Former hostage Eli Sharabi, actress Shani Cohen to host October 7 memorial event

Former hostage Eli Sharabi and actress Shani Cohen will host this year’s October 7 memorial event, organizers say.

The event is organized by Kumu (“Rise Up”), a group of bereaved families and survivors.

“I am keeping a promise to my wife, Lianne, my daughters, Noya and Yahel, and my brother, Yossi, may their memories be a blessing, that we will never forget them and what happened to them, and to us,” Sharabi says. “October 7 must remain cast in iron, engraved in our hearts forever.”

“It must not be blurred, and time must not forget. This terrible day must not pass without a national, central and significant ceremony,” he says. “The pain still touches us everywhere, and I know that it will be a charged and difficult situation. But I will stand there with all the strength and love that I receive from [the public], to pay respect to the murdered and the fallen, to the bereaved families, and to the entire people of Israel.”

Sharabi was abducted on October 7, 2023, from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri during the devastating Hamas terrorist attack. He returned home to Israel to find out that his wife, Lianne, and two daughters, Noya and Yahel, were murdered on October 7, and that his brother, Yossi, was taken hostage from his Kibbutz Be’eri home and killed in captivity.

Some 30,000 people attended last year’s event.

The event stands in place of an official state ceremony on that day — the government has opted instead to recognize a national day of remembrance corresponding to the Hebrew anniversary of Hamas’s attack.

Organizer Yonatan Shamriz, the brother of slain hostage Alon Shamriz, said earlier this year that the group wants to hold “the largest memorial event in the history of the country.”