an agent to me, and she posed as a women’s rights advocate. And she was intimating that they were going to pay me a lot of money to appear at a conference in London. Luckily I shooed her away.
To some degree I can’t explain why private Israeli intelligence agents were hired to try to dupe the Hebrew speaking, yeshiva-educated, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. But it’s not my job to explain that! It’s their job to explain why they did that.
Then the theme reappeared with Irwin Reiter, Weinstein’s accountant of 30 years, who kind of became the Deep Throat of the investigation. I quickly figured out that Irwin and I were from the same small world. He was the child of survivors, and had also spent his summers at bungalow colonies in the Catskills just down the road from mine. I don’t bring up the Holocaust a lot. It’s a sacred matter for me, and I didn’t do it lightly. But once I discovered that we did in fact have this really powerful connection in our backgrounds, I did gently sound it with him – I felt that was sincere and real. Because he was making such a critical decision: Weinstein’s accountant of 30 years is still working for the guy by day and he’s meeting with me at night. And I felt like I did need to go to that place with him, saying, “Okay, Irwin, we both know that there are people who talk and there are people who don’t. And we both grew up around that mix of people and what do we think is the difference? And also if you know if you have the chance to act and intervene in a bad situation, are you going to take it?”
We didn’t talk a lot about it, because I raised it and he didn’t want to fully engage. But I always felt like that was under the surface of our conversations, and he made a very brave decision to help us.
That was a very powerful scene in the film, and it felt like a turning point in the movie that kind of got at the ethical core of what was motivating your character. Was that a scene that was important to you personally to include in the film?
What Megan and I want people to know overall is that a small number of brave sources can make an extraordinary difference. When you really look at the number of people who gave us the essential information about Weinstein, it’s a small conference room’s worth of people. Most of them are incredibly brave women, some of whom are depicted, I think, quite beautifully in the film. But there was also Irwin, Weinstein’s accountant of all these years, among them. It’s Megan and my job to build people’s confidence in telling the truth. And as we become custodians of this story for the long term, one of the things we really want people to know is that a tiny group of brave sources, sometimes one source, can make a massive difference. Look at the impact that these people had all around the world.
Did you feel the film captured the New York Times newsroom? There’s a kind of great reverence to the toughness and professionalism in the newspaper business that really came through.
Megan and I are so grateful for the sincerity and professionalism with which the journalism is displayed. There are a lot of on screen depictions of journalists in which we’re depicted as manipulative or doing things for the wrong reasons or sleeping with our sources!
We [as journalists] feel incredible drama in what we do every day. And we’re so grateful to the filmmakers for finding it and sharing it with people. And I know the New York Times can look intimidating or remote as an institution. I hope people really consider this an invitation into the building and into our meetings, and into our way of working and our value system.
And we’re also proud that it’s a vision of a really female New York Times, which was not traditionally the case at this institution for a long time. This is a book and a movie about women as narrators.
“Harvey Weinstein and his representatives were constantly trying to approach me as a Jew,” Kantor said. (The New York Times)
There have been comparisons made between this movie and “All the President’s Men.” One of the striking differences is that those journalists are two male bachelors running around D.C. And this film has scenes of motherhood, of the Shabbat table, of making lunches. What was it like seeing your personal lives reflected on screen?
It’s really true that the Weinstein investigation was kind of born in the crucible of motherhood and Megan and my attempt to combine work with parenting. On the one hand, it’s the most everyday thing in the world, but on the other hand, you don’t see it actually portrayed on screen that much. We’re really honored by the way that throughout the film you see motherhood and work mixing, I think in a way that is so natural despite our obviously pretty stressful circumstances.
