Former captive Bar Kuperstein and his father lay tefillin at Hostages Square

Released hostage Bar Kuperstein, standing next to his father, Tal Kuperstein, are both wrapped in prayer shawls at Hostages Square, with each reciting the blessing for phylacteries (tefillin in Hebrew).

They are gathered in the prayer tent at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, which has been operating throughout the war, holding prayer services, learning sessions, and the opportunity to lay tefillin, a project created by Julie Kuperstein, Bar’s mother, as part of her effort to bring the hostages home.

Rabbi David Lau, the former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, is the rabbi in attendance.

Kuperstein had called for a 10 a.m. gathering on Friday to hold a communal laying of tefillin, creating a communal prayer to bring home the bodies of the remaining 11 hostages.

With a yarmulke on his head, Kuperstein has the phylacteries wrapped around his arm, and says the blessing with his father, in his wheelchair, doing the same.

The men around the Kupersteins blow the shofar and burst into song, dancing in a circle, holding the hands of Kuperstein’s father, who is seated in his wheelchair.

“When people sat in their sealed rooms and heard voices outside,” says one of the men leading the prayers, referring to the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, “how did they know who was speaking — if it was those attacking them or those saving them — but they heard the words ‘Shema Yisrael,’ the call of the Jewish people that is written into the scrolls placed in the tefillin, and they knew who was outside.”

Kuperstein places his hands over his eyes and leads the crowd in reciting “Shema Yisrael.”