Released from captivity in Gaza, Keith and Aviva Siegel visited Washington, D.C., and Maryland in late November to tell their stories and emphasize their gratitude for being free.
The Siegels were held together in captivity by Hamas for 50 days before Aviva Siegel was released in November 2023 as part of the first hostage deal. Her husband, Keith, was released more than a year later, in February 2025.
The freed hostages visited synagogues and schools in Washington and Maryland with Operation Embrace, which aims to help survivors of terror in Israel. Their first stop was Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School in D.C., where middle school students listened intently to the couple’s recounting of their captivity and asked questions.
“I was a teacher for little ones for 40 years. For me to be here means a lot,” Aviva Siegel said at the Nov. 21 event. “I feel free and I want to tell you that I feel that I’ve been born again.”
The Siegels shared age-appropriate details of their experiences in the tunnels of Gaza, including starvation, lack of hygiene and forced silence. “We had to ask the terrorists all the time if we’re allowed to go to the bathroom, if we can sit, if we can stand and stretch our bodies,” Aviva Siegel recalled. “Everything we did, we had to ask.”
While the Siegels described the fear they lived every day at the hands of Hamas, they also spoke of camaraderie with fellow hostages Liri Albag, Agam Berger and Amit Soussana, who passed the time by playing cards and games and telling stories. “We became like a small family,” Aviva Siegel said.
The Siegels also connected their experiences to the middle schoolers. Held captive for 484 days, Keith Siegel said his family gave him the strength to survive every day.
“I think it’s very, very important that you know that you all have families that love you all very, very much, family and friends that will help you if you’re ever in need of help,” he told the students. “When I was in need of help, my family, my friends and all of you who didn’t even know me personally did so much for me. We all must know that people are here to help us when we’re in need of help.”
Keith Siegel added that his Jewish faith and his desire to help others grew stronger while in captivity.
“I have a lot more strength than I ever dreamed I had,” he said at the event.
Keith Siegel spoke to the importance of recognizing the good things in life. He expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump and his administration for their role in securing the hostages’ release. On Nov. 20, the Siegels joined 17 other released hostages and Trump in the White House.
“I’m so, so happy,” Keith Siegel said. “I’m overwhelmed with joy that all of the alive hostages were released, including my four dear friends. Yesterday [at the White House] was an amazing day.”
The Siegels also spoke at Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville and Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah and Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac during their tour of the area.
As their speech at Milton Gottesman drew to a close, Deborah Skolnick-Einhorn, Milton’s head of school, presented Keith and Aviva Siegel with a copy of the custom Milton siddur.
This isn’t a one-off event for the Milton community, according to Rachel Federowicz, a Milton parent and a vice president at Congregation B’nai Tzedek who attended in support of Operation Embrace.
“The children at this school have been on this journey since Oct. 7, [2023],” Federowicz said.
Skolnick-Einhorn took students to the Rally for Israel in D.C. shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks. The Milton community also prayed daily for the hostages’ release and celebrated any good news on that front, Skolnick-Einhorn said.
“For the children, this has been the fabric of their Jewish identity,” Federowicz said, as students lined up to speak with the Siegels after the event.
“For them to meet Aviva and Keith is to be able to put a face and a conversation to what they’ve been hearing and talking about,” she added. “Having gone to a Jewish day school as a child and having met a Holocaust survivor, I’ll never forget hearing their stories from them in a totally different way than reading about it, and so I know that these kids will remember this day forever.”
Aviva Tessler, the founder and executive director of Operation Embrace, said she met Keith and Aviva Siegel at one of the therapeutic retreats the group hosted and got to hear their story firsthand.
“I … was so moved by what you heard today, their advocacy of our words and how our minds can get us through the darkest of tunnels and the deepest spaces, and I thought that it’s very important that we bring their message to as many people, to make sure that people understand what they went through and understand the power of moving forward and healing,” Tessler said.
She invoked the phrase “Never again,” normally invoked for the Holocaust, but applied here for the need to talk about the Oct. 7 attack and the long-term captivity of the hostages.
“It’s so crucial to share that information, to let people know about it because the more they know, maybe the kinder people will be,” Tessler said. “These are important messages. For these students here today, I do think it’s one of those moments in their lives they’ll never forget.”
Aviva Siegel normally doesn’t speak to middle school-age students, as her captivity story includes graphic, painful details. But she isn’t one to turn down a speaking opportunity in the near two years since her release: “We’ll always talk about what we went through.”
“There’s people that want to see what we went through, how we managed to be strong and go through what we went through,” she told Washington Jewish Week. “It gives them strength and the understanding and meaning of what the Jewish people all over the world went through since [Oct.] 7 and brings them together.”
“Your speech was very meaningful,” a student told Aviva Siegel during our interview.
“Tell your story,” Aviva Siegel said at the Nov. 21 event. “Words have a lot more power than you think.”
