For the hostages who endured years of captivity in Gaza, their ordeal became an unexpected spiritual journey—one that transformed their relationship with God and deepened their connection to their Jewish heritage.
Rom Braslavsky, speaking from his hospital bed after two years in captivity, described how his faith became his lifeline. When Hamas captors attempted to coerce him into converting to Islam, promising food in exchange, Braslavsky refused. Starving and weak, he told himself: “I’m a Jew. I’m strong. I won’t break.”
His captors offered incentives—reading the Quran or fasting during Ramadan would earn him small gifts and extra rations. But Braslavsky remained resolute. According to his mother Tami, her son repeatedly affirmed his identity throughout his imprisonment: “I am Jewish, I am strong, I will not break.” Upon his release, his first act was to put on tefillin.
The most harrowing moment came when an angry mob gathered, threatening to lynch him. In that desperate moment, Braslavsky recited the Shema Yisrael prayer. “I told God, ‘I can’t end like this. You didn’t take me out of there to end in a lynching. I’m not going like this,'” he recalled. Moments later, he heard keys at the door—his abductor had returned, dispersed the crowd, and moved him to safer quarters.
“The strength in the place I was in—the knowledge that everyone around me was not Jewish, and the fact that I was sitting there, the reason was because I am Jewish,” Braslavsky reflected in conversation with Shai Graucher. “Everything I went through, the reason is because I am Jewish.”
For fellow captive Or Levy, the path to faith was more gradual. In the isolation of captivity, he first spoke to a small crack in the wall, then to a dim LED light—and eventually to God himself. According to Levy, his prayers were answered when he was ultimately saved from his suffering.
Segev Kalfon’s spiritual moment came while still in captivity. After repeatedly asking his captors, they finally allowed him to watch footage of hostage Ohad Ben Ami being released. “I was happy that he was released, and I imagined how it would happen for me as well,” Kalfon told Graucher. “I had a dream of going up on that stage, with all of Hamas surrounding me, and shouting ‘Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad.'”
When Segev’s father Kobi spoke from Tel HaShomer Hospital after his son’s return, he began with the Shehechiyanu blessing—a prayer of gratitude for reaching special moments. “Segev is once again in my hands, embraced by our family,” he said. “I have full faith in God’s strength, who held us through these difficult months and brought us to this emotional moment.”
For Braslavsky, the experience crystallized what he sees as an essential truth: “A person who is Jewish needs to know that they are in a great place, that they are different from someone who is not Jewish. We need to strengthen the Judaism within us.”
His message to the people of Israel is one of unity and renewal: “We need to return to being a united people, and people need to start keeping the commandments. People need to understand and know that we are Jews.”