Israel receives remains of fallen soldier Hadar Goldin after 11 years

Etgar Lefkovits

An ambulance carrying fallen soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin arrives at the L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine in the Abu Kabir neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Nov. 9, 2025. Photo by Matt Kaminsky/JNS.

Israel on Sunday received the remains of fallen soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose body was held by Hamas in Gaza for more than 11 years, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem announced.

The evening news riveted a nation and brought to an end the family’s long struggle to see their loved one returned home for burial. Goldin, then 23, was killed and abducted by the terrorist group in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, during a ceasefire during the 2014 war (“Operation Protective Edge”).

Four more bodies are still being held in Gaza, those of three Israelis—Meny Godard, Sgt. Ran Gvili and Dror Or—and a Thai national, Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was working in agriculture in Israel at the time of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

“The Israeli government shares in the deep sorrow of the Goldin family and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The PMO says that Israel is “determined, committed and working tirelessly” to bring back the remaining four slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”

Vehicles escorting fallen soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin arrive at the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, Nov. 9, 2025. Photo by Matt Kaminsky/JNS.

“After 11 long and painful years, too long, Lt. Hadar Goldin, a hero of Israel, has today been returned to his homeland,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X. “The people of Israel embrace Hadar’s family today with deep love and boundless admiration for their unwavering strength and relentless, tireless struggle to bring Hadar home. For the hope that never dimmed, for their dignity, Zionism and unshakable faith that guided their every step.”

Herzog thanked U.S. President Donald Trump and his team for their work that brought a painful chapter in Israeli history to an end after 4,118 days.

Hamas said that it “found” Goldin’s remains in a tunnel in the southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday. Goldin was killed on Aug. 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire took effect in that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.

“Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a fallen hostage, which was handed over to an IDF and ISA [Shin Bet] force inside the Gaza Strip,” the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem announced earlier in the afternoon.

After being handed over to Israeli troops inside the Strip, the coffin was brought to Israel, where it was received in a military ceremony with the participation of IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Moshe Krim.

The body was then transferred to the Health Ministry’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv, where it was identified by the evening.

Hundreds of people had gathered along intersections where the police convoy carried the remains, holding Israeli flags and paying their last respects.

“All of the hostages’ families have been updated accordingly, and our hearts are with them in this difficult hour,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated, adding, “The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned.”

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) vehicles in the central Gaza Strip, Nov. 9, 2025. Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images.

The Red Cross team was dispatched shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Hamas was slated to return Goldin.

“Yesterday, Hamas announced that it is holding the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin, of blessed memory. We are supposed to receive the body later this afternoon,” Netanyahu told reporters at the weekly Cabinet meeting.

“Throughout these years, we made great efforts in Israel’s governments to bring him back,” he stated, noting the “deep anguish of his family, who will now have the privilege of bringing him to burial in Israel.

“We said at the beginning of this war that we would bring back all the hostages, without exception,” the premier said. “So far, we have brought back 250. We will bring everyone home.”

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas announced it would return the fallen soldier around 2 p.m., after the terrorist group made a similar announcement the previous day but failed to follow through.

A senior Israeli political official condemned the delay in a statement to Israel Hayom on Sunday morning, saying that Jerusalem “demands his immediate return” and viewed Hamas’s actions with “utmost severity.”

The Israeli military determined that Goldin, an officer in the Givati Infantry Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, was killed, based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes, and a funeral was held at the time with his belongings.

Goldin’s weapon, a Tavor rifle that was brandished with glee by Hamas terrorists in video footage aired in December 2022, was recently returned to his father, Simcha Goldin.

Hadar Goldin grew up in the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba. He was engaged to be married, and is survived by his parents Leah and Simcha, a twin brother and a sister.

