Hostage’s mother tells story of him saying Shabbat blessings while captive in Gaza

Actor Aviv Alush sits overlooking the Western Wall, hosting a Hostages and Missing Families Forum event on the Fast of Esther.

He speaks to Shelly Shem Tov, whose son Omer Shem Tov was taken hostage by terrorists at the Supernova desert rave on October 7.

Shem Tov says she hasn’t yet tidied Omer’s room, which was a mess when he left for the party.

“Every day, I go in, I say, ‘Good morning, Omer, be strong, have belief, we’re doing everything we can to get you home,'” she says. “I pray in his room and then I go out to take on the task of my life.”

Shem Tov tells Alush that Omer always made the blessing over the wine on Friday evenings for the family. She was told by Itay Regev, a freed hostage who was held with Omer, that they got grape juice one day and saved it, along with a bit of bread and salt. They counted the days until Friday, put a piece of toilet paper over their heads and Omer recited the Kiddush and the blessing over the bread.

“Itay said that was the moment when they felt closest to home and to family,” says Shem Tov.

Singer Shai Gabso performs and says he believes the nation needs unity for the hostages to come back.

He thanks the family members for being so strong.

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, appear on a simultaneous English-language broadcast with Jamie Geller.

Polin says there have been no updates about their son since he was taken captive, and that none of the freed captives had met or heard of Hersh.

Hersh’s parents learned that same of the injured hostages who arrived early in Gaza were taken to hospitals, and there’s reason to believe that he may have received medical treatment and even surgery for his arm, which was blown off from the elbow down.

Goldberg says that the prayer at the Western Wall is “a big opportunity to take this painful, challenging moment and manifest it into something for the good.”

“Before you can ask for peace, you have to create an opening for it and I think that’s something we should all challenge ourselves to do with all kinds of people. That is our challenge as a nation, and as a people,” she says.