Few words can describe the sentiments and emotions that filled the massive tent, as nearly 300 people gathered to hear former hostage Yosef Haim Ohana, share his story of 738 days as a Hostage and the messages of faith, compassion, kindness that helped him navigate the two years as a hostage.
Each anecdote of challenge, pain, torture, was in itself so much to hear, but the strength and determination of Yosef, and the miracles that happened along the way, are truly beyond words.
Following Yosef's speech, his father Avi who had visited Sudbury two years ago and stayed in touch with our community, took the stage, and shared his perspective as a father, and the faith and trust in G-d that kept him going.
They spoke together of different unique moments and how this gave them hope at different moments of time.
They both spoke of the importance of being strong in our identity, being proud of it, and faith and kindness and compassion.
Yosef shared the three values of compassion, kindness and peace that he thought of each and every day to make sure that day had purpose, not just hope. Together with his faith, he described even though he didn't know if he would end each day among the living, he wanted to make sure that the purpose was being lived now, just with the hopes of the future.
Wrapping up the powerful evening, Daniel Sharabi, a hero who saved dozens of lives on Oct 7th, and Yosef's close friend who had also visited Sudbury and told his story, took the stage and shared a few words about their journey, the efforts to support Yosef's continued journey, and to continue to help other survivors.
Together, Yosef, Avi and Daniel along with others ended the evening with Psalms of Thanksgiving, Prayers of Hope and a joyful rendition of Am Yisrael Chai led by Josh Sherer on his guitar!
The energy and uplift in the room was truly so powerful!
A huge thank you to everyone who helped in so many ways, from setting up the tent, to security, check in, food prep, sound and audio, parking, Sudbury PD, Tefillin wrapping, Landscaping and Gardening and so many other ways.
Thank you Phil, Jay, Jeff, Aharon, Rob, David, Roman and everyone else from Six13 and Dima & Bart for all of your assistance with the security needs of the evening. We are grateful to Sudbury Police Department for their coordination with the security and saftey needs of this event.
Thank you also to the many who stepped up to help support this massive event with kind and generous sponsorships. I want to give a special thank you to Rick & Gabrielle Henken for their tremendous support for this event and our community's efforts along the way to help Yosef's family and so many others.
With the support of so many, most of the costs have been covered for this event and thanks to each and every one of you we held a beautiful community event which inspired hundreds and shared with Yosef the love of our community.
If you would like to help us finish covering the costs of this event with the extras going to support Yosef and his family in their journey ahead, you may do so at www.chabadsudbury.com/
Thank you to Ed & Robin & Paige for your help with running the check in for the event.
Thank you to all of the teenagers who helped with parking and setup, Mendel Freeman, Shia Korf, Aarron Lipsker, Mendel Reichman, Yonatan Embon, Liam Ohayon, Daniel Kimyagarov, Yonatan Kimyagarov, & Aaaron & Ethan Schiwoitz.
Thank you to Josh Sherer who worked so hard on securing and setting up all of the sound equipment and to Martin Kaye for helping out with this.
Thank you David Angelov for your help with landscaping and to Dynnie Booth for all of your gardening efforts. The place looked beautiful to welcome Yosef and the community.
It truly takes a village!
To donate directly to Yosef's journey you may do so at https://yad.reachhands.com/
To donate to the work with PTSD victims from the Nova that Daniel's center does you may do so at https://lanizolim.co.il/en/
Thank you to Slava Sardak for most of these amazing pictures which you can see over here.
Thank you to each and every person who made an effort to join. It was truly so beautiful to see such a huge crowd from the Jewish and wider community standing together in support of Yosef. Local spiritual leaders from multiple faiths, local and regional politicians, and town officials, and hundreds of people, all in a tent full of energy and uplift!
Thank you all!
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
Yisroel