Hostage families in entertainment industry speak out about their relatives in Hamas captivity

"I’m a man on a mission,” said Hen Avigdori, a television writer whose mission is usually to make people laugh. But now, things are different. “I’m on a mission to bring back my girls.”

His girls are his wife, Sharon, 52, and their daughter, Noam, 12. On October 7, while on a visit to family members at Kibbutz Be’eri, they were kidnapped by Hamas into Gaza, and are now a part of the 239 people from Israel and around the world being held there. 

For the vast majority of these hostages, there have been no proofs of life, and no humanitarian organization has been permitted to visit any of them. Life for Avigdori and his 16-year-old son, Omer, who thankfully is still home with him in Hod Hasharon, has been a living nightmare for nearly six weeks. 

Hamas massacre was indiscriminate

The writer is just one member of the Israeli entertainment industry who found their world turned upside down by the massacre and kidnappings, an event that spared no segment of Israeli society, as Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists from more than 40 countries were killed and captured. 

Avigdori is trying to keep life as normal as possible for his son, while he spends nearly every free minute trying to publicize the plight of the hostages and keep up the pressure for their release. He has taken part in demonstrations and is planning to join the march of the hostages’ families when it arrives in Jerusalem on Saturday, an event that is expected to include thousands of family members and others concerned about the hostages. 

For a few moments, Avigdori, who was composed but understandably emotional as he spoke, sounded almost relaxed as he talked about Sharon and Noam. Sharon is a drama therapist who works with people on the autism spectrum. Her husband said: “On days when parents come to school to talk about their jobs, I was always the fun parent; I work with famous people; I take the kids to TV sets. But Sharon – her work changes the world.” She works with young children who are “all over the spectrum” at a communication preschool not far from where they live. 

“I’ve gotten lots of phone calls from parents of the kids she works with,” he said. 

One mother said that her son, one of Sharon’s pupils, recognized her face on one of the hostage posters and said her name. “They want her back, they miss her, too,” he said. 

His daughter Noam is so social that, “I can’t keep track of all her friends. I had her make a kind of chart of all her friends, so I could try to keep track of her social connections.” 

But while she is in the center of a social whirl, she is kind, he said. 

“She would never ostracize anyone. She’s a top student, she likes school, she likes learning, she is hilarious, she has a very sarcastic sense of humor, she cracks me up.” She was a kind of surrogate sister to her cousin, Yahel Neri Shoham, three years old, who was also kidnapped into Gaza along with four other family members: Shoshan Haran, 67, Adi Shosham, 38, Tal Shoham, 38, and Naveh Shoham, 8. Avigdori’s brother-in-law, Avshalom Haran, 66, was murdered by Hamas, and two other family members,  Lilach and Eviatar Kipnis, were also killed on the kibbutz.

Avigdori last heard from his family on the morning of October 7, when they entered a safe room after missiles were fired from Gaza. 

“My brother-in-law said, ‘They’re a little bit afraid, they’re not used to going into the safe room,’” which has become a routine fact of life for those living in the South of Israel. At around 11 on that fateful morning, his brother-in-law Avshalom let him know they were in “big trouble,” and then Avigdori could not reach them anymore. 

After that, “I was going berserk, I was calling people and no one knew anything.” Sharon and Noam were initially listed as missing following the attack. “That was two weeks of hell, it was very difficult for me,” he said. Later, he was informed that they were among those kidnapped to Gaza.

Although it was evening when we spoke and I could tell from his voice that he had had a long day – every day is a long day for him now, of course – he wanted to keep talking. 

Asked what people, in Israel and around the world, can do to help, he said, “That’s an easy question. Do whatever you can. Put up yellow ribbons. Post their pictures. Don’t let them be forgotten.” Americans can write to their congressional representatives and contact international humanitarian aid organizations, he suggested. 

