'Don't give up,' NY bishop urges survivors of Hamas attack, families of hostages

By Steven Schwankert

NEW YORK (OSV News) -- At a meeting in Manhattan with survivors and relatives of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, a senior member of the Archdiocese of New York's leadership listened intently to their descriptions of hostages who remain in Hamas hands and urged the group "to keep speaking."

"You are here for the love of your family and friends. You need to keep speaking," Auxiliary Bishop Edmund J. Whalen told the group. "Don't stop. Don't give up. Don't give up on the love. Don't give up on your loved ones."

The meeting took place Dec. 13 at the headquarters of the American Jewish Committee, or AJC, with about 30 family members and friends of hostages, representing the Hostages and Missing Families Forum pleading for assistance in getting their relatives back. The group represents 135 families, representatives said.

A total of 240 hostages were taken back to an unknown location or locations in Gaza on Oct. 7 and 8, including citizens of Israel, the United States, Thailand and the Philippines. During a weeklong truce in late November, 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity. In exchange, Israel agreed to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and released over 300 Palestinian prisoners, all of them women, teenagers or other youths.

Three hostages were mistakenly killed by the Israeli Defense Forces Dec. 15, and the bodies of five hostages, declared dead earlier in December, have been recovered from a Hamas tunnel underneath Gaza. As intense fighting continues, about 130 hostages remain in Gaza.

According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 20,900 people in Gaza have been killed and 55,000 injured since Oct. 7. Israeli forces have lost 156 soldiers.

Members of the group meeting in Manhattan at AJC wore T-shirts and carried placards with their relative's photo and age displayed on them and carrying the message, "Bring Her/Him Home Now!"

Many of the group of mostly young people told stories of the hostages they were there to represent. Ron Benjamin, 53, was kidnapped Oct. 7 while riding his bicycle. His elder daughter, Gil, 21, said during the attack, her parents sent a text message. "They are at our house. They caught us." While their mother has since been released, Benjamin remains a captive.

Medical concerns were a high priority for the group. One hostage has Celiac disease, which makes her intolerant to gluten, and asthma, and is without her inhaler. Other hostages are elderly and without medication they take regularly or even daily, members of the group said.

Many held back tears as they spoke of their loved ones and their desire to see them again.

At the close of the meeting, Bishop Whalen read Psalm 121 aloud in English. Rabbi Noam E. Marans, the AJC's director of interreligious and intergroup relations who served as the meeting's host, then chanted the psalm in Hebrew.

Representatives of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum gave Bishop Whalen a replica dog tag with "Stand With Israel" engraved on it in Hebrew, similar to one Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York received during a Dec. 7 meeting with other survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Bishop Whalen expressed his gratitude for the gift and immediately donned it.

The earlier meeting took place at Cardinal Dolan's residence. As part of another interfaith leadership group, the cardinal and Brooklyn Bishop Robert J. Brennan listened to the survivors' accounts of that harrowing day and offered them support.

The word that kept coming up was "solidarity."

Bishop Brennan said being in solidarity with the Jewish community through this trying time is what Catholic social teaching calls for.

"Solidarity is a cornerstone of Catholic social teaching," Bishop Brennan told The Tablet, Brooklyn's diocesan newspaper. "That we stand with one another created in the image and likeness of God." Bishop Brennan added that "his heart goes out" to all of the people in Israel who suffered from the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, and to those in New York City who also were deeply affected.

The survivors at the Dec. 7 meeting included Leora Elion and her 15-year-old granddaughters Gali Elion and Mika Liz. Leora's son and Gali's father, Tal Elion, was killed during the attack while leading the kibbutz's defense team.

The trio survived almost 34 hours barricaded in a safe room near their home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza -- a community about a mile from the border with Gaza -- as Hamas terrorists tried to break in, with the sounds of gunfire and other atrocities being committed ringing out around them.

Gali proved an unsung hero through the attack, using her cellphone to warn other people of the attack and let the IDF know the locations of other families in the area.

In a statement to The Tablet, Leora said the meeting with different faith leaders was "very significant and important" to her.

"By virtue of being a peace activist and advocate of humane values, I saw this meeting as a model for how religions should conduct themselves for the benefit of all human beings," Leora said. "I believe that here in Israel, too, it will be possible, one day, for each to have a separate spiritual life on the one hand, but also to offer joint prayers that bring healing to the world, on the other hand."

Bishop Brennan called their testimony "very powerful," and "heart-wrenching." He said he was struck by the courage they exhibited not only through the Oct. 7 attack, but in the meeting that day by just being able to recount what they went through.

"We stand in solidarity with one another, generally speaking, but when you put a face on it, when you're talking face to face, eye to eye, and you're listening to people who've suffered that day, who were there, who experienced the horror, it brings it all home even more," Bishop Brennan said. "To get the firsthand account is really a wakeup call."

Rabbi Michael S. Miller, president and CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, who helped arrange the meeting, told The Tablet the meeting was significant because the faith leaders could provide comfort to the three women, and hear for themselves the stories of what they endured. He, too, noted the importance of solidarity.

"We are very grateful for other faith groups identifying with the pain that the Jewish community is feeling today," Rabbi Miller explained. "We also know that there has been a marked rise in acts of antisemitism in New York and in America and around the world and so members of the Jewish community can feel quite alone.

"So having a faith group such as the Catholic faith reach out to share with us, to feel the pain of members of the Jewish faith today because of what took place on Oct. 7 is exceptionally meaningful," Rabbi Miller said.

The visit was organized by the Commission of Religious Leaders, of which Cardinal Dolan chairman, in conjunction with the Jewish Agency for Israel's Fund for Victims of Terror.

Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, antisemitism has been on the rise in the United States.

Between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7, there were a total of 2,031 antisemitic incidents, up from 465 incidents during the same period last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents nationwide.

Bishop Brennan urged Catholics to be attentive to their neighbors and "be unequivocal in our condemnation of antisemitism, of any kind of prejudice, racism."