For the past 15 months, members of the Beth-El Synagogue in Durham kept their hopes alive as one of their own was held hostage in Gaza. Now, they are relieved by news of Keith Siegel’s release as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.
Siegel, a Chapel Hill native and U.S.-Israeli dual citizen, spent 484 days in captivity until he was freed Feb. 1, becoming the first American hostage released as part of the new ceasefire agreement.
Four decades ago, Siegel made aliyah, or immigrated to Israel, where he met his wife Aviva Siegel. The couple was violently abducted from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 Israelis and the capture of around 250 hostages. Aviva was later released during an earlier ceasefire deal in November 2023 and became a vocal advocate for the hostages, seeking to fulfill her promise not to leave her husband behind.
The Siegel family characterized Keith’s homecoming as a cause of “indescribable excitement,” a sentiment shared by many in the Durham-Chapel Hill community who are close to the family. Yet for several community members, the ongoing captivity of the remaining hostages has overshadowed any sigh of relief.
“October 7 is not in the history books; October 7 is very much still alive for us,” said Rachel Posner, interim rabbi of the Beth-El Synagogue. “The trauma of October 7 and its aftermath is felt very strongly within the Jewish community in this country and our particular Jewish community in Durham because of the connection to Keith, but also because of the connection that we feel to all the hostages.”
The Chronicle spoke with members from the Beth-El Synagogue, where Keith grew up attending before he made aliyah, to understand how those close to the Siegels grappled with Keith’s captivity and recent release, as well as what the hostage crisis means to them.
‘A huge heartache’
It was out of an act of kindness that Gladys Siegel — Keith’s mother — lived out the last days of her life in peace. When those around her reeled with the news that her son had been taken hostage by Hamas, Gladys, battling dementia at the time, was spared the heartbreak.
“A decision was made that Gladys should not know,” said Hunter Levinsohn, a close friend of Gladys and a member of the Beth-El Synagogue.
Gladys, 97, died Dec. 1, 2024, without knowing about the emotional and physical abuse her son experienced in captivity. Posner described Keith’s absence at Glady’s funeral as “a huge heartache” for the Siegel family and the larger congregation. Upon Keith’s release, one of his first questions was whether his mother was still alive. It was a difficult truth for Aviva to share, but when her eyes welled up, Keith understood.
For decades, the Siegel family has been a pillar of the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish community, according to Eric Meyers, Bernice and Morton Lerner distinguished professor emeritus in Judaic studies who arrived in Durham in 1969. Gladys and her husband Earl Siegel moved to Chapel Hill four years prior, where they became active members at the Beth-El congregation. Gladys made history as the first woman president of both the synagogue and the Jewish Federation of Durham-Chapel Hill and is remembered as “an incredible force for good.”
“She was a strong woman and raised a strong family. And I am sure that contributed to Keith's survival and Aviva’s survival,” Meyers said. “… [She was a] very dynamic woman and opened the door for all sorts of things to happen in the Jewish community in Durham and Chapel Hill.
‘Praying that he was still alive’
When Levinsohn answered a call from Lucy Siegel, Keith’s sister, and learned about the Siegels’ capture, she was “absolutely horrified.” Levinsohn described her experience since then as “months and months and months just basically praying that [Keith] was still alive.”
Though she had only met Keith once — when he came to visit his mother during the COVID-19 pandemic — she was a longtime friend to Gladys, whom she drove to the synagogue every week of the last years of her life. For Levinsohn, the experience of knowing one of the hostages personally, even if they had only interacted briefly, mattered.
“The difference of an abstract situation and the situation in which someone is known to you makes it a much more intense experience,” she said.
Like Levinsohn, Hal Sandick, a former teacher in the Chapel Hill public school system, maintained a deep and lasting 22-year friendship with Keith’s mother, known as the “matriarch of [the] congregation.”
Sandick recalled visiting Gladys at an assisted living facility during the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Keith, where they listened to a remote religious service together. Gladys often dozed off, and Sandick found himself in lengthy conversations with her son.
Sandick recalled Keith mentioning that his daughters, who resided in northern Israel, had urged him to move up from southern Israel because they “want[ed] him to be closer.” However, Keith said he and his wife stayed behind in Kibbutz Kfar Aza because of his job as an occupational therapist there. The small Israeli community of Kfar Aza is situated just two kilometers east of the Gaza Strip, which became the center of the conflict between Israel and Hamas after Oct. 7.
Posner characterized the feelings of the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish community over the past 15 months as weighed down by a sense of “deep anxiety” for the families in Israel who lost their loved ones in captivity. She added that the sentiment extends to “the larger Jewish family,” which she said continues to wrestle with the deaths of innocent civilians in the ongoing conflict.
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On the same day as Keith’s release, the synagogue held an evening gathering to celebrate his safe return. During a special havdalah, a Jewish ceremony that marks the end of Shabbat, community members delivered songs and prayers for Keith and the Siegel family.
The special service, which Posner described as a “really beautiful event,” was not confined to members of the synagogue. Many in the Durham-Chapel Hill area, including Keith’s former classmates from the Carolina Friends School, attended the celebration.
As the congregation celebrates Keith’s release, Posner stressed the importance of still keeping in mind “the sadness for all that was lost” during the intervening 15 months. She called for prayers to support the individuals who were freed from captivity and the families taking care of them “along that road to healing.”
“Even though we see people reunited, and they are smiling, and they're happy to be with their families, we know that the trauma that they've suffered is very deep, and it's going to take a long time to heal from,” Posner said.
‘Bring their stories to light’
Since Keith’s release, Israel and Hamas have sealed two additional prisoner swaps under the ceasefire, reducing the number of remaining hostages to 73 out of the 251 people kidnapped. Israeli authorities have presumed as many as half of the remaining hostages dead. Amid the fragile ceasefire, both parties have not ruled out the possibility of resuming war.
Posner asserted that community members have a collective responsibility to call for an end to the conflict and bring the hostages home. She shared that one of the first things Keith said to his family following his release was “What can I do to help bring the other hostages home?”
She also urged people to recognize the grief and suffering of all innocent civilians and pray for peace.
“It seemed to me like there was a tendency — not just in Durham, but in this country — to want to flatten out or erase the story of the hostages, as if their pain was somehow in competition with the pain of the Palestinians,” Posner said. “I want to say, ‘there's no competition.’ This is all heartbreaking.”
For Posner, Keith’s release brings hope for the remaining hostages to see the light of day again.
“Thinking about the hostages is very, very real for us,” she said. “And I think people very much were keeping all of them in mind and trying to bring their stories to light, because they try to speak for them, since [the hostages] can't speak for themselves.”
Lucas Lin is a Trinity sophomore and a university news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.