Voices Israel War Blog

If anyone is wondering how to help people in the areas affected, check out https://www.am-ehad.org/ (in Hebrew). This is for material forms of help not money donations.

Or you can donate to Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross. Its donation page for Israelis, in Hebrew, is at https://www.mdais.org/donation. The American Friends of Magen David Adom has an English-language donation page at http://afmda.org/.

Thursday December 28th: Kibbutz Nir Oz has just announced as definite, that both Judih and Gadi were murdered already on October 7th, and their bodies taken to Gaza. Since none of our returned hostages had any news of her, we assume that this information comes from Hamas prisoners questioned.

we at Voices Israel grieve for the loss of its talented, peace-loving member and extend our condolences to Judih and Gadi’s families.

Friday December 22nd: We are heartbroken to report that, according to information received by Kibbutz Nir Oz, Judih’s husband Gadi was murdered while a hostage; his body remains in Gaza. The Kan 11 TV evening news said that still no word has been heard about Judih, while the Times of Israel reported that the kibbutz statement said she “remains hostage in Gaza” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/kibbutz-says-gadi-haggai-abducted-oct-7-died-in-hamas-captivity-body-held-in-gaza/). The article adds the information, from their daughter Iris Weinstein Haggai, that following their call to the paramedics for help, an ambulance was sent to them but was hit by rocket fire. We can only continue to hope and pray that Judih is still alive and will return to us.

Tuesday December 12: an article from the Jewish news Syndicate (https://www.jns.org/two-months-on-still-no-word-on-elderly-us-woman-wounded-on-oct-7/) relates that Judih is still “missing” and adds some details: that she was wounded in the face and hand, that only her eyeglasses were found at the spot where she and husband Gadi were shot; and that her phone was traced to Gaza, but none of the returned hostages saw or heard of her there. We continue to assume that she is in Gaza and pray for her safe return. Gadi Haggai was seriously wounded in the head and while also apparently taken to Gaza, is presumed not to have survived.

Thursday November 30: mystery still surrounds what has happened to Judih. A CBC news article from November 29 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/weinstein-haggai-canadian-hamas-hostage-1.7043397) has now reported that her family fear her husband Gad Haggai is probably dead, and Judih’s whereabouts are unknown. A day earlier, a US news source (Judith holds joint Canadian and US citizenship) reported (https://www.thedailybeast.com/no-americans-among-12-hamas-hostages-released-to-israel-from-gaza-on-tuesday) that Judih was one of two American women the US counted as among the hostages and they were trying to get information about her from Hamas — so far apparently to no avail. We can only continue to hope and pray for her safety and that she will return to us.

Sunday November 12: Miriam Green, the coordinator of the Southern Group to which Judih belongs, has heard, indirectly, that Judih’s husband Gad Haggai is confirmed taken hostage, while Judih herself is still officially defined as missing. But since they were together, and neither were found at the GPS location of their last message, it’s highly unlikely that Hamas took one of them and left the other. We don’t know why the difference in official classification: perhaps they’re being held separately and there was intelligence that Gad has been seen there? We continue to hope and pray for their safety.

Tuesday October 24: from an article published in the Times of Israel on Oct. 15th but only now sent to us (https://www.timesofisrael.com/taken-captive-judith-weinstein-and-gad-haggai-on-a-morning-walk/): although the headline is “Taken Captive…”, the article reports that they are still defined as missing but that it is very likely that they’ve been taken captive. This is because the family traced, via a video sent from their cellphone, the location they were last known to be in and informed the army, who searched the area but found nothing. We continue to hope and pray that they will return to us.

Sunday October 15: from a Canadian news report published yesterday (https://beta.cp24.com/news/2023/10/14/1_6601495.html, scroll down below top video which is unrelated):

Judih and her husband, Gad Haggai, were walking near (not in) the kibbutz. She reported to her family WhatsApp group: “We’re laying facedown in the fields. Rockets are overhead. We see hundreds of them.” Their daughter has reported that the kibbutz paramedics said her mother called for help, saying she’d been shot and her husband was badly wounded. They have heard nothing since. It’s still unknown if they were captured and taken to Gaza.
We hope and pray for their safety.

Sunday October 8th: we heard that our member Judih Weinstein, who lives on a kibbutz near the Gaza border, was out walking with her husband yesterday when the attack started. They are presumed kidnapped.

Miriam Green, the coordinator of the Southern group, says that Judih loves haiku and suggests that whoever feels like it could write a haiku in her honor. If you do, send it to me (Judy: president.voices@gmail.com) and I’ll post it here below.

Longer poems: Judih also writes free verse. If you want to contribute a free-verse poem about her or in her honor, send it to our secretary Pesach and we’ll include it in a special section in the next newsletter.