1942 - 2024

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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 Founding Publisher 
 Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory
 
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 The Honorable Bernard Friedman

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 Michelle Sheridan 

6 | AUGUST 22 • 2024 
J
N

essay
My Visit to Hostage Square
B

ring Them Home Now,” a 
plea for the world to remem-
ber each and every hostage 
kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, has 
become an integral part 
of the fabric of Israeli 
life. 
The 
BringThemHomeNow.
com website and 
campaign was created 
to keep the hostages 
front and center on a 
daily basis. Its website states that the 
Hostage and Missing Families Forum 
“was established within 24 hours of 
the horrific terror attack by Hamas 
on Israel on Oct. 7” (in which about 
1,200 innocent civilians were mur-
dered and over 240 taken hostage). 
Laser-focused on the hostages, the 
volunteer-based forum “offers fami-
lies holistic support and professional 
assistance and advances the ongoing 
efforts through all channels, locally, 
regionally and globally, to bring the 
hostages and the missing back home 

to their loved ones.” On the website, 
you’ll find pictures and stories about 
each hostage, along with ways you 
can help. 
As I witnessed during my recent 
trip to Israel, this campaign has 
succeeded in making a tremendous 
impact. When you enter or leave 
Ben Gurion Airport, you are greeted 
with pictures of the hostages. You see 
posters of the hostages and yellow 
ribbons everywhere in the country. 

They line the streets and are dis-
played on the outside of commercial 
buildings and people’s homes. 
Yellow ribbons adorn the jackets 
of newscasters. Female performers 
on television sport yellow fingernails. 
The hostages and their family mem-
bers have become familiar faces to 
everyone in Israel.
Family members have encamp-
ed and created Hostage Square, a 
public gathering place on Tel Aviv’s 

open plaza, located in front of the 
Tel Aviv Art Museum, between the 
Opera House, Cameri Theatre and 
the library. The space, always staffed 
with family members and volunteers, 
has become their meeting place, as 
well as the location to boost public 
awareness and protest.
Every Saturday evening after 
Shabbat ends, hundreds of thou-
sands of Israelis gather on Hostage 
Square for a peaceful protest rally. 

Beverly Kent 
Goldenberg

PURELY COMMENTARY

A symbolic heart 
wrapped in chains
Hostage Square 
in Tel Aviv