I started out alone on the Weinstein investigation, and I called Megan because movie stars were telling me their secrets but they were very reluctant to go on the record. So I had gone some way in persuading and engaging them, but I was looking to make the absolute strongest case for them. So I called Megan. We had both done years of reporting on women and children. Mine involved the workplace more and hers involved sex crimes more, which is part of why everything melded together so well eventually. I wanted to talk to her about what she had said to female victims in the past. But when I reached her, I could hear that something was wrong. And she had just had a baby, and I had had postpartum depression myself. So we talked about it and I gave her the name of my doctor, who I had seen. Then she got treatment. And she not only gave very good advice on that [initial] phone call, but she joined me in the investigation.
I think the theme is responsibility. Our relationship was forged in a sense of shared responsibility, primarily for the work – once we began to understand the truths about Weinstein, we couldn’t allow ourselves to fail. But also Megan was learning to shoulder the responsibility of being a parent, and I had two kids. And so we started this joint dialogue that was mostly about work, but also about motherhood. And I think throughout the film and throughout the real investigation, we felt those themes melding. It’s totally true that my daughter Tali was asking me about what I was doing. It’s very hard to keep secrets from your kid in a New York City apartment, even though I didn’t tell her everything. And Megan and I would go from discussing really critical matters with the investigation to talking about her daughter’s evolving nap schedule. It really felt like we had to get the story and get home to the kids.
And also, we were reporting on our own cohort. A lot of Weinstein victims were and are women in their 40s. And so even though we were very professional with this and we tried to be very professional with the sources, there was an aspect of looking in the mirror. For example, with Laura Madden, who was so brave about going on the record, it was conversations with her own teenage daughters that helped her make her decision.
We didn’t write about this in our book because it was hard to mix the motherhood stuff with this sort of serious reporter-detective story and all the important facts. And we didn’t want to talk about ourselves too much in the book. But the filmmakers captured something that I think is very true. It feels particular to us but also universal. When Zoe [Kazan] is pushing a stroller and taking a phone call at the same time, I suspect lots of people will identify with that. And what I also really like is the grace and dignity with which that’s portrayed.
It must have been surreal, seeing a Hollywood movie about your investigation of Hollywood.
I think part of the power of the film is that it returns the Weinstein investigation to the producer’s medium, but on vastly different terms, with the women in charge. Megan and I are particularly moved by the portrayals of Zelda Perkins, Laura Madden and Rowena Chiu — these former Weinstein assistants are in many ways at the core of the story. They’re everyday people who made the incredibly brave decision to help us, in spite of everything from breast cancer to legal barriers.
Working with the filmmakers was really interesting. They were really committed to the integrity of the story, and they asked a ton of questions, both large and small. Ranging from the really big things about the investigation to these tiny details. Like in the scene where we go to Gwyneth Paltrow’s house and Megan and I discover we’re practically wearing the same dress — those were the actual white dresses that we wore that day. We had to send them in an envelope to the costume department, and they copied the dresses in Zoe and Carey’s sizes and that’s what they’re wearing. There was a strand of extreme fidelity, but they needed some artistic license because it’s a movie. And the movie plays out in the key of emotion.
—
The post Weinstein approached me ‘Jew to Jew’: Jodi Kantor opens up on the ‘She Said’ movie’s Jewish moments appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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All 20 living hostages are back in Israel
אַלע 20 ישׂראלדיקע ערובֿניקעס, וואָס זענען לעבן געבליבן נאָכן פֿאַרכאַפּט ווערן דורך כאַמאַס מיט צוויי יאָר צוריק, האָט מען מאָנטיק צוריקגעבראַכט קיין ישׂראל, נאָך אַן עמאָציאָנעלן פֿרימאָרגן וואָס האָט פֿאַרכאַפּט דעם אויפֿמערק פֿון ייִדן איבער דער וועלט.
אין פֿאַרגלײַך מיט פֿריִערידיקע פֿאַרהאַנדלונגען צו באַפֿרײַען די ערובֿניקעס, האָט כאַמאַס דאָס מאָל נישט געמאַכט קיין עפֿנטלעכע „צערעמאָניעס“ בײַם באַפֿרײַען די פֿאַרכאַפּטע ישׂראלים. דאָס איז געווען איינער פֿון די תּנאָים בײַ דער אַמעריקאַנער־אָנגעפֿירטער גרופּע, וואָס האָט דורכגעפֿירט די פֿאַרהאַנדלונגען פֿאַר אַ וואָפֿן־שטילשטאַנד אין עזה די פֿאַרגאַנגענע וואָך.
