The two American women freed by Hamas on Friday after being held captive for nearly two weeks are pillars of the community now cheering their return.
Judith Raanan, 59, and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, traveled to Israel from their home in Evanston, Illinois, to celebrate Judith’s mother’s 85th birthday and to mark the Jewish holiday season with the family, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. .
Last week, the Evanston community was devastated to learn the couple were believed to be among those captured by Hamas terrorists when the group stormed Kibbutz Nahal Oz as part of the Oct. 7 launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
“It has been confirmed through both the Israeli government and through the US government that Natalie and Judith were taken from the guest house in Nahal Oz at gunpoint and transported somewhere,” Ben Raanan – Natalie’s brother and Judith’s stepdaughter – told CNN in Tel Aviv earlier this week.
Even in the panic of the terrorist invasion, Ben said, Natalie “had the most amazing head,” and was able to text their father that she and Judith were hiding and trying to stay safe amid the explosions and gunfire.
Natalie Raanan graduated from high school a few months before being captured by Hamas. Bring Them Home Now/Instagram
Natalie’s father and Judith’s ex-husband, Uri Raanan, told ABC7-Chicago that he last heard from his daughter as she scrambled to the safe room.
The devastated relatives later learned that the two women were among about 200 hostages taken by Hamas.
Natalie graduated from Deerfield High School just months before the Israel trip, and took a year off to travel before going to college, her family explained in a video with Israeli broadcaster Kan.
“We talked about what he wanted to do next, what he wanted to do in college,” cousin Hila Cohen recalled.
Judith Raanan, 59, was released by Hamas along with her daughter. Bring Them Home Now/Instagram
Natalie’s immediate plans include getting a new dog after her previous dog died a few days before the trip.
She was also interested in fashion and interior design, relatives told the New York Times.
“He was a sweetheart,” his uncle, Avi Zamir, told the outlet.
“He loves animals, loves life, loves friends – a typical teenager.”
Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein, executive director of Chabad of Evanston, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Natalie was bright and charming.
The mother and daughter pair traveled to Israel last month.AP
“People tell me he is a true friend, someone who is there for his friends, who is loyal and committed,” he said.
“God willing, he will have a normal and happy life ahead of him.”
Natalie was also remembered by activist and writer Shaun King, who posted on Facebook about the kidnapped woman last week.
“Natalie and her family are my supporters, protesting police brutality in the United States with me, and have spoken out against injustice in Israel,” he wrote.
Natalie Raanan poses with her father, Uri Raanan.AP
King also offered to “confidently help broker” the teenager’s return, though it’s unclear whether he played a role in Natalie and Judith’s eventual release.
Judith — who grew up in Israel and often goes by her Hebrew name, Yehudit — works as an esthetician, according to the Sun-Times.
He is also a talented painter and very active in the local Chicago community, the New York Times reports.
“He loved our community. We were everything to him, like family,” Yehudis Hecht, wife of Rabbi Meir Hecht, whose synagogue Judith frequented, told the outlet.
“He likes to share his thoughts, knowledge, dreams and experiences with all of us.”
Natalie was planning to get a new dog before she was kidnapped, her cousin said.AP
“Her eyes were always shining,” Klein told the Sun-Times of Judith, whom he had known for 15 years.
“Even in difficult moments for him, he is always positive and always has hope. He has infinite hope for a better tomorrow. He has the fortitude and tenacity to get through this difficult moment.”
Despite her deep connections in Evanston, Judith often missed Israel, her friends recalled.
“He’s a bit Israeli, whether he’s here or there,” Chavah’s friend Rochel Golden explained to the New York Times.
“He misses being around Israelis. He feels comfortable with the Israelis, and he misses it – the energy of Israel.”
Natalie was with her grandmother Tamar Leviathan, whose birthday they flew to Israel to celebrate. Bring Them Home Now/Instagram
Judith became more religious as she got older, and wanted her daughter to feel connected to Israel, Rivka Benyihoun of the Chicago Chabad downtown told the New York Times.
A former neighbor, Carol Krikorian, added that it was hard to imagine a spirited mother and daughter in captivity.
“I look out my back window now and I’m thinking, ‘How could this girl who was in the backyard with her friends now be in the hands of these people, these monsters?'” he lamented.
On Friday, Hamas announced that it was freeing an American mother and daughter for “humanitarian reasons.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later confirmed that Raanan had been released by the terrorist group, and was on his way to a military base in central Israel to be reunited with his family.
No trades were reportedly made as part of the release, multiple outlets said.
“This is a huge sigh of relief,” brother Martin Fletcher, an NBC correspondent who has covered the Middle East and is the network’s Tel Aviv bureau chief, told MSNBC. “It was a miracle.”
Uri and Ben Raanan could not be reached for comment on Natalie and Judith’s return.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
