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I Kept My Freedom in Hamas's Captivity

(Wall Street Journal) Agam Berger - I was kidnapped by Hamas, taken to Gaza and held hostage for 482 days. Today I am home, healthy and whole in body, soul and spirit. This Passover, I am reflecting on my freedom. When Hamas overran the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7, 2023, many of my friends were murdered. I survived the massacre - when babies, children, women and elderly men were killed simply because they were Jews. Even as Hamas tried to coerce me into converting to Islam - at times, forcing a hijab on my head - they couldn't take away my soul. My fellow scout Liri Albag and I marked Passover together last year. Held in a small room with no natural light, we did what we could to set the holiday mood. We cleaned our room and adorned the table with napkins and other small "decorations" made from scraps of paper. As a surprise, Liri wrote me a makeshift Passover Haggadah, the text that recounts our ancestors' journey out of slavery. The Jewish people don't have a history - they have memory. "History" the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote, is "an event that happened sometime to someone else. Memory is my story - something that happened to me and is part of who I am." The Jewish people are told to remember - "remember what Amalek did to you," "remember the Sabbath," "remember the stand at Mount Sinai." There is now a new, painful command: "Remember Oct. 7."
2025-04-15 00:00:00
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