אַ צווייטע זאַך וואָס מע האָט דאָס מאָל געטאָן אַנדערש: בעת די באַפֿרײַטע ערובֿניקעס האָבן געוואַרט אויף די אויטאָס פֿונעם רויטן קרייץ, האָט די פֿאַרהאַנדלונג־גרופּע זיי געבראַכט מאָבילקעס, כּדי זיי זאָלו קענען אָנקלינגען זייערע משפּחות. דערבײַ האָט זיך געשאַפֿן מאָדנע סצענעס, וווּ ישׂראלים רעדן פֿריילעך אויפֿן טעלעפֿאָן בעת עס שטייען לעבן זיי מאַסקירטע טעראָריסטן.
די משפּחה פֿון בר קופּערשטיין האָט אַרויסגעלאָזט אַ ווידעאָ וווּ ער זאָגט דער מאַמען: „אַלץ איז בסדר, מאַמע. זאָרג זיך נישט.“
אין אַ צווייטן ווידעאָ זעט מען ווי עינבֿ זאַנגאַוקער, די מאַמע פֿון מתן אַנגרעסט, זאָגט אים: „די מלחמה איז אַרביער. איר קומט אַלע אַהיים. דו ביסט מײַן וועלט. איך האָב דיך ליב.“
אַ פֿאָטאָגראַפֿיע אַרויסגעלאָזט פֿון דער ישׂראלדיקער רעגירונג, האָט געוויזן ווי גלי און זיוו בערמאַן, אַ צווילינג פֿאַרכאַפּט פֿון קיבוץ כּפֿר עזה, טרעפֿן זיך ווידער נאָכן זײַן צעטיילט אין געפֿענקעניש.
אַלון אוהל, וואָס מע האָט געזאָגט, אַז ער האָט געליטן וווּנדן אין די אויגן, האָט אָנגעטאָן אַ פּאָר זונברילן, וואָס עטלעכע ישׂראלדיקע סאָלדאַטן האָבן אים געגעבן.
לישי מירן־לביא, וואַרטנדיק אויף איר מאַן עומרי מירן נאָכן רעדן מיט אים דורך „פֿייסטײַם“, האָט אָנגעקלונגען אירע צוויי טעכטערלעך און זיי געזאָגט: „דער טאַטע קומט אַהיים.“ באַלד נאָך דעם האָט דאָס פּאָרפֿאָלק סוף־כּל־סוף זיך ווידער פֿאַראייניקט.
די ערובֿניקעס האָבן אויסגעזען בלאַס און אויסגעדאַרט אָבער אַלע זענען געגאַנגען אָן שום הילף. בײַ עטלעכע פֿון זיי האָט אויסגעזען ווי זייער פֿיזישער מצבֿ האָט זיך דווקא פֿאַרבעסערט זינט די פֿריִערדיקע ווידעאָס וואָס כאַמאַס האָט פֿאַרשפּרייט פֿון זיי.
די ווידעאָס און פֿאָטאָגראַפֿיעס אין די נײַעס האָבן אַרויסגערופֿן פֿריילעכע געשרייען פֿון צענדליקער טויזנטער מענטשן וואָס האָבן זיך פֿאַרזאַמלט אינעם „ערובֿניקעס־פּלאַץ“ אין תּל־אָבֿיבֿ — דאָס זעלבע אָרט וווּ מע האָט במשך פֿון די לעצטע צוויי יאָר טרויעריק געדאַוונט אויף דער אויסלייזונג פֿון די פֿאַרכאַפּטע.
