Seven families of Israeli hostages kidnapped and taken into Gaza by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7 visited the Ohel, the Queens resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, on Thursday night. 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, which is underway in New York.

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

Kobi Samerano’s 21-year-old son Yonatan (Jonathan) disappeared from the Nova festival in Re'im on Oct. 7. 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.

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“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.”

Sara Netanyahu was not at first scheduled to join them. “When Sara asked to come with us, we made it earlier to accommodate her schedule,” said Goren-Hezkiya.

Family members light a candle at the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.
Family members light a candle at the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

With the Jewish people in Israel and around the world praying for safety and security in the Holy Land, Samerano said he felt it was vital that the Prime Minister’s wife came with them to ask for continued blessings. “Of course this is very important for our country and our people.”

This is not the first such visit to the holy site. On Nov. 13 of last year 170 family members of kidnapped men, women and children flew to New York on a flight chartered by the Chabad Youth Organization of Israel’s Terror Victims Project for the express purpose of praying for miracles at the Rebbe’s burial site.

“A Jew is not—G‑d forbid—alone in exile, while G‑d is in His palace in the heavens, looking down from above at what is happening to the Jew below and blessing him from afar,” the Rebbe said in a 1984 talk played at the event.

Goren-Hezkiya, from the Prime Minister’s Office, described the pilgrimage as a deeply moving one. “It was very special. Not all of these families are religious, but they wanted to come to this holy, spiritual place. It was an amazing experience.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu was unable to join on this occasion, but has frequently visited the Ohel in the past. He first met the Rebbe in 1984, when he was Israel’s newly-appointed ambassador to the UN, joining the Rebbe’s Simchat Torah festivities at 770 Eastern Parkway. The scene that met the 34-year-old ambassador was one he has never forgotten.

Sara Netanyahu lights a candle.
Sara Netanyahu lights a candle.

“[T]he Rebbe’s meeting hall was packed with thousands of [Chassidim],” Netanyahu wrote in his 2022 autobiography, Bibi: My Story. “Singing and dancing on the bleachers and on the floor, they formed heaving hills and valleys of the faithful.”

Netanyahu was led through the crowd and delivered to the platform in the front of the synagogue upon which the Rebbe stood. “Rebbe,” Netanyahu said. “I came to see you.” “Just to see?” he remembers the Rebbe responding, with a twinkle in his eyes. “Not to talk?”

A 45 minute conversation followed. “The cacophony of song and merriment around us was deafening,” Netanyahu wrote. “Yet the Rebbe’s message came through loud and clear.

“‘You are going to the House of Lies,’ [the Rebbe] said, referring to the United Nations. ‘Remember,’ he continued, ‘that even in a hall of total darkness, if you light just one candle, its precious light will be seen far and wide … .’”

Netanyahu has told the story of this encounter many times, including, in 2011, from the dais of the UN to all of its member states.

Over many years the Rebbe’s fundamental message to every single Israeli leader drawing from every faction—including Netanyahu—was one and the same: place your faith in G‑d and know that it is only from Him that, in the words of Psalms, “help will come.”

This was the same spirit with which the families of the hostages and Netanyahu’s wife came to the Ohel, said Goren-Hezkiya.

“Praying there together was a very strong feeling. It gave us all hope.”