This isn’t a deal post… but it is the most important thing I’ll write this week, of that I’m sure.
As we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner today — and Shabbat dinner tomorrow — I know so many of us will be thinking of those who aren’t sitting down.
Who haven’t eaten a proper meal in 14 months. Who are living — and dying — in a never-ending hell.
And whose families — unlike my parents who got to hug their daughter when she came to visit them in America — have been screaming and fighting and advocating for 14 months and still can not hug and hold their loved ones.
419 days. 101 still hostages trapped in hell.
7 Americans, 4 of whom are still presumed to be alive.
Keith Siegel, 69, originally from North Carolina, a father to four and grandfather to five
Sagui Dekel Chen 35, born in Israel but raised (like my boys) as a baseball player
Omer Neutra 22 from Long Island, who deferred admission to SUNY to become a tank commander in the IDF
Edan Alexander now 20, who was born in Israel but moved as a baby with his family to Tenafly, NJ
Please consider printing out a picture of one or more of the hostages (this is a PDF link to all 101 hostage posters, free to download), and setting a place at your table for them.
We aren’t in the room with the decision makers (hallavei – I wish!), but we can make sure that the hostages are always in our rooms — and hearts.
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, in which my greatest gratitude will be for all 101 of our beloved hostages returning home, for no more families getting the worse knock at their door, and for peace and quiet coming to Israel. Amen!
The pictures in this post are from the beautiful Thanksgiving dinner I attended last year in CT. Omer and Agam are still held hostage in the tunnels under Gaza. Little American-Israeli Avigayil came home a few days after Thanksgiving, B”H. Her parents were both murdered by Hamas on the 7th; she is being raised with her surviving siblings by her aunt and uncle.
I literally can not believe that this is still reality. Please G-d, no more holiday meals with hostage posters. Please G-d, no more holiday meals without them home.
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