אַ צווייטע פֿאַרזאַמלונג מאָנטיק האָט זיך געשאַפֿן אין רעים, דעם קיבוץ לעבן עזה וווּ אַ סך פֿון די ערובֿניקעס זענען פֿאַרכאַפּט געוואָרן בעת דעם נאָוואַ־פֿעסטיוואַל דעם 7טן אָקטאָבער 2023. מאָנטיק איז דאָס טאַקע געווען דאָס ערשטע אָרט, וווּ די פֿאַרכאַפּטע פֿעסטיוואַל־באַטייליקטע האָבן זיך אָפּגעשטעלט, איידער זיי האָבן זיך פֿאַראייניקט מיט זייערע משפּחות.
The post All 20 living hostages are back in Israel appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump in Jerusalem: Israel Has Won the Gaza War; Now’s the Time for Peace
US President Donald Trump speaks to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. Photo: Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERS
US President Donald Trump delivered a sweeping address to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday, declaring “the end of war, the end of the era of terror and death,” while veering repeatedly off-script in remarks that mixed triumph, improvisation, and political provocation – including a surprise call for President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains on trial for corruption.
Trump landed in Israel just as the 20 living hostages kidnapped by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, still being held captive in Gaza were freed. The bodies of 28 deceased hostages were expected to be released later in the day, but reports emerged that only four would be returned.
The US president opened his speech by poking fun at those who took the floor before him – including Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Netanyahu, and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid – for taking too long in their own speeches, causing him to be late for a planned summit in Egypt with world leaders about the future of Gaza.
“Who knows if they’ll still be there when I get there?” he quipped.
Trump praised Israelis, saying that “only a proud and faithful people could withstand” the torment of the past two years. The Oct. 7 attack, in which more than 1,200 people were murdered and 251 taken hostage, was “one of the most evil and heinous desecrations of innocent life the world has ever seen,” he said, adding that the atrocities “struck to the core of humanity itself.”
But he went on to say that “today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace.”
The entire Middle East hoped to see “the disarmament of Hamas,” Trump said, referring to the internationally designated terrorist group. “Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel.”
Hamas seized control of Gaza nearly two decades ago, following Israel’s total military and civilian withdrawal from the enclave.
“People are dancing in the streets – not just in Israel – about what is happening today,” Trump said, referring to the jubilation over the hostage release as part of the US-brokered ceasefire to halt fighting in Gaza.
“What a victory it’s been,’ he added, thanking “the almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
The president said the expansion of the Abraham Accords — which he jokingly referred to by its Hebrew pronunciation — was imminent. “Avraham, it’s so cool. So much, sorta, nicer. The Abraham, versus the Avraham.”
He even suggested that Iran could join the historic accords to normalize relations with Israel, asking Netanyahu, “Would you be happy with that? Wouldn’t it be nice?”
“I think they want to. I think they’re tired,” Trump said, adding that Iran was not resuming its nuclear program. “The last thing they want to do is start digging holes again in mountains that just got blown up.”
“They want to survive, OK?”
Iran, whose leaders regularly call for the destruction of Israel, on Saturday dismissed the idea of joining the accords, saying it was “wishful thinking.”
In his speech, Trump described Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East who led the hostage negotiations, as a “Henry Kissinger who doesn’t leak.”
Addressing Herzog directly, Trump said, “I have an idea, why don’t you give Netanyahu a pardon?”
Netanyahu is currently on trial on corruption charges, including fraud and breach of trust for accepting luxury gifts.
“Netanyahu was one of the best [leaders] during wartime,” Trump said, dismissing the charges against the premier. “Cigars and champagne? Who cares?”
His comments prompted laughs and whispers through the plenum.
He also praised Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, saying “he’s a very nice opposition leader” and, addressing Netanyahu by his nickname, added, Lapid “is a nice man. Bibi, he’s a nice man.”
“Now you can be a little bit nicer because you’re not at war anymore, Bibi,” Trump quipped.
At one stage, a commotion broke out when Trump’s speech was interrupted by Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif, two lawmakers from the Arab Joint List party who held up a sign calling on the US president to “Recognize Palestine.”
