The citizen effort to return Israel’s hostages

Photos: Elchanan Kotler

In a repurposed start-up hub in Tel Aviv, some of Israel’s most creative minds have mobilized to battle for the captives held in Hamas’s tunnels. As religious engagement with the hostages’ families grows, one request repeats itself again and again

There’s a definite start-up vibe about the operation at 13 Leonardo Da Vinci Street in Tel Aviv. Bean-bag-equipped lounges and coffee machines abound. There are the twenty-somethings working on laptops in the open work spaces, scrawled daily targets in English on the whiteboards behind them. Divided into teams responsible for everything from data to social media and graphics, their functions are described by handwritten signs that flap in the breeze created by purposeful foot traffic.

But what’s happening over the building’s nine floors a stone’s throw from the likes of Google is a tragic parody of a tech start-up.

For a start, the organization’s heads have a singular long-term aim: “We want to shut down before we figure out how to run this,” says entrepreneur Amos Pikal.

Here at these former offices of the kibbutz movement turned tech hub, there are no dreams of big bucks in stock options. Instead, the ultimate exit is measured in lives — 241 of them, to be precise.

Welcome to the headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an international organization that was born and blitz-scaled in the days after October 7 to help the families whose loved ones are in captivity in Gaza. While Israel’s government and armed forces reeled under the Hamas onslaught, some of Israel’s leading entrepreneurs and activists teamed up to create something unprecedented.

Under one roof is a one-stop NGO with a staggering array of functions, powered by hundreds of volunteers who’ve put their careers on hold to help out. From psychological help to assistance with bureaucracy, prosecuting Hamas for war crimes and pressuring foreign governments to intervene, the Hostages Forum is a strange combination of citizens advice bureau, diplomatic service, and war room.

By now, the group’s most iconic output — the posters of captive men, women, and children that are hung all over the world — has fallen victim to the rising tide of anti-Israel hate. From New York to London, the posters have been ripped down by pro-Palestinian bigots, in a sign of Israel’s uphill struggle to tell the story of its kidnapped civilians.

But if there’s anyone who has an uphill battle, it’s the families who walk the corridors of the seven-story building, seeking advice, giving media interviews, or just sitting still, mutely holding posters of their loved ones as they wait for the next update.

A product of the Tel Aviv tech-savvy world, the Hostages Forum is very much in the images of its creators — with hardly any evidence of a religious presence besides the kosher label on a few dishes in the informal lunch buffet downstairs.

But over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a growing religious engagement with the hostages’ families. Beginning with individual visitors who came to express solidarity and find out how they could help, the contacts blossomed into a series of international tefillos by women, in a movement that is set to grow.

And as many religious visitors discover, a tentative faith has emerged among many of the secular-looking people wearing the yellow tag that the families wear. One request repeats itself time and again.

“How can you help?” they ask. “You can pray for our children.”