“More than anything, he’s my little brother. Time stopped,” Ayelet Goldin, Hadar’s older sister, wrote in a social media post. “I still feel like he just left and is already coming back. How do I feel? I don’t know yet. But I do know that what strengthens me is that we remained true to our truth—to our Israeli values. Good triumphs, and together we are changing history! This strengthens me greatly.

“My Hadar—you are my inspiration. And you live in my heart always, and I love you very much. And finally, you’ve come home.”

Efforts to secure his return from Gaza gained momentum after the Oct. 7 attack two years ago in which some 250 others were abducted to the Strip.

After Hamas said that it had located the slain soldier’s body on Saturday, the Goldin family issued a statement: “An entire nation is waiting for Hadar to be brought home. This is a mission that must and can be fulfilled for the sake of all of us. The IDF chief of staff came to update us after Shabbat on the tremendous efforts being made to bring back the hostages, and we salute everyone involved in this national mission. We are waiting for official confirmation that Hadar has returned to Israel.

“No one in this country is ever left behind. We ask everyone to stay calm. Until it’s final, it isn’t over.”

During his visit to the Goldin family in Kfar Saba, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir “reiterated his personal and the IDF’s commitment to bringing back Hadar and all the fallen hostages, and emphasized the importance of restraint at these sensitive moments, until his arrival and the completion of the necessary checks and verification,” the military said.

“The IDF has brought Hadar back to his homeland – no one else,” Simcha Goldin said Sunday night.  “And what this war has proven is that when we fight for our soldiers we succeed.”

Eleven Arrested Amid Heavy UK Police Presence at Soccer Match Between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa

Shiryn Ghermezian

Soccer Football – UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – Nov. 6, 2025, Aston Villa’s Ian Maatsen scores their first goal. Photo: Action Images via Reuters

British police said 11 men were arrested during protests outside Maccabi Tel Aviv’s UEFA Europa League game on Thursday night against Aston Villa in the United Kingdom, a match in which the Israeli team lost and also had its fans banned from attending.

West Midlands Police said a 63-year-old man was arrested for a racially aggravated public order offense after he was heard shouting a racist remark during a road rage incident near Villa Park, the arena where the match was taking place. A 21-year-old man was arrested for failing to comply with an order to remove a face mask, and a 17-year-old boy was arrested for failing to comply with a dispersal order.

Three other people were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offenses, including a 34-year-old and 29-year-old who both shouted abuse toward pro-Israel demonstrators. The latter was also arrested for possession of an illegal drug, and a 67-year-old was arrested for shouting racist abuse at a police officer.

A 32-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offense after shouting racist abuse toward a pro-Palestinian group. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old man was arrested after trying to throw fireworks on the ground, and another was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply drugs.

West Midlands Police maintained a “high-visibility police presence” around Villa Park throughout the night, the police department said.  Roughly 700 officers were dispatched to keep order outside the arena amid planned protests by pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups. There were also police horses, police dogs, a drone unit, roads policing unit, and protest liaison officers.

“This has definitely been one of the most contentious and controversial matches we’ve hosted for some time, but our priority, really clearly, is public safety,” said Birmingham Police Commander and Chief Superintendent Tom Joyce. “It’s about protecting the communities that live in and around Aston Villa, and reassuring those communities who are potentially affected by the match tonight.”

Aston Villa beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 in the league phase match taking place at Villa Park, which located in the city of Birmingham in central England. At the end of the match, lines of police officers made sure soccer fans leaving the stadium were separated from the anti-Israel protesters who remained outside the area and there were no confrontations, according to The Independent. Police officers also pushed back protestors outside Villa Park during the game.

Before the start of the game, hundreds attended a protest outside of Villa Park, organized by the group Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to demand Israel be excluded from all international soccer competitions. Attendees held signs with anti-Israel messages and Palestinian flags, and chanted “Free, free Palestine.” A smaller counter-protest took place in solidarity with the Israeli club and its fans, who had been banned from attending the game.

