Image by courtesy of Phil Getz

Phil Getz, center, relaxes with fellow yeshiva students in Gush Etzion several years ago

Like many students and graduates of Israeli yeshiva, I have been refreshing my computer browser non-stop since Friday morning looking for any sign of hope for the three Israeli teenage boys who were kidnapped on Thursday evening.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

For those of us who studied at any of the yeshivas or seminaries in Gush Etzion, the news has particular resonance. According to Haaretz, the teens “disappeared late Thursday night between Kfar Etzion and the settlement Alon Shvut” apparently while hitchhiking near the Gush Etzion junction.

I must have hitchhiked from that very spot several hundred times, not infrequently on Thursday nights, which is a popular night to travel. And so has every other yeshiva student in the area.

We all knew, as I’m sure these teens did, which cars to enter and which to avoid as they approached on the hilly road. Sometimes there were Israeli security forces in the area, sometimes not.

I recall on one particular Thursday night, the fourth in November, two American friends and I went to the shwarma place at the Gush Etzion junction to uphold the tradition of eating turkey on Thanksgiving.

Sitting on the side of the road, each of us shared what we were thankful for that year. For me, it was the opportunity to spend one more year of life studying Torah in the Judaean hills from one of the great scholars of our generation, and at a place so welcoming to American sensibilities.

We waited patiently at the junction for the next free ride back to yeshiva.

Not then, not ever, did we feel in danger.

I look at the photos of the three young men who vanished there last night, one an American citizen, of which there so many in that small community. Please pray for their safe return: Yaakov Naftali Ben Rochel Devorah, Gilad Michoel Ben Bat Gali, and Eyal Ben Iris Teshura.

They look just like we did only a few years ago.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount