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While visiting her boyfriend’s family for the religious holiday of Simchat Torah, a young Israeli woman, Sapir Cohen, was taken hostage on October 7, 2023. She spent 55 days in captivity in Gaza before she was released in a deal with the Hamas terrorists who took her and hundreds of other Israelis captive. Cohen’s boyfriend, Sasha Troufanov, has been held captive with one hundred others for exactly one year, today.
Cohen visited my children’s overnight sleepaway program this summer, telling campers about the plight of those still left behind in Gaza while sharing her own experience.
She shared, "Down there [in the tunnels] there is no light. Sometimes a terrorist would use a flashlight, but even then, I couldn’t see anything. There is also no air." She went on to explain the lack of oxygen, the prevalence of humidity and mold, and the lack of food. She experienced this for less than two months; Sasha and 100 others have for twelve months.
She goes anywhere she can to share her story in order to raise awareness about the hostages who have spent a year of their lives wasting away in the tunnels of Gaza, because she knows the world has lost interest. There are no yellow ribbons lining the trees of America’s small towns in honor of the four Americans still being held hostage; nor were there large memorials for Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a young American boy who was taken hostage and executed in the tunnels in Gaza one month ago.
ONE........