I want to tell him his family is ok: Friend of hostage Tal Shoham hopes for his return

Ofer Shemesh met Tal Shoham, who has been held captive in Gaza since October 7, when Tal moved to Kibbutz Holit in 5th grade and joined Shemesh’s elementary school.

“Tal and I share a love for going on and on,” he laughed. “We love to talk about things – to get in-depth on topics.”Shemesh and Tal connected over this love of speaking at length and over the way they both connected to many different topics.

He “did like 10 different and varied professions,” said Shemesh. “For example, he trained dogs, he invested in the stock market, in bitcoin, he was a farmer, he had a packing company, he had all kinds of things.”

“Tal is the kind of person that will study a topic all the way if he gets hooked on it,” he said. Tal is an autodidact, he’ll read books and academic articles.”

“By the end of 12th grade he almost had a degree in computer science” through studying alone at Israel’s open university, he added.

“He is really a polymath,” Shemesh summed up.

Shemesh also said that Tal knew how to bridge gaps between people and bring them together. “If you wanted to settle a debate or to see the other side, he always knew how to.”

Hopes for safe return from Gaza captivity

Tal not only “understands a lot of topics,” said Shemesh, but he also knows how to look at things creatively.“He’s very attentive to people, and he really likes to give them advice,” he added.

Shemesh said that in a sense, Tal saved him. “He kind of saved my life, cause I had someone to talk to and share experiences with. I had a really hard time in elementary school and he got me out of that.”

“They say that all kids need is one other friend, he was my one other friend,” he explained.

“In the last few years, we weren’t in touch every day, more like every month or two; but after he was taken, I learned that there are more people like me, who he was in that kind of contact with.”

Shemesh’s parents were shot and lightly injured on October 7, and he spent the first days of the war caring for them and then trying to figure out what happened to his many classmates and friends who were caught in the Hamas attack.When looking for names of classmates, he suddenly saw Tal’s and found out he had been taken hostage. He realized that he did not have Tal’s family’s contact information and went to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to look for people he knew.

He saw a picture of Tal and got in touch with his parents by speaking to the person holding the sign.

“Since then I meet his family in Hostage Square every Saturday night,” said Shemesh.

When asked if he thinks about what meeting Tal will be like, Shemesh said that all he wants is to give him a hug.“I just want him to come out alive,” he said. “Tal is a very mentally strong person. Maybe the strongest person I know, but even that has a limit.”

Asked what message he would send Tal if he could, Shemesh said he would want to update him on his wife Adi, and two children who were also taken hostage on the 7th, but released in the November deal.

“I would want him to know that his children and wife are ok and in Israel and that they are waiting for him. That is what I would want to tell him.”