More than 80 community members gathered in The White Theatre at The J on Jan. 15 to hear from award-winning Israeli journalist and author, Lee Yaron. Yaron’s visit to Kansas City fell on the same day the announcement of the Israeli hostage release deal, in which 33 hostages will be released in the course of six weeks, was made.
Yaron is the author of “10/7 100 Human Stories,” an account of 100 victims and communities affected by the Oct. 7 massacre. She spoke to the community as part of the Acclaimed Author Series, a program presented by Jewish Experiences, a collaboration of Jewish Federation and The J.
Yaron recently spent time with Aviva Siegel, who was released in the previous hostage deal after 52 days in captivity, and is still awaiting the return of her husband, Keith Siegel, a 64-year-old American citizen. Yaron recounted how they discussed their hope and fear for the hostages still in Gaza.
“She was telling me, ‘I’m so afraid to even be happy. I’m so afraid to have my expectation high after all of this time.’ But she believes that Keith is alive, and he is one of the people who is supposed to be among the first to be released,” Yaron told the audience. “So I’m so, so excited with Aviva and with the rest of these families.”
Neta Meltzer, interim executive director of Jewish Community Relations Bureau | AJC, moderated the discussion with Yaron and said the timing of the hostage release announcement made the event even more meaningful.
“We certainly didn’t plan it this way, but what a significant moment to be speaking with the author of the book ‘10/7’ on the day when the Jewish community is receiving the news that we may see the return of the hostages that we’ve waited for 15 months,” Meltzer said.
Community Shalicha Mika Kislanski spoke at the beginning of the event about the news and continued hope for the success of the deal.
“The past 467 days have, in many ways, felt neverending. I am grateful to have even a sliver of hope during these dark times,” Kislanski said. “As we welcome Lee Yaron to this event, let us carry this moment of reflection with us, remembering the importance of compassion, hope, and the human connection that binds us all.”
Yaron has been a journalist with Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, for a decade, writing investigative articles on climate change, Middle Eastern political and government issues and more. She has also written and directed theater productions that bring attention to marginalized communities around the Middle East.
Just two weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre, Yaron began writing her book. In order to represent a political reality, Yaron said, she needed to show the situation from the bottom up and share real stories from real people.
“Writing this book was my attempt to reclaim the story of 10/7,” she said. “To take it from the people in power and bring it back to the everyday people.”
Yaron said she didn’t want to write a book about death or remember the victims only for their final moments. Rather, she wanted to ensure they were remembered for “who they were, for their lives, for their communities and for their family’s histories and for their beliefs."
Yaron shared a short excerpt from the book that illustrated how, on Oct. 7, neighbors and strangers alike banded together to protect their communities. She recounted a few of the countless stories she heard from bereaved families she conversed with throughout the writing of the book.
“I think in so many of these interviews and these stories, sure, they are painful, and there is a lot of loss,” Yaron said. “But, there’s also this beautiful, beautiful sense of everyone [being] there for one another. That all of Israel is, in this way, an extended family.”
Yaron spoke on her takeaways from speaking with families of hostages and former hostages while writing the book.
“What I keep hearing from all the families of the hostages, even the ones who were lucky enough to be reunited with their families, is that they can’t really move on until all of the hostages will come back home,” Yaron said. “In so many ways, I feel like for all of us Israelis, it’s like time was frozen on Oct. 7. It feels like we’re living this day again and again. And we need them home to be able to try and think of a future.”
Yaron’s book, “10/7 100 Human Stories,” can be found at Monarch Books & Gifts, the official bookseller of the Acclaimed Author Series. More information about Yaron’s journalistic work can be found at leeyaron.com.
