Bearing Witness: A Hostage Family Story
Alana Zeitchik, a hostage advocate and the Executive Director of The Narrow Bridge Project, recounts the devastating story of her family’s experience during the October 7th massacre, when her cousins and their twin daughters were taken hostage by Hamas. Alana, an Israeli-American from New Jersey, vividly describes the chilling moment of seeing a TikTok video of her family being taken captive, a moment that propelled her to relentless advocacy.
Now, Alana is a powerful voice on social media, using her platform to amplify the voices of the hostages and their families. She explains how challenging it has been to break through the noise of rising antisemitism in global discourse. She notes that while solidarity from the community has been vital, it will take more to bring the hostages home.
About Our Speaker:
Alana Zeitchik is an Israeli-American Advocate, writer and Executive Director of The Narrow Bridge Project based in Brooklyn, NY. On October 7th, six of her family members were taken hostage, at which point she dedicated herself to fighting for their release. She has written op-eds in publications like The New York Times and the Forward, made countless media appearances, given speeches at the United Nations and March Against Antisemitism, and has built a supportive and engaged social media community. Her compassionate voice and nuanced approach to advocacy deeply resonates with a wide range of people inside and out of the Jewish community.
Video Transcript
Amitai Fraiman: [00:00:00] Please join me in welcoming Alana. She's an advocate, a writer, and the executive director of A Narrow Bridge Project.
Alana Zeitchik: Hi, everyone.
Amitai Fraiman: Thank you, Alana, for being with us today. I know, I speak for everyone in this room and who's watching. When I say that we can't imagine the pain you and your family are going through and have suffered, suffered and continue to In this whole ordeal. So thank you for joining us.
it's profoundly meaningful and we really are appreciative and we're here to hear your story and do what we can to support. You and the hostages and the other families.
Alana Zeitchik: Thank you for having me.
Amitai Fraiman: So just to start, can you tell us about your family, [00:01:00] you know, sharing what you feel is most important that we know so we can start this conversation.
Alana Zeitchik: Sure. So I guess let's start with who I am. I'm an Israeli American. I was born and raised here in the U S and New Jersey. my mother is the Israeli one and my father is from Brooklyn. So I like to say I'm half Yemenite Israeli and half Brooklyn Jew. I had the privilege of being born here, but getting to go back and forth between Israel and I have a very large, beautiful, generous, Amazing family.
I'm so, so lucky. I like to say that I won the lottery with my family. And, I'm very close with all my cousins. And on October 7th, my worst fears came true. So my cousin Sharon and her husband David and their twin girls Emma and Yuli lived on Kibbutz Nir Oz I was always worried about their safety, as were they, and I woke up to the same news that all of you did here in the [00:02:00] states, but for me it got worse and worse and worse.
They were missing. Then I saw a TikTok video of some of them being taken captive, at which point I knew that there was going to be a very long road ahead of us. My cousin Danielle her sister and Emilia were visiting Nir Oz on that day when they were brutally taken and really an act of barbarism and terrorism that We all know.
I started screaming to the world I, took to Instagram as any millennial would do, because where else was I gonna go? And decided that I would scream to the ends of the earth for them. And that's what I've done.
Amitai Fraiman: Thank you. So you start with very personal and you went first to Instagram to shout to the end of the earth.
Mm-hmm . And, this unwelcome journey has turned you into an advocate and activist. So can you share a little bit about what it's meant for you and what it's done so far?
Alana Zeitchik: advocacy for the hostages has not been very [00:03:00] easy, to say the least. I've been up against many challenges, so I spoke at the UN on October 13th, Less than a week, after they were taken hostage.
And within that time, you know, as like a Brooklyn Jew, I'm part of a very liberal, progressive community that I'm a part of, and I was immediately, we were immediately rejected by, you know, the liberal and progressive spaces that I would have expected to not completely turn their backs on me. And so that was very challenging, in particular in the beginning.
I wrote an op- ed in the New York Times about my frustrations about how people cannot seem to hold more than one truth at the same time and being left behind people couldn't help me hold my grief while the Jewish community was slapping up posters all over New York City and the world, and that certainly helped, but, it's really hard to get heard because, as anti Semitism has increased and risen, and of course, we're doing a lot in the diaspora to combat [00:04:00] this, but it's very noisy.
It's very noisy, and the hostages are getting forgotten and it's very hard to break through even within pro-Israel spaces and the Jewish community. It's very hard for our cause to be heard and it can be deeply frustrating at times because, you know, I'm fighting for my family's life. David is still somewhere in the dark, damp tunnels under Gaza.