Maccabi Tel Aviv fan and Arab-Christian activist Yoseph Haddad traveled from Israel to express support for Maccabi Tel Aviv at the venue and protest the ban against the club’s supporters.

“You have a problem with us and not the fact that people cannot come to Britain and watch a football game because you have extremists here who don’t want certain people to be here? You should check yourself,” he said in a video shared on X. “We’re not in Nazi Germany. This is not the 1940s. And I promise you we will not be silent. We will be here, and show the truth of the Israeli society, and we will scream it and shout it as loud as possible. Stop the hate.”
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The ban against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was imposed by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group and police, which deemed the match as “high risk” and said the ban was necessary “to mitigate risks to public safety.” Government officials in Israel and the UK, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, condemned the decision. The UK government said it was taking steps to try to reverse the move, but Maccabi Tel Aviv then announced it would decline to accept any allocated tickets for its fans due to its own safety concerns.

Joyce told Sky News that “significant levels of hooliganism” among Maccabi Tel Aviv fans is the reason they were banned from Thursday’s match.

“We are simply trying to make decisions based on community safety, driven by the intelligence that was available to us and our assessment of the risk that was coming from admitting traveling fans,” Joyce said ahead of the match. “I’m aware there’s a lot of commentary around the threat to the [Maccabi] fans being the reason for the decision. To be clear, that was not the primary driver. That was a consideration. We have intelligence and information that says that there is a section of Maccabi fans, not all Maccabi fans, but a section who engage in quite significant levels of hooliganism.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Chief Executive Jack Angelide criticized the “blatant falsehoods” about the club’s supporters.

“We have not been given a clear reason,” he told Sky News. “I have seen people coming up with all sorts of stories about our fans, especially in Amsterdam, where there was, what the Amsterdam authorities themselves classified as “a Jew hunt,” being portrayed as organized fighters, soldiers, etc., etc. It’s just blatant falsehoods, and people who say those things know that they’re false and shame on them.”

Christine Angot (Źródło zdjęcia: Wikipedia)

Przebudzenie w “Libération”

Anna Grabowska

“Libération” – gazeta założona przez Sartre’a, symbol buntu, wolnomyślicielstwa oraz lewicowego sumienia Francji. Od pół wieku święty organ paryskiej inteligencji, która z pasją walczyła z Kościołem, z kapitalizmem, z rasizmem, z “imperializmem amerykańskim”, a od dwóch dekad z równie żarliwą konsekwencją – z Izraelem. Dla lewicy jest to wciąż bastion “moralnego nieposłuszeństwa”, chociaż tak naprawdę już od dawna raczej biuletyn poprawności ideowej, gdzie myślenie ustąpiło miejsca odruchom, a każda niezgodna nuta brzmi jak odrażające bluźnierstwo. A tu nagle 1 listopada 2025 roku, wydarzyło się coś, co jeszcze wczoraj wydawało się nieprawdopodobne: w gazecie, która przez ponad dwie dekady nie wydrukowała ani jednego proizraelskiego tekstu, ukazał się artykuł Christine Angot.

Tekst nosi tytuł “Antysemityzm na Uniwersytecie Paris-8: kim jesteście wy, łajdacy, którzy nie potępiliście 7 października?” i już sam tytuł brzmi jak policzek wymierzony w jej własne środowisko. Angot, pisarka, feministka, od zawsze utożsamiana z francuską lewicą, nagle śmiała stanąć po stronie, po której w jej kręgach nie wolno stawać. Napisała wprost: że milczenie wobec zbrodni Hamasu jest współudziałem, że antysemityzm wrócił na uniwersytety, że nowymi łajdakami Francji są ci, którzy odwracają wzrok od 7 października. To nie jest głos konserwatystki ani głos reakcji – to krzyk kobiety, która zrozumiała, że jej własny obóz moralnie się rozkłada.

