Family marks 20th birthday of hostage Agam Berger with music and song
The budding violinist had only just begun her IDF service as a surveillance soldier at the Nahal Oz army base when she was taken captive to Gaza
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
On Friday, family and friends marked the 20th birthday of hostage Agam Berger, one of the surveillance soldiers taken captive on October 7 by Hamas terrorists from the Nahal Oz army base.
Berger’s family, including her parents, her twin sister Li-Yam, and another younger sister and brother, gathered at Tel Aviv’s Anu Museum of the Jewish People to hold a celebration of sorts for the captive soldier.
In honor of Berger, a budding musician, the event was centered around music, which the now-20-year-old studied intensively in high school, focusing on violin.
Country folk band Jane Bordeaux joined the event, performing two of Berger’s favorite songs. Singer Etti Ankri spoke briefly and violinist Yair Dalal and his daughters performed some of Berger’s favorite pieces on violin, piano and oud.
The birthday performances and speeches were described as a Kabbalat Shabbat event, connecting the spiritual songs and wishes spoken and sung by family members and friends at the birthday gathering to the weekly service traditionally prayed on Friday evenings, as the Sabbath begins.
Meirav Berger, Agam’s mother, wearing a shirt bearing the image of her daughter’s now-familiar face, spoke briefly and without tears, offering words of prayer and hope that Agam would return home, whole in mind and soul.
“You are far from us on your birthday, in the dark, but so close to us always,” said Meirav.
“You are in enemy territory, far from your family home, and I pray that you are protected, that you have the strength to withstand this,” she said. “Don’t allow them to rule you, today and in all coming days.”
Meirav Berger last saw her daughter, Agam, on October 5, when she and her husband Shlomi, brought Agam to the IDF base along the border with Gaza where she began her army service.
Agam Berger, who first spent a year in a pre-army program, had hoped to receive an assignment as a basic training officer. When she was assigned to be an IDF surveillance soldier, she tried unsuccessfully to get that assignment changed, eventually telling her parents she would do her best.
Berger was assigned to the Gaza envelope region and the Kerem Shalom army base, and was switched to the army base next to Kibbutz Nahal Oz toward the end of her training course.
She completed her surveillance training course on Wednesday, October 4, and on Thursday was driven by her parents to Nahal Oz, knowing she would be there for the weekend.
On Saturday, October 7, Berger called her family at 6:30 a.m. when the sirens began sounding at the base, but from a friend’s phone, as she forgot her phone when they ran to the safety of the sealed room.
That friend, Cpl. Shirat Yam Amar, was later killed in the Hamas onslaught at the army base. Twenty minutes later, Berger called her parents again to tell them that the terrorists were shooting at them, but that she wasn’t afraid.
Berger’s family later saw footage of Berger and the other young women being taken captive from videos taken by the Hamas terrorists and discovered by the IDF.
The IDF footage of the young women, injured and in captivity, was later released by the families to the public.
On November 26, the family heard from Agam Goldstein-Almog, who was taken captive on October 7 from Kibbutz Kfar Aza with her daughter and two sons, after her husband and eldest daughter were killed in their home.
Goldstein-Almog and her children were kept hostage for part of the time with Berger and the other surveillance soldiers in a Gaza tunnel. When it became clear that the Goldstein-Almogs were being released, Berger gave them her family’s phone numbers.
At the time, Goldstein-Almog told the Bergers that their daughter was praying a lot, observing Shabbat and in good spirits despite many low points.
It’s the last time the Berger family heard any news of their daughter.