After the two were removed fairly quickly, Trump said, “That was very efficient.”
Hadash-Ta’al MKs Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif removed from Trump’s speech after holding up signs calling to “recognize Palestine.”
Trump quips that the ejection was “very efficient.” pic.twitter.com/0tvs7JbSAS
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 13, 2025
Trump left for the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt just after 4 pm local time, telling the Knesset that he was going “meet with the most powerful, the richest nations in the world.”
Netanyahu received a last-minute Trump-brokered invitation from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi but declined, citing the pending Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah which was set to begin on Monday evening.
It was the first time Sisi spoke to Netanyahu since the start of the war two years ago.
As Trump wrapped up his speech, footage began circulating on social media showing buses of released Palestinian prisoners departing from Ofer Prison in the West Bank.
According to the terms of the ceasefire, 1,950 Palestinian security prisoners, including 250 serving life sentences for deadly terrorist attacks, as well as 1,700 Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7, 2023, were slated for release.
A violent incident disrupted preparations for the exchange the night before, when one of the inmates slated for release attacked a female guard, leaving her injured. Prison staff quickly restrained the assailant, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the attacker would be removed from the release list, with another prisoner chosen to take his place.
Some Israelis – including Zvika Mor, the father of hostage Eitan Mor who was released on Monday morning – are bitterly opposed to the release of prisoners.
A day before his son’s release, the older Mor said his son would support his father’s staunch opposition to previous hostage-ceasefire deals.
“In our home, we educated our kids to risk their lives for the people of Israel, for the State of Israel. If Eitan hadn’t been taken hostage, he would have fought in Gaza, and then he, too, would have been required to risk his life,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.
“The deal is very far from what we wished for the State of Israel, because we have to pay for our hostages with 250 terrorists with life sentences — murderers who will no doubt go back to murdering Israelis,” he added.
Brenda Lemkus, whose daughter Dalia was murdered in a 2014 stabbing attack in the West Bank, joined other bereaved relatives from the Choosing Life group — which opposes prisoner releases — in condemning the decision to release her daughter’s killer.
“Releasing him invites the next murder immediately,” Lemkus said. “The blood of those murdered is on the ministers who voted for this.” She called on Israel to institute the death penalty for terrorists.
Michael Nurzhitz, brother of reservist Vadim Nurzhitz, said that while he was happy for the hostages and their families, releasing Raed Sheikh — the terrorist and Palestinian police officer responsible for his brother’s murder — was “unfathomable,” especially ahead of the 25th anniversary of the incident.
Vadim Nurzhitz and fellow Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservist Yossi Avrahami were lynched in Ramallah on Oct. 12, 2000, after accidentally entering the city and being taken into custody at a Palestinian police station.
“If they release the murderer, the terrorist will return to terror, just like those released in the Shalit deal — they will return to murder us,” Nurzhitz said, referring to the 2011 exchange that freed Gilad Shalit in return for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, who later masterminded Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Choosing Life petitioned the High Court against the move, saying “the blood of our children has turned into a tradable commodity.”
Eliya Atias, however, whose son Eden was stabbed to death while he was sleeping in 2013, said the release of his son’s murderer was a sacrifice she “felt good” about making if it meant freeing the hostages.
“I am a believing Jew who believes that the Creator will pay him back,” she said. “I feel that thanks to my act, I am saving the lives of my brothers in Gaza.”
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All 20 Living Hostages Freed, Back Home in Israel Over 2 Years After Hamas’s Oct. 7 Attack
Relatives and friends of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, react as they watch broadcasts related to his release as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Lavon, Israel, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Shlush
Jubilation filled Israeli streets on Monday morning as all 20 living hostages abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, still being held captive in Gaza were returned to Israel.
Air Force One, carrying US President Donald Trump for a lightning visit, landed in Israel at 9:20 am local time, just after the first group of hostages — Alon Ohel, Matan Angrest, twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Eitan Mor, and Omri Miran — arrived on Israeli soil.
