‘Tell the politicians that we want a deal’: Religious Zionists rally in Jerusalem for hostages’ release

Thousands of religiously observant Jerusalemites gather in the capital to call for a hostage deal, stressing their political and theological distance from members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition who have said they would not accept such an agreement with Hamas.

Speakers at the event at Jerusalem’s refurbished train station complex include bereaved fathers Jon Polin, Moshe Shapira, and Tzvi Zussman, hostage mother Meirav Leshem Gonen, and Racheli Fraenkel, whose son Naftali was murdered with two other boys in 2014, kicking off Operation Protective Edge, that year’s war with Gaza. Together with other rabbis and educators, they sing songs of anguish and prayer and speak words of Torah and messages of hope.

Leshem Gonen, whose daughter Romi Gonen has been held in Gaza since October 7, 2023, says this past year and two months have taught her many things, as she went through a journey of getting to know her nation as a secular Israeli.

“I feel we’re getting closer and this unity will push closed the gates of hell that opened on October 7,” she says.

Niva Wenkert, whose son, Omer Wenkert, was kidnapped from the Supernova rave on October 7, speaks about the complete darkness of the Gaza tunnels described to her by a released hostage who was with her son in captivity.

Jon Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was executed in a Gaza tunnel in late August along with five other hostages, refers to the weekly Torah portion and the reference to Joseph, who was forgotten in prison.

“Go to the Knesset,” says Polin, “And tell the politicians that we want a deal.”

Rabbanit Racheli Fraenkel, whose teenage son Naftali was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists along with Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar in 2014, says the IDF has made great strides and progress in the last months, defeating Hamas and Hezbollah. Now, says Fraenkel, “do what is right. We’re here to strengthen and add our voices to our brothers deep in the tunnels. Now is the time to free our brothers.”

The speakers, most of them self-described religious Zionists, recall the names of the hostages, and speak about the hope and miracles represented by the upcoming festival of Hanukkah and the basic value of solidarity and national unity that need to be present in Israeli society.

“We are in a historic time, a time of national trauma that has to be turned to healing, but first, the hostages have to be returned home,” says Rabbi Mordechai Vardi of Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim. “We need an agreement that will bring everyone home.”

Audience members, many wearing kipot and head coverings, clap, sing, and nod their heads in agreement throughout.