Federations welcome Liri, Naama, Karina, and Daniella home from captivity

Our hearts are full today as we welcome Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, and Daniella Gilboa home after an unimaginable 477 days held in Hamas captivity.

The four soldiers were taken hostage from a base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where they were serving as lookouts, and provided some of the earliest warnings of the October 7th attacks as they began.

This second release of hostages gives us hope that in the coming weeks, we will see continued hostage releases until every last one of the remaining 90 hostages are returned home to their families.

The Louisville Jewish community continues to hold the remaining hostages in our hearts and prayers until they come home.

 

The Jewish Federation of Louisville is also proud that a member of our community, Dr. Michelle Elisburg, was one of the 14 physicians who traveled to our Partnership region in the Western Galilee on a weeklong medical mission organized by Partnership2Gether, a project of the Jewish Agency for Israel that strengthens ties between American and Israeli communities.

According to a release from Partnership2Gether, while the doctors had come to learn — and did learn — from their Israeli colleagues in various specialties during the program’s five full days, they said they’d be returning better equipped as first-hand observers to speak about Israel’s reality during this challenging period. The mission occurred during a ceasefire in the war that the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah launched against Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’s massacre of approximately 1,200 Israelis near the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Elisburg, M.D., who practices pediatrics in Louisville, used the word “helpful,” but the equation went the other way for her.

Visiting the Jewish state and speaking with local pediatricians was a relief from the anti-Israel rhetoric she often encounters back home.

“When you’re being bashed and demonized all the time, talking to like-minded people is helpful. It’s self-care, because you don’t feel so alone,” said Elisburg. “It’s war, and I want to do something. If we were here at peacetime, we’d be talking about something else.”

               Dr. Elisburg, left, with members of the medical team at Galilee Medical Center

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