The second wave included Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, brothers David and Ariel Cuneo, Evyatar David, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Avinatan Or, and Matan Zangauker.
“It’s official: There are no more living Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote in a social-media post.
Hamas handed over the hostages — dressed in the same pseudo-military uniforms the Islamist group had forced previous captives to wear — to the International Committee of the Red Cross. While they were being transported, masked operatives patched video calls between the hostages and their families in Israel, in what appeared to be a cynical ploy to control the narrative. The ceasefire agreement barred public parades and ceremonies, unlike the earlier hostage-release deals in January and February.
Julie Kuperstein, the mother of hostage Bar Kuperstein, told Israel’s Channel 12 News she received a missed call from “Al-Aqsa Brigades,” referring to Hamas’s military wing. “I called them back, and they answered me! All of a sudden, I see Bar!” she said. “He said, ‘Mom, everything is OK! Mom, everything is OK!’” She spoke through tears, shouting in jubilation.
The Red Cross subsequently transferred the hostages to the IDF inside Gaza, where military medical teams conducted initial examinations before they traveled to the Re’im military base to reunite with their families.
Yosef-Chaim Ohana’s father reunites with his son and it is a hug for the ages
pic.twitter.com/2izIBicSFg
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 13, 2025
Footage of the reunions showed parents clutching their children in tears. Zvika Mor, who had opposed releasing terrorists even for his son’s freedom, could not speak and only sobbed as he held Eitan.
https://x.com/seanfeucht/status/1977689710630695052
Einav Zangauker — who had led an unrelenting campaign urging the Israeli government to strike a hostage-release deal at any cost — embraced her son, crying, “My life, my life, I love you, you are a hero, you are a champion!”
Einav Zangauker reunites with her son Matan, 25, after a heroic two-year campaign across Israel, during which she tirelessly pressed the government to end the war and bring the hostages home. pic.twitter.com/a5UkFkVyxm
— Tal Schneider טל שניידר تال شنايدر (@talschneider) October 13, 2025
Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands have gathered for protests and vigils over the past two years, erupted in cheers as footage of the releases appeared on giant screens. People waved American flags and posters thanking Trump. When news broke that Air Force One had landed, the crowd shrieked with delight.
The Trump administration led the effort to push the US-brokered ceasefire and hostage-release deal, which halted fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, over the finish line. Of the 251 hostages initially abducted during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, 48 remained in captivity entering Monday, and only 20 of them were still alive.
The freed hostages appeared to be in relatively stable condition, including Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, who had been shown emaciated in Hamas propaganda videos.
Each hostage received a welcome kit from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with a handwritten note reading: “On behalf of the entire Israeli people, welcome back! We waited for you and embrace you.”
President Isaac Herzog quoted from the Book of Jeremiah on X: “And the children shall return to their own borders.” He added, “With thanks to God we welcome our loved ones home. We are waiting for everyone — every last one.”
Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband, Jon, whose son Hersh was murdered in captivity, also invoked scripture, calling on social media for people to give thanks by reciting Psalm 126, which speaks of captives returning to Zion.
In his address at Israel’s parliament later on Monday, Trump said, “People are dancing in the streets – not just in Israel – about what is happening today.”
“What a victory it’s been,” he said, thanking “the almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
“Today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace,” he added.
Under the deal, Israel agreed to release 1,950 Palestinian security prisoners, including 250 serving life sentences for deadly terrorist attacks, as well as 1,700 Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7, 2023. The prisoners were to be freed before the return of the 28 remaining dead hostages.
However, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said only four of the 28 bodies would be returned to Israel on Monday, calling it a “blatant” violation of the ceasefire agreement.
“This represents a blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas. We expect Israel’s government and the mediators to take immediate action to rectify this grave injustice,” the forum said. “The families of the deceased hostages are enduring especially difficult days filled with deep sorrow. We will not abandon any hostage. The mediators must enforce the agreement’s terms and ensure Hamas pays a price for this violation.”