Former Hostage Eli Sharabi Thanks G-d at Rebbe's Resting Place

Eli Sharabi, who was held hostage by Hamas for 491 days after being kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, visited the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, on the evening of Thursday, March 20.

Sharabi’s visit to the Ohel carried deep significance for him and his family. Last year, his brother Sharon came to the Rebbe’s resting place with Chabad-Lubavitch activist Rabbi Mendy Naftalin to pray for his brother’s release. Exactly a year to the date later, Sharabi was freed, and Naftalin accompanied the brothers on their return trip to express their gratitude for the miraculous blessings.

Sharabi was joined by Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, director of Merkos Suite 302, and Rabbi Zalman Wolowik, director of Chabad of the Five Towns. Sharabi is in New York for a special session at the United Nations Security Council focused on the hostages still held in Palestinian captivity, where he shared his horrific account both at a press conference and with Council members during the session. While at the Ohel, Sharabi met with Moshe Lion, the mayor of Jerusalem, and Rabbi Zalman Duchman of Colel Chabad, who also visited that evening.

While at the Ohel, Sharabi wrote all the names of the hostages still being held in Gaza and a request for blessing that he left at the holy site, as per tradition. On his way to the Rebbe’s resting place, Sharabi placed some money into the large tzedakah box near the entrance, and lit a memorial candle. He was also gifted a dollar received from the Rebbe, organized by Chanie Kozliner, for an added measure of blessing and protection.

Sharabi was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be'eri on Oct. 7, and separated from his wife Leanne and daughters Noya and Yahel. His brother Yossi was also taken hostage. For 491 days, he was starved and tortured by Hamas, holding onto hope that he would eventually be reunited with his family.

At the Ohel, Sharabi spoke about the role of faith in keeping him alive. “I came from the darkest place in the world — 50 meters underground,” he said. “What gave me strength was saying Shema Yisrael every morning. Every Friday night, we tried to make Kiddush. We didn’t have wine, so we used water. It was the faith that kept us alive.”

During the 42-day ceasefire that began in January, Sharabi was one of the 25 living hostages and 8 deceased hostages ransomed by Hamas. Yossi Sharabi was murdered in captivity, and his body is still being held by the Palestinian terror organization.

Following a cynical release charade, during which the world was shocked by his emaciated appearance and how Hamas prodded him to share how excited he was to be reunited with his family, Sharabi was transferred to Israeli officials on Feb. 8, where he was informed that his wife and two daughters had been murdered on Oct. 7. One of his first requests was a spiritual one—a pair of tefillin—and his family's Chabad rabbi was ready to help.

Rabbi Shneur Raskin, Chabad emissary to Alfei Menashe, Israel, had been in touch with Sharabi's family throughout his captivity in Gaza. When he heard about Eli’s request, he jumped into action, procuring a beautiful set of tefillin in custom embroidered bags that read: “The entire nation of Israel hugs you.”

At the Ohel, Sharabi recited the traditional Kaddish mourner’s prayer for his brother for the first time.

A Place of Prayer for Hostage Families

The Ohel has become a significant place of prayer for the families of hostages.

In November 2023, Sharon Sharabi joined 170 other family members of hostages in a visit to New York to pray at the Rebbe’s Ohel. Organized by the Terror Victims Project of the Chabad Youth Organization, the flight was chartered for the sole reason of bringing family members to pray for a miracle at the holy site.

Sharabi’s visit to the Ohel echoes a pilgrimage made by fellow former hostage Noa Argamani in July 2024, following her rescue. Argamani, 26, was abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Re'im music festival massacre on Oct. 7. Images and videos of her—some of the first released by Hamas on that day—pleading to her captors from the back of a motorcycle, her arm extended in hope and screaming “don’t kill me,” were some of the first markers of the brutality that would await the hostages, and she became a face of the hostage crisis. She was reaching out to Avinatan Or, 31, who was also kidnapped on that day. He is still held in captivity in Gaza, one of 24 of the remaining 59 hostages thought to be alive. A hostage that was recently released shared a sign of life from Or, the first since he was captured.

On the same November trip to the Rebbe’s Ohel that Sharon Sharabi joined, Noa’s father, Yaakov, was among the 170 family members who came to pray. He was famously pictured placing a photo of his daughter at the Ohel bearing the words “Bring Her Home Now.”

At the time, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky—a member of the Rebbe's secretariat and chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and Machne Yisrael, Chabad’s respective educational and social-services arms—addressed the crowd with words of hope.

“Our days and our nights are focused in prayer, demanding that your loved ones—our loved ones—come home to you safe and sound, physically and spiritually,” Krinsky said.

At that point, Yaakov didn’t even know if his daughter was alive. But on June 8—245 days after she was taken into captivity—Argamani and three other hostages were rescued from Gaza in a joint operation by the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet and the Israeli Police.

Noa’s mother, Liora, who was terminally ill and had expressed her last wish was to see her daughter, held on to welcome back her daughter. She died three weeks later.

Weeks after her release, much like Sharabi 8 months later, Argamani visited the Ohel to express her gratitude to G‑d for her release, and pray that all hostages are freed in good health soon.

Prime Minister's Wife Joins Hostage Families

Hostage families have also accompanied high-level Israeli officials on visits to the Ohel. Seven families of Israeli hostages kidnapped and taken into Gaza by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7 visited the Ohel on September 24, 2024. They were joined there by Sara Netanyahu, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the eve of her husband’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

The families traveled to New York together with the Prime Minister and the Israeli delegation.

Kobi Samerano, whose 21-year-old son Yonatan (Jonathan) disappeared from the Nova festival in Re’im on Oct. 7, was among them. In December, the Israeli government confirmed that Yonatan had been killed by Hamas terrorists, before his body was stolen into Gaza by an UNRWA employee.

“This was my first time visiting the Ohel,” Samerano told Chabad.org. “This felt like a strong hug; it strengthened us.”

Yael Goren-Hezkiya, head of the Government Policy and Foreign Relations Division in the Kidnapped, Missing and Returnees administration at the Prime Minister’s Office, said the visit to the Ohel was planned long ago. “This is something that the families very much wanted and asked for,” she said at the time.