"A year ago I clung to hope, now I am free and happy": The holiday of the Angrest family

A year after Matan Angrest was held captive by Hamas in Gaza, he is celebrating Rosh Hashanah with his family. His parents, Anat and Hagai, recount the journey from captivity to the holiday table. Last year they did not buy holiday supplies or plan a meal. Matan, who returned from a trip to South America especially for the holiday, says: "My mind is only now processing, as I hear the holiday preparations, that tonight it is really happening. Thank God I am here after a year, celebrating Rosh Hashanah for the first time with all my loved ones. Free, happy. This is essentially our victory—and my personal one." Anat speaks about the complexity of supporting a partial deal and the fear that Matan would be left behind. She says: "All the time there was this complexity, whether to support a partial deal that saves people or to fear that afterward a long time would pass before the rest are brought out. These are very cruel decisions." The joy of his return does not diminish the magnitude of the disaster. "All the time we also live the sadness for those who did not merit to return, for those who were murdered, and for those who were there alive and missed the chance to bring them back in time," says Anat. "We learned to be happy and we learned to be sad at the same time." Matan, who traveled for five months in South America, says for the new year he wishes "mainly to continue the recovery. To be close to family, to continue bridging gaps, to be with friends." Anat wishes for political change and an investigation into what happened on October 7, and that "Israeli society will look like the children who enlist in the army."