101 souls remain there, and they're being abandoned and sacrificed. And this gets lost in, a lot of the really important, narrative that is out there, but it's being overshadowed. and so it's been very, very hard to break through. We're over a year now, and we still have too many people that are held captive.
Amitai Fraiman: So when you say that, it's hard to break through, can you help us understand that a little bit better, what that means? Because I'm sure [00:05:00] people are thinking, well, there's posters and we see it and we're wearing the pins and
Alana Zeitchik: Yeah, I think that we have normalized, them being in captivity. I, I'm so grateful for the Jewish community.
I don't think I would have made it through this at all without having some level of solidarity to lean on. But solidarity is simply not enough. In Israel, we have so many people, hundreds of thousands protesting in the streets every Saturday. crying out to their government to do something. And solidarity is not enough.
and while all of us hostage families appreciate it and need it, it's not bringing anyone home. And my cousin Sean is such a, she's broken and her voice can't be heard because she doesn't have the strength to go out and advocate. She has to take care of Emma and Yuli who are asking every day, why is he still in Gaza?
And they know what Gaza is because they were [00:06:00] there. I feel like I need, the Jewish community to stand with us hostage families and put some of the noise aside for a little while so that we can get them home.
Amitai Fraiman: So connected to that, you know, in our conversations, you, You bring so much clarity to what you believe needs to be done. And, you know, we talked about noise and you elaborate a little bit more about that, and it seems that there isn't that same level of clarity, the public discourse. So what are some other things, some other sides of this that you need the community to understand in support of the hostage families?
Alana Zeitchik: Sure. So I completely get why, but to be clear, you're not all hostage families, so you're not in my situation. I completely understand. Why it's very easy to get swept up in the discourse. and it's really inflammatory. I mean, I spend a lot of [00:07:00] time on social media. I see what you're seeing and sometimes probably worse on Tiktok
so I get it, but as an advocate, I feel that I have found a clarity that is a little harder when you're not as close to this, what I want people to understand is that we are a Jewish family. And so my family is your family. My pain is your pain. My fight is your fight. And I need you to fight with us like in that way, the way that, that as if every one of you have someone held hostage in Gaza and think about how would you,
what would you do if your father, cousin, brother, sister, child, David and his brother, Ariel are in captivity And their mother, Sylvia, has two of her sons, half of her children are held captive. Act like that every single day. Bring that energy to [00:08:00] how you advocate for the hostages, and that means holding every single person accountable who is responsible for keeping them in captivity.
Not just the ones who took them, the ones who keep them there.
And in the diaspora, I know it's challenging to stand up. To the israeli government. I know it's challenging to find ways to criticize them But this is our responsibility I have the same fears that you have I'm, also very much an american jew who is afraid of the same things that you're afraid of What I want to ask of you is that you have courage for the hostages speak up, speak truth to power, and help us to bring them home by demanding that there is a deal now.
Amitai Fraiman: As a community here, we're all here to support you and the families. You started giving a little bit of this and I'm going to ask a little bit more. What can this audience do to help advance the cause of Bring the Hostages?
Alana Zeitchik: [00:09:00] Sure. In whatever capacity you have power, use it. Use it to call attention to the hostages.
Use it to elevate our voices. Elevate and amplify hostage voices. Hos like returned hostages like my family. My voice. there are so many of us hostage families who are trying so hard to be heard and we need you to make a little bit of space for it. So wherever you have the capacity and power, whether it's in your career, in your communities, bring us in, help us to be heard.
You don't have to speak for us. I don't want you to speak for us. I want you to let us be heard. So however you can do that, please find a way to do that. Take action. Take action and speak out and demand that the war end to release the hostages.
Amitai Fraiman: Thank you, Alana. Thank you. I have one final question here.
I've seen you speak, I've seen you write, I've seen you do your work, and to the extent that it's helpful for all of [00:10:00] us here, I'm curious to hear what you What does give you a little hope to get up in the morning to continue the fight?
Alana Zeitchik: Oh, oh man. hope is something that I create because no one's going to give it to me.
so I find it in the faces of my family that returned from Gaza, no matter how broken my cousin is. Every time I FaceTime with her, I cry. I find it in the sound of the children's voices and Emma and Yuli and Amelia, I mean, it's a miracle and I, haven't gotten into their whole story, but every moment of their journey from kidnapping through being in Gaza to coming home are miracles.
And I find it every morning, I tell myself, David's going to come home. They're going to come home. And, so I make it for myself because no one's going to give it to me.
Amitai Fraiman: Thank You, Alana . Thank you for your bravery and for your resilience and for sharing your family story with us today. We all join you in hope and action for a safe return.
[00:11:00] Amen.
