Congregants of a synagogue in Skokie commemorated a special occasion Monday night that some thought would never come: The freeing of remaining hostages held by Hamas following the terror group’s attack in 2023 on a music festival in Israel.
At what around 3 a.m. local time Monday, Hamas released the last 20 living Israeli hostages it held as part of a peace deal between the organization and Israel that also called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Like so many of you, I was up very early this morning,” Rabbi Ari Hart told the crowd that gathered at Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob for the ceremony. “It felt like a dream, but it’s real.”
Families, neighbors and congregants stood shoulder to shoulder outside the synagogue to pray, sing and reflect on the hostages kidnapped in Israel Oct. 7, 2023 by the terror organization. Hart led the congregation in prayer, read the names of every person released from captivity, and also paused to name the hostages who were killed — some of whose remains have not yet been released.
“It’s so important to say thank you to everybody who made this possible,” Hart said to the congregants, referring to the brokered peace agreement. “I want to thank President Trump. I want to thank all the negotiators. I want to thank all the countries.”
“There’s also a lot of sadness,” Hart told Pioneer Press. “With all the losses for the people of Gaza, there’s just so much loss and destruction.”
A war between Hamas and Israel started after the bloody Oct. 7, 2023 attack where nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 were kidnapped. Since then, over 66,000 people are estimated to have been killed and approximately 167,000 wounded in Gaza through airstrikes and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
At the ceremony in Skokie, congregants removed from a tree yellow ribbons with hostages’ names on them. Deena Rosenfeld, of Skokie, held a sign displaying Eden Yerushalmi’s name and face. Yerushalmi was killed in captivity by Hamas, and held with Hersh Goldberg Polin, another hostage with ties to Skokie. Israeli forces recovered their bodies, and four others, from Hamas, according to the Associated Press.
“It’s an overwhelming avalanche of emotions. I don’t know how to hold them all,” Rosenfeld said. “I never thought this day would happen.
“[Hamas] took them two years ago for leverage, and they haven’t achieved their goals of wiping out the Jewish state. So I thought that they would hold them forever.”With the peace deal between Hamas and Israel still not completely carried out, Rosenfeld said she was unsure if peace could last in the region.
“We have a concept in the Jewish tradition that we express gratitude and thanks to someone who did something good,” Hart said, referring to the Trump administration’s involvement in brokering the ceasefire. “Whatever are someone’s politics, this is a good thing, and all praises to the president for making this happen.”
Hart said he believes in a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. The rabbi said he would welcome seeing them existing “in peace.”
“That’s still my dream… it feels far away… my hope is that every Palestinian and every Jewish person and every human being can live a life of safety and freedom.”
The Associated Press contributed.
