Moshe Lavi said he didn’t believe in love until he saw it happen to his sister. But since Oct. 7, his brother-in-law has been held hostage in Gaza by Hamas, and Lavi is traveling the country to share his family’s story despite waning energy and hope.
He was one of three family members of Israeli hostages speaking at Washington Hebrew Congregation on Aug. 28, an event that was open to the community. The program was part of WHC’s commemoration of Oct. 7 series, which will continue through October.
Rabbi Sue Shankman, WHC’s senior rabbi, thanked the nearly 125 attendees for coming and urged the audience to remember the words of poet Emma Lazarus, who wrote “The New Colossus” based on the Statue of Liberty in 1883.
“We’re in that moment right now,” Shankman said to the crowd. “We cannot truly embrace our freedom until everyone is back home. We’re here tonight to ensure that that blessing of freedom comes to those who are still being held captive 327 days later.”
Cantor Susan Bortnick played the guitar and led the clergy in singing a healing prayer for the hostages and their families.
“These are not just names. These are not just faces on a poster,” Shankman said. “These are real human beings whose family members miss them and are praying for them, and even more importantly, are speaking and telling their stories so that we can ensure they will be brought home.”
Moderated by Shankman in a Q&A format, each of the three speakers began with their Oct. 7 story.
Lavi, a former IDF captain who lives in New York, said he was at a nightclub enjoying electronic dance music on a Friday night when the news came from Israel. At first, he shrugged it off, having grown up in Sderot, less than a mile from Gaza.
“Soon enough, it was clear that this [was] more than just a regular routine of rockets,” Lavi told the crowd. “Four hours after the invasion started, every hour made us worry even more.”
His sister, Lishay Lavi, her husband, then 46-year-old Omri Miran, and their two children were forced out of their home in their pajamas by Hamas gunmen who stormed their kibbutz the morning of Oct. 7. Lishay Lavi watched as Miran was taken into captivity and held back her 2-year-old daughter, Roni, as she tried to run to her father. Miran has been held hostage ever since.
Moshe Lavi said he had gotten to know Miran during the pandemic, when the family was under lockdown together. Miran had grown up in Israel and moved south, building a home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Lavi said Miran was a supportive husband who spent a lot of time with his two young daughters. He loved nature and sports.
“[He is a] true mensch you enjoy getting a beer with, argue with, laugh with. He had a gentle smile,” Lavi said of Miran.
Rockville resident Sigal Shachar said her uncle, Amiram Cooper, 84, and his wife were kidnapped from their bed the morning of Oct. 7. They were held by Hamas in tunnels 60 feet underground.
“It was very humid; it was dark. The first thing they did was to take away their glasses, their hearing aids,” Shachar said at the event. “When they were kidnapped, the terrorist tossed my aunt against the wall and she broke her arm in several places. She, of course, didn’t get any medical care or any medication. They barely got food.”
Shachar said the only reason she knows their experience is because her aunt was released from captivity after 17 days. Cooper was killed by the terrorists holding him hostage.
Mauricio Shnaider, from Kingston, New York, comes from a family of Holocaust survivors. He is the great-uncle of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Hamas hostage captured at 9 months old, and Ariel Bibas, captured at 4 years old, and the uncle of Shiri and Yarden Bibas, who lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
He and his family members do not know their whereabouts: “We know nothing, same as Oct. 7.”
His sister, Margit, and brother-in-law, Yosi Silverman, were killed and buried in Israel in late October 2023. Shnaider said over the course of days, about 800 people came to his sister’s shiva.
Shnaider, Lavi and Shachar have shared their stories at countless events since Oct. 7 changed their lives forever. Through these speaking opportunities, Shnaider said he is fighting three battles: bring the hostages back, eliminate Hamas and fight antisemitism. He wants to focus on the latter two since his family’s story has become so widespread since Oct. 7 — red-headed baby Kfir and his brother became the “faces of the hostage crisis.”
“I decided not to talk about my family as much because the story is so obvious,” Shnaider said. “Everybody knows about our families. What is there to say? That we miss them? We need them? We want them? Yes, of course, but we have to fight antisemitism.”
During the event, Shankman asked Lavi about his hopes for a hostage and cease-fire deal, to which he said he was pessimistic.
“Mauricio and I have been in so many delegations, speaking to so many supposedly important people,” Lavi said. “There [have been] rumors about a hostage deal for so many months now… Right now, I don’t see how the delegations will bridge the gap.”
He added that every time there is talk of a cease-fire, obstacles get in the way of a deal, including political pressure by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and from Hamas.
“I don’t see any progress in the coming weeks; I hope to be surprised,” Lavi said.
He is growing weary after more than 300 days of uncertainty and waiting for his brother-in-law’s return.
“It is difficult to keep reading the news and understand[ing] that you’re part of it as a secondary character,” Lavi said in an interview. “It affects you; it affects your day.”
Lavi told the audience that they could help by sharing Israeli hostages’ family members’ posts on social media to raise awareness, write to elected representatives and keep going to rallies, which will keep the conversation going.
“We need your spirit because we’re losing our energy,” he said at the event. “We should’ve had a lot more people show up [tonight]… Keep your spirit even if our spirit is losing momentum because of how tired we are living our life, of advocating, of trying to deal with the displacement of our families.”
Shachar said she has experienced a roller coaster of emotions from shock to comfort — due to President Joe Biden’s words of support — to disappointment to despair.
Shankman said it is to be expected that families of hostages are “running low on fuel.”
“I wasn’t surprised to hear that their energy is waning,” Shankman said in an interview. “It takes a lot of emotional energy, even physical energy, to do this day after day.”
Amir Szekely, a Potomac resident, attended the event to hear the family members’ stories.
“It’s been a rough year. It’s been rough for them and I want to show my support,” Szekely said.
Shachar, who attended a vigil and demonstration at the Red Cross back in October, said she originally thought the hostages would be returned within one week. She is no longer so optimistic.
“We stood there all fall and all winter and all summer, and they’re still there and nothing has changed,” Shachar said.
