This year’s Genesis Prize awarded to groups aiding hostage families
$1 million prize will go to Hostages and Missing Families Forum, as well as others providing services to relatives
Five organizations who are supporting the families of people held hostage by Hamas in Gaza were awarded Israel’s prestigious 2024 Genesis Prize on Wednesday.
The $1 million award is usually given to a person for his or her professional achievements, contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values. This year, the Genesis Prize Foundation made a different choice, focusing on the hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip.
“The purpose of this year’s award is not to influence policy, but to raise international awareness of the plight of the hostages and provide humanitarian assistance focused on recovery, rehabilitation, and treatment,” said a co-founder of the prize, Stan Polovets.
The recipients included the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing many of the hostages’ relatives that sprang up in the wake of October 7 — when thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people, and took 253 hostages — to advocate for the return of the abductees.
Prize money will also go to the Jewish Agency’s Fund for Victims of Terror, Lev Echad, Natal, The Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center, and OneFamily.
In November, 105 hostages were freed some 50 days into their captivity, and several others were returned in other circumstances, or were killed. Currently, 132 remain in Gaza as negotiations continue for a potential deal to release them. Israel says some 30 are no longer alive.
Yaakov Argamani, father of 26-year-old abductee Noa Argamani, emphasized the agony that he and his wife Liora experience each day that their daughter is in captivity and said that they are “grateful that the most prestigious award in the Jewish world will remind everyone of the plight of the abductees, our plight, and support the work of the organizations that work tirelessly to bring them home.”
The Genesis Prize Foundation highlighted in its announcement that the $1 million financial component of the prize will be used exclusively to fund assistance to the hostages and their families.
It will subsidize access to medical treatment, trauma counseling, and social rehabilitation, among other things.
Rachel Goldberg, the mother of 23-year-old hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, praised the foundation’s decision to dedicate the money to hostages and their families.
“We fervently pray this gift will be instrumental in continuing the family organizations’ valiant and tireless efforts to bring the remaining beloved hostages home… now.”
