On Oct. 7, 2023, our world changed forever. As families in southern Israel celebrated the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, unleashing a brutal attack that left over 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage, nearly all civilians. It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Nine months later, 120 hostages remain in captivity, including eight US citizens. These are our neighbors, colleagues and friends. They are children torn from their parents, grandparents separated from their families and foreign nationals who came to Israel as workers or tourists. Some of these hostages, we now know, were murdered by Hamas – yet their bodies are still being held, denying their loved ones even the basic dignity of burial and mourning.
