Grapevine November 9, 2025: Celebrating freedom

Movers and Shakers in Israeli society.

ALTHOUGH THEY frequently say that their freedom will not be complete until the remains of the remaining hostages are released and brought home to Israel for burial, the most recently releasedlive hostages are celebrating their freedom by removing stickers, posters, and signboards bearing their images along with slogans such as “Bring them home NOW!”

Last week, Matan Angrest, whose mother fought such a valiant and unrelenting battle to keep his name and face in the public consciousness in the hope of securing his release, came with members of his family to the Acre factory plant of the Tambour paint company to personally take down the huge signboard that has been displayed there since Matan’s abduction. He was welcomed by Tambour CEO Micha Scharir, who, together with the company, has consistently supported the hostage families, Anat, in general, and the Angrest family, in particular. “We’ve been waiting for you for two years,” he told Matan in an emotionally choked voice. “To see you take down the signboard calling for your return was a moment of closure,” he said afterwards. “We are all delighted for you and for your family.”

Matan’s parents, Anat and Hagai, said that seeing the board throughout the two years that Matan was in captivity gave them hope and confidence that they would see him again.

In thanking all those who had come to witness him removing the board, Matan said: “We must not forget those brave soldiers who gave their lives in the effort to rescue the hostages, so that we could all be here together.”

ANOTHER FORMER hostage who can pride in what his mother did in the endeavor to bring about his freedom is Matan Zangauker, who will be applauding his mother, Einav, in May 2026, when she receives an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University in recognition of her uncompromising, courageous, and inspiring struggle together with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and the broader public, for the return to Israel of all hostages, both the living and the deceased.

For some time, her voice was the most frequently heard at rallies for the hostages, and she dared to confront political and military leaders and to berate them for what was widely perceived as insufficient activity on behalf of the cause.

She is resolved to bring home the remains of those soldiers whose families have been waiting for so long to have a grave to visit.

Because Zangauker, in her quest, did not always mind her p’s and q’s, and because the rallies at which she spoke often blocked traffic on highways, the decision to confer an honorary doctorate on her aroused controversy in some circles, but from the university’s perspective, her determination to bring home all the hostages, including Hadar Goldin, reflects TAU’s commitment to all the hostages and fallen soldiers.

At the same event at which Zangauker will receive her honorary doctorate, US Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff will receive the prestigious George S. Wise Medal in recognition of his outstanding efforts toward the release of the hostages.

Wise, an American sociologist, was the founding president of TAU, serving from 1963 to 1971.

There’s still time to add to the citation, which should include Witkoff’s deeply humane attitude in meetings with the families. Because Witkoff himself is a bereaved father, he understood the grief and anxiety of those who had lost loved ones and those who didn’t know whether their loved ones were alive or dead. He not only spoke to them gently but also physically embraced them.

Tel Aviv University representatives explained that the decision to grant Zangauker the honorary degree includes the university’s ongoing commitment to also bring home the remains of Hadar Goldin, the son of Dr. Leah Goldin and Prof. Simha Goldin, who is a TAU faculty member.

According to the powers that be at TAU, “Einav Zangauker represents the broader social movement to bring the hostages home and has been one of its most prominent leaders. Since October 7, she has become a symbol of social solidarity, the sanctity of life, unity, and parenthood.” The Goldins have been campaigning for over a decade for the return of Hadar, who fell in battle in August 2014 during Operation Protective Edge.

The ceremony will take place in May on Tel Aviv University’s campus, during the university’s Annual Board of Governors Meeting, with more than a thousand guests expected to attend. The conferment ceremony will take place during the annual meeting of the TAU Board of Governors.

Josh Aronson visits Poland to attend a pre-Kristallnacht anniversary conference

UK-BASED prize-winning journalist Josh Aronson, who is the Diaspora correspondent for Maariv, and whose byline occasionally appears in The Jerusalem Post, is the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and also happens to be on the autism spectrum. He frequently travels to Europe to cover conferences and other events hosted and organized by a variety of Jewish organizations and was last week in Poland to attend a pre-Kristallnacht anniversary conference, which, in addition to an interparliamentary discussion, included a visit to Auschwitz.

Participants in the interparliamentary discussion included legislators from parliaments across Europe, including the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Bulgaria. Also present was former British prime minister Boris Johnson, who posted on X/Twitter that he was honored to be at the conference in Krakow, where he was reported to be speaking out against antisemitism. Johnson has long been a friend of the Jewish People and of Israel. In his youth, he was a volunteer on a kibbutz; as Mayor of London, he came to visit, and in November 2023, he was among the first politicians to demonstrate solidarity with Israel by touring the sites of the Hamas massacre. He also happens to be a personal friend of Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. Social activist, political strategist, and analyst Amjad Taha from the UAE was also present. Taha led a youth delegation to Israel in the immediate aftermath of the signing of the Abraham Accords.

As his grandfather Klemi Sinason was an Auschwitz survivor and the International Day for Disability Awareness was just over a month away, Aronson suggested that the Auschwitz visit include the laying of a large bouquet of flowers in tribute to and in memory of people with disabilities who had also been persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. His suggestion was adopted and may well become an annual feature of such visits to Auschwitz.

FOR SEVERAL decades now, a series of politicians and IDF Chiefs of Staff have been trying to either close or downgrade public broadcasting, with particular emphasis on Army Radio’s bnews and actuality, because the army is supposed to be an apolitical organ. Just because IDF personnel are in uniform does not mean that they are devoid of political beliefs and attitudes. To presume otherwise is ridiculous, especially as no Knesset election result is final until the votes of soldiers have been counted. But it’s not only that. There’s a certain resentment against young men and women, just a year or two out of high school, asking pertinent political and military questions. That was the case a little over forty years ago when Ilana Dayan, then a girl soldier serving via Army Radio, was asking probing questions that made politicians feel distinctly uncomfortable. They considered her to be audacious. But she was so good at what she was doing that she raised the bar for aspiring young journalists.

What Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and those who voted for his bill at its first reading fail to realize, that if they put a Pravda mantle over broadcasting outlets, forcing all to broadcast from the same menu, they will all lose out – and so will the public – but more important so will public figures who will no longer be invited to air their opinions on the issues of the day. This will be akin to depriving them of oxygen. If they complain, they can always be told that they brought it on themselves. Removal of the news and actuality content from Army Radio is like closing down a media school. Many of Israel’s top broadcast journalists got their start and honed their skills at Army Radio before moving on to other media outlets. Army Radio was and is a phenomenal training ground.

ON THE eve of their departure for Paris, members of the Here and Now group, which is responsible for the acquisitions of the Israel Museum, together with the museum’s director, Susanne Landa, got together on the rooftop balcony in the Tel Aviv home of Ruth Cheshin, the former long-time president of the Jerusalem Foundation. They were there to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the acquisition season. Since its founding in 2009, Here and Now has purchased contemporary art for the museum to the value of approximately NIS10.6 million. In Paris, the group was hosted at the home of Odille Madar, who heads the French Friends of the Israel Museum, and also visited the home of prominent art collector Sylvain Levy, who is well known for his collection of contemporary Chinese Art. Levy and his wife, Dominique, have a long and close association with the Israel Museum.

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