Jewish Pittsburghers react to return of final hostage, Ran Gvili, from Gaza

For Karen Gal-Or, the return of Ran Gvili’s remains was a powerful reminder of why the state of Israel is so important to the Jewish people.

“My grandparents’ families were killed in Auschwitz, and some were shot in the streets of Europe. Their bodies were never recovered,” she said. “It was powerful for me because it was a really strong representation of what it looks like when we are not powerless anymore and are able to recover those taken from us,and not depend on others to do it.”

Gvili was the last hostage returned after being abducted by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel. He was a member of the Yasam police unit and had been awaiting surgery for a broken shoulder when he heard about the terror group’s invasion. He traveled from his home in Meitar to Kibbutz Alumim, a 50-minute drive, where he battled terrorists for hours before he was killed.

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He is believed to have rescued around 100 people fleeing the Nova music festival and killed 14 Hamas members before he was killed and his body was taken. He was brought back to the Jewish state 843 days after his murder.

Gvili was recovered in his uniform, a fact that Gal-Or, a Squirrel Hill resident who attended and helped organize various vigils in honor of the hostages, found significant.

“It’s super meaningful,” she said. “It’s the ultimate symbol of our independence and our ability to defend ourselves.”
Adding levels of meaning to Gvili’s recovery, Gal-Or said, is the fact that, with his body’s return to Israel, there are no Jewish hostages left in Gaza.

“That’s the first time this has happened since 2014,” she noted. “I think the entire Jewish people have breathed a sign of relief.”

Julie Paris, Squirrel Hill resident and StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic regional director, agreed with Gal-Or, noting that the hostage crisis didn’t begin on Oct. 7.

“For over a decade, Israeli families have been forced to wait while Hamas held their loved ones as leverage. No family should ever have to fight that long just to bury their son,” she wrote on Facebook.

Paris said Gvili’s recovery “brings a profound sense of closure.”

And yet, she expressed the sadness the Jewish community also feels in the wake of his return.

“My heart goes out to Ran’s family,” Paris wrote. “He died a hero, and while nothing can fill that void, I am so grateful to the IDF and the endless sea of people who never stopped fighting to bring him home.”

Alice Sahel-Azagury, along with David Dvir, helped organize recurring vigils in Squirrel Hill in support of the hostages. She calls herself “one of many” who helped to create the public events, committed to ensuring the hostages weren’t forgotten. A community was formed, comprised of a diverse collection of people, all united with one goal — freeing the hostages.

“We had politicians, elected officials, people from different churches — it built awareness outside of the Jewish community,” she said.

It’s her hope that sense of community can be preserved. There’s an active WhatsApp group that she would like to see utilized for other events, and an archive of hundreds of photos of the vigils.

It was because of that sense of community and the work done to fight against antisemitism that Sahel-Azagury decided to leave her job as a corporate lawyer to become the senior development officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Like Paris, she said Gvili’s return brought a “sense of relief, but I wouldn’t say joy.”

“In Pittsburgh, our motto was ‘Bring them all back home.’ We said that every time and we didn’t stop. So, it’s relief, but let’s not forget he was murdered when he came back,” she said.

David Knoll, too, said there’s an “overwhelming” sense of relief now that all the hostages are home.

“But your heart is still filled with compassion for them and their families because you know it’s not over,” he said.

“There’s still so much trauma and a long journey of healing that’s taking place, and they will need our help and our thoughts and prayers.”

Knoll, who was a regular attendee of the vigils in honor of the hostages, is the associate vice president of public affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and director of the organization’s Community Relations Council.

He placed Gvili’s return in a historical context, noting that it is the closing of a “painful chapter” in Jewish history.

“Like all other painful chapters, we stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish communities across the globe, as we’ve done through time and eternity, and work toward the next chapter,” he said.

With Gvili’s return, Gal-Or said thoughts should turn internal.

“We can now take an accounting of what has happened to us over the last two years and what we need to do to fix it,” she said. “I think we have been completely changed by Oct. 7, and not just because of what has happened to our brothers and sisters in Israel, but because of what has happened to us her in Pittsburgh.”

She said the Jewish community was shaken to learn that some 2in the broader community “turned out not to be our friends but our enemies.”

That was a jarring awakening for Gal-Or, who grew up in Pittsburgh having never witnessed antisemitism during her childhood.
“I was a proud and open Jew, and it was only after Oct. 7 that I saw how much anti-Zionism and antisemitism had taken hold in some of our institutions, political spheres and academia,” she said.

The need for the future, she said, is to “focus our attention on that.”

Paris, too, is looking to the future. She said she prays for the day Hamas is truly dismantled and “we can finally find lasting peace.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronice.org.