Torah scroll that survived Holocaust dedicated to relatives of Bibas family in Nir Oz
Father of Yarden Bibas says ‘Ariel, Shiri, Kfir, we wait for your return here,’ during gathering held in front of their house where they received scroll from Jewish New Yorkers
An American family donated a Torah that survived the Holocaust to relatives of the Bibas family, who were taken hostage by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and whose fate remains unknown.
Yarden Bibas, 34, his wife Shiri Bibas, 32, and their two children, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 11 months, were abducted from the kibbutz into Gaza amid Hamas’s brutal onslaught, in which 3,000 terrorists burst across the border and slaughtered 1,200 people across southern Israel, with the images of the redheaded children’s kidnapping reverberating around the world.
“Ariel, Shiri, Kfir, we wait for your return here,” said Eli Bibas, the children’s grandfather, during a gathering held in front of their house on Wednesday where they received the Torah from a group of Jewish New Yorkers.
Around 20 residents of Nir Oz were killed in the Oct. 7 massacres and some 80 were taken hostage out of a population of 400. Those seized from the kibbutz ranged from 9 months to 85 years old at the time they were taken. More than half were women and children.
Shira Hoschander from New York said her family dedicated the Torah to the Bibas family on behalf of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach in New York to show support for the community hit by the attack.
“I pray for them and their safe return every single day, and the safe return of every single one of the hostages that are still held in captivity,” Hoschander said.
The event was held at the initiative of Rabbi Shmuel Herman, chairman of the nonprofit group Am Yisrael Together.
Hamas claimed last month that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had been killed in captivity, a claim the IDF said it could not corroborate. The terror group released a cruel propaganda video featuring a gaunt and dazed Yarden begging for the release of the purported bodies of his family.
Relatives of the Bibas family have begged on the global stage for their loved ones to be returned, and have said they refuse to give up hope that Shiri and her babies are still alive.
In a meeting with the Knesset Finance Committee earlier this month, Ofri Bibas, sister of Yarden, said, “I will try to describe our nightmare to you a little bit. A week or so ago, we received a message from Hamas that Shiri and the children were killed, we still don’t know if it’s 100 percent true,” she said.
“I move between searching for a glimmer of hope inside and thinking about what eulogy to read at their graves, or apologizing to my brother that we were not able to bring them home; between the joy that I am pregnant and the thought of whether the baby will know them and the fact that I will name the baby Yarden,” Ofri added.
“They are in hell and their lives are in danger every single moment, and I don’t know where to shout anymore, here in Israel or abroad, and I’m not a person who knows how to shout, I think it is your job to shout, not ours,” she said. “They can’t stay there for even one day more. They’ll die there. Every day we hear about more bodies and more horrors that they’ve endured there. There’s nothing more important than returning them.”
During a weeklong truce in late November, Hamas released 105 hostages — 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals and one Filipino — while Israel freed 240 Palestinian security prisoners and allowed boosted levels of aid to enter the Strip. Earlier, four hostages were released by Hamas and one was rescued by the IDF.
But talks to extend the deal further broke down when Hamas refused to release more women and children hostages, according to Israel, including the Bibas family.
It is believed that 129 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 21 hostages killed in captivity. The IDF has recovered the bodies of 11 hostages so far, including three killed by troops after they were accidentally identified as a threat.
In addition to the hostages kidnapped on October 7, Hamas has been holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive.