Many others in the entertainment sector have been affected by the massacre and kidnappings. These include Aaron Geva, who was one of the directors of the Hot television series, Chanshi, created by and starring Aleeza Chanowitz, which also featured TV icon Henry Winkler. Recently, there was an ugly incident in which Chanowitz was disinvited from a Swedish film festival, which subsequently gave a belated and not terribly convincing apology. Geva confirmed in an email Wednesday that seven members of his family have been kidnapped, including children from three to twelve years of age. 

Much of the cast of Fauda has headed off to do reserve duty, including Idan Amedi and Tsahi Halevi, and the Fauda community suffered the loss of Matan Meir, a key crew member, who was killed in a booby-trapped tunnel in the north of the Gaza earlier this week. On its official Instagram account, the Fauda team wrote: “We are absolutely devastated to share that one of our very own Fauda family members, Matan Meir, was killed in action in Gaza. Matan was an integral part of the crew for all four seasons of Fauda. The entire cast and crew are completely heartbroken by this tragic loss. We would like to extend our condolences to Matan’s family and friends. May his soul rest in peace.”

Yadin Gellman, an actor who is an officer in the elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, was seriously wounded while fighting Hamas terrorists at Kibbutz Be’eri on Saturday night and is currently recovering. He starred as an army officer in the War of Independence in Avi Nesher’s Image of Victory and has played a soldier in two upcoming movies. He is spending time now giving  interviews to foreign press about the war.

Yahav Winner, an acclaimed filmmaker from Kfar Aza, had completed his movie, The Boy, about a young kibbutz man struggling to find his place in the world. But before it could be released, he was murdered on October 7, sacrificing himself so that his wife, Shaylee Atary, and their baby, Shaya, could flee. The movie is currently being shown at Lev Cinemas theaters throughout Israel and was made available on the website of The New Yorker. 

At the same time that entertainment industry figures in Israel have been directly affected by the war, some celebrities abroad have gone above and beyond to show their support for the families of the hostages. 

Jerusalem-born, Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman met with several of the families recently and recorded a video posted on the Bring Them Home Now Instagram page, in which she said, in part, “To all the families I was lucky to meet some of you the other day I was so horrified at the experiences your family members had to go through and are still going through today... I join you and the international community to end this humanitarian disaster and protect women, children, the elderly, and all the innocent people who are suffering right now. I’m with you, I cry with you, I hold you in my thoughts, I join you in this cry to bring them back now.” 

She also called on human rights organizations to condemn the rapes and other war crimes that Hamas committed. Portman has previously posted videos on her Instagram urging the release of the hostages. 

Julianna Margulies, best known as the star of The Good Wife, has been extremely vocal about her support for getting the hostages released, while many other celebrities have called for a ceasefire without showing any concern for those who have been kidnapped. 

Margulies learned that Yarden Roman-Gat, one of the hostages, was a fan of The Good Wife, and requested to meet with her family. After the meeting, she posted pictures of Yarden and the family on her Instagram account, describing how Yarden’s husband was able to flee with their daughter but Yarden, who couldn’t run fast enough, was taken hostage in Gaza. 

“I met with Yarden’s family who are doing everything to get her home safely. As a mother, I can’t imagine what she has gone through. I think about what I would have done in that same situation, it’s unfathomable to me to make such a brave choice and yet I think every mother I know would have done the same thing.” 

Margulies spoke to the Israeli Channel 12 about her concern for Yarden and all the hostages and said she hoped to meet Yarden once she was free and that she was “disheartened” by the silence of many Jews in the US entertainment history. 

Avigdori said he was pleased by the attention celebrities were paying, and hoped it would help. While he expressed anger at the government for abandoning the South to defend itself on October 7, he was most concerned with getting out the message that “The number one goal of this war has to be bringing the hostages home.” 

Meanwhile, he said, while waiting for a hostage deal to take place, he said he and his son have made a deal of their own. “I don’t hide any information from him, and he doesn’t hide any emotion from me... And that’s what we’ll keep doing until Noam and Sharon are back home.”