Dzisiaj, kiedy słowo “Izrael” wypowiedziane bez potępienia uchodzi za wstrętną prowokację, jej felieton brzmi jak manifest odwagi. Oto Angot, jedna z ikon literackiej lewicy wreszcie się przebudziła. Zrozumiała, że źródłem choroby nie jest już władza, lecz uniwersytet i nie nacjonalizm, lecz zwykła ideologiczna ślepota. To właśnie młodzi, wychowani na hasłach tolerancji, stali się bezrefleksyjnymi powielaczami nienawiści, i to właśnie uczelnia, która miała być świątynią rozumu, zamieniła się dzisiaj w megafon fanatyzmu.

Francuskie media zareagowały tak, jak reagują dziś wszystkie środowiska, które od dawna żyją z iluzji moralnej wyższości: oczywiście z oburzeniem, z udawaną ironią i z wyuczoną pogardą. “Libération” wprawdzie nie odcięło się od własnej autorki, tak jak polska “Polityka” od Jana Hartmana ale jej tekst potraktowano jak “emocjonalny eksces”, a nie jak manifest sumienia. W redakcyjnych kuluarach mówiono o “afekcie”, “przesadzie” i “zranionej wrażliwości”. Na Twitterze, przepraszam, na X – wylał się cały ocean protekcjonalnych komentarzy, gdzie czytam: że Angot “nie rozumie kontekstu”, że “powiela izraelską propagandę”, że “mówi jak prawica”. Dziwnie znajome mi frazy. Tak właśnie reagują ludzie, którzy nie znoszą, gdy oto ktoś z ich własnego obozu przypomina im, że moralność nie ma barw partyjnych.

Na uczelniach – cisza. Żadnej refleksji i żadnego wstydu. Bo przecież łatwiej jest pisać o “izraelskiej agresji” niż przyznać, że antysemityzm powrócił pod nowym błyszczącym szyldem: w języku walki o “sprawiedliwość”, w sloganach o “dekolonizacji”, w transparentach, które mają twarz współczucia a niosą słowa nienawiści. Angot to zobaczyła. Zobaczyła, że pod pozorem empatii rodzi się nowa nienawiść, i miała odwagę nazwać ją po imieniu.

Nie znalazła się więc po stronie prawicy, jak próbowali jej to wmówić. Znalazła się zwyczajnie po stronie ludzkiej przyzwoitości, której od dawna nikt już we francuskiej lewicy nie broni. Jej głos nie jest zdradą – to ratunek dla tradycji, która zapomniała, że humanizm bez prawdy staje się wyłącznie farsą.

Bo może właśnie na tym polega dziś prawdziwa odwaga? Nie w tym, żeby krzyczeć razem z tłumem, ale by powiedzieć jedno zdanie, nawet kiedy wszyscy milczą. Christine Angot zrobiła to, co kiedyś robili ludzie myślący: stanęła naprzeciw własnego plemienia. W świecie, gdzie lewica woli bronić oprawców, byle nie przyznać racji Izraelowi, ona przypomniała, że moralność nie jest i nie była kwestią sympatii politycznych, tylko pewnych granic, których nie wolno przekroczyć.

I to właśnie dlatego uważam, że jej tekst w Libération był jak uderzenie w kryształowy kielich, tak – pękł, ale zabrzmiał czysto. Od tej chwili nikt w tym piśmie nie może już udawać, że nie wie, co się stało 7 października. Nie może, chyba że chce być jednym z tych, których Angot nazwała po imieniu: łajdakami.

Anna Grabowska – urodzona i mieszkająca we Francji wspaniała syjonistka z solidnymi polskimi i żydowskimi korzeniami. Autorka udzieliła pozwolenia na publikację niektórych wpisów z jej Facebooka w „Listach z naszego sadu”.

Kristallnacht survivors warn that today’s world is dangerous for Jews

Steve Linde

(Left to right): Walter Bingham, Revital Yakin Krakovsky, CEO of March of the Living Israel, George Shefi and Paul Alexander outside the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, Nov. 9, 2025. Credit: March of the Living.

On the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, three Holocaust survivors who lived through the infamous 1938 Nazi pogrom in Germany as children warned that the world today is once again dangerously unsafe for Jews, urging governments to take decisive action to combat antisemitism and strengthen Holocaust education.

Walter Bingham, 101, George Shefi, 94, and Paul Alexander, 90, who all experienced Kristallnacht, issued a stark joint statement with the International March of the Living, saying that the current wave of global antisemitism mirrors the climate of hate that preceded the Holocaust.

“With today’s antisemitic atmosphere, pogroms against Jews can happen again,” said Bingham, who witnessed Hitler’s rise to power as a boy.

Alexander, whose father was arrested that night and sent to Buchenwald, added: “The world today is no safer for Jews than it was 87 years ago. The images of the past two years remind us of the darkest days of the 1930s in Nazi Germany.”

Shefi recalled waking up to find shattered glass outside a Jewish-owned store and his synagogue burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the pogrom, all three were sent to Britain on the Kindertransport. Shefi never saw his mother again; she was murdered in Auschwitz. Bingham’s father perished in the Warsaw Ghetto. Alexander, one of the few Kindertransport children to reunite with both parents, later made his way to Israel, where all three survivors now live.

The statement issued by three survivors of Kristallnacht, Nov. 9, 2025. Credit: March of the Living.

In their statement, the survivors wrote: “We saw with our own eyes how hatred turned to flames, how indifference became complicity, and how the world stayed silent as Jews were attacked. Today, 87 years later, we look around us and say with deep pain: the world has learned nothing.

“Once again, Jews are murdered for being Jews. Once again, synagogues are attacked. Once again, universities remain silent in the face of incitement. In today’s atmosphere, Kristallnacht could happen again.”

In a joint appeal, issued under the auspices of Revital Yakin Krakovsky, CEO of March of the Living Israel, they said, “We call on governments to act decisively to eradicate antisemitism and to strengthen Holocaust education. Learn history. Teach your children what happens when the world stays silent.”

“Antisemitism does not disappear on its own,” they added. “It grows when met with silence and thrives where ignorance prevails. It stops only when courageous people—Jews and non-Jews alike—stand up and say: enough.”

Two years ago, Bingham, Shefi and Alexander retraced their childhood escape from Nazi Germany in a journey organized by the International March of the Living—just one day after the Hamas attacks on Israel. From Germany, they watched the news of Israeli communities burning in what many called the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust.

Scott Saunders, CEO of the International March of the Living, said the anniversary comes “amid two consecutive years of record-high antisemitism worldwide, and less than a month after Jews were murdered in a synagogue in Manchester.”

“Kristallnacht was a warning,” he said. “Today we issue another: a pogrom against Jews can happen again. At the International March of the Living, we will continue to advance Holocaust education and march against antisemitism, reminding the world of the devastating cost of hate.”

A new report released by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism marks the anniversary with alarming statistics: since Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have sharply increased worldwide. Over the past two years, seven Jews were murdered in antisemitic attacks in the U.S. and Europe, including two people in the recent Manchester synagogue assault.

The report documented 99 attacks on synagogues, 98 on Jewish-owned businesses, 14 cemetery desecrations, and 182 incidents targeting Jewish schools and community centers.

Eighty-seven years after Kristallnacht, the survivors’ message is clear: in the face of rising antisemitism, the world must not remain silent again.

Jewish New York died on November 4 – opinion

SHERWIN POMERANTZ

MAYOR-ELECT Zohran Mamdani holds a news conference in Queens on Wednesday. The flavor of New York as a Jewish city will be gone, the writer laments. / (photo credit: Kylie Cooper/Reuters)

The city that former Carolina Israelite editor Harry Golden described in his 1972 book The Greatest Jewish City in the World, celebrating New York City as the world’s preeminent Jewish city, died with the election of Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor.