While all Israelis are facing the reality of another Passover in the shadow of war, for the released hostages this Holiday of Freedom, as it is often called, has a deeper meaning than ever. The Jerusalem Post spoke with David Cunio and Keith Siegel and asked how Passover has changed for them since their return home from Hamas captivity.
David Cunio, 35, was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, along with his wife, Sharon Aloni-Cunio, and their then-three-year-old twins, Emma and Yuli. His brother Ariel Cunio and his partner, Arbel Yehoud, were also kidnapped from the kibbutz on that day.
Sharon and the girls were released in late November 2023 in the first hostage deal, but David, Ariel, and Arbel, who were all held separately, did not come home until October 13, 2025, more than two years later.
David has spoken about the extreme physical and psychological torture he experienced, which included starvation and beatings, and about how he feared he would not live to celebrate another holiday with his family.
He has created a crowdfunding campaign to help him and his family to recover. It can be found on the reachhands.com crowdfunding site at https://yad.reachhands.com/cuniogswe.
Asked how he was going to celebrate the holiday this year, David responded, “It is definitely complex in the current reality of the war with Iran. But this year, I am going to fulfill the biggest dream of my life, a dream I have held for two whole years in the depths of the tunnel: to sit around the holiday table with my family, my two daughters and my wife with me. There was not a minute in captivity when I did not imagine that moment. How I would hug them, rejoice with them, be free with them.”
'Freedom now takes on a different meaning'
He acknowledged that his ordeal had changed the way he sees the holiday. “In the past, Passover was for me something that we celebrate because of something that happened thousands of years ago, our tradition as a people. Suddenly, freedom now takes on a different meaning – for two years, freedom was taken from me. Day by day, minute by minute, I feared for my life. I did not know whether in another five minutes I would still be alive. I could not eat when I wanted, sleep, drink, go to the bathroom, or do anything else that people take for granted. For everything, I had to ask permission. This time, I am going to celebrate the Holiday of Freedom with real meaning and from the soul.”
His captivity has made him a more observant Jew, he said: “In the past, I did not keep the commandments. I promised God in captivity that if I were released, I would commit myself to putting on tefillin every day and fasting on Yom Kippur. In the meantime, I am keeping my promise regarding tefillin. And I intend to keep my promise regarding Yom Kippur. God did His part in the deal; now it is my turn.”
Looking back on his more than two years in captivity, he said, “The Seder night last year was a very dark night. It was very hard for me to keep my optimism. There were moments when I already thought that this was the end. On special days, like Sharon’s and the girls’ birthdays, holidays, and special days for the family, I would collapse. I would go off to the side in the tunnel and talk with my family. Exactly like it sounds – conduct a conversation with them as if they were with me. That was the only thing that kept me sane. Today, I can talk with them for real and not only in imagination.”
Asked what he most enjoys about being free, he said: “The truth? The very smallest things. From telling a story to Emma and Yuli before bed, to sitting with Sharon on the balcony and chatting for long hours into the night, to kissing my mother and father, hugging my brothers, meeting my good friends, and simply walking around the streets as a free man. These are the things that make me happy.
“My biggest dream is that I will be able to give Emma, Yuli, Sharon, and, of course, myself a new beginning, and that it will be like before – that our lives will return to being as they were, that our home will always be full of laughter and joy. That is the only thing I want. And in that, I am investing all my energies. I do not want these two years to define who we are as a family, and that the trauma we experienced will not dictate who we are for the rest of our lives.”
He ended with a message of gratitude: “Happy Holiday of Freedom, people of Israel. Thank you for not giving up on me, on my freedom. Thank you for supporting my family. And dear soldiers, you are in my heart forever. Thank you for everything.”
Keith Siegel was abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza with his wife, Aviva Siegel, on October 7. Aviva was released in November 2023, but Keith was not freed until February 1, 2025, after 484 days of starvation, torture, beatings, and death threats.
Keith, who grew up in North Carolina and was 65 at the time of his release, was one of the oldest hostages to survive Hamas captivity. Since they were released, Keith and Aviva have fought tirelessly for the freedom of all those still held in Gaza, and he released a statement that he said was from him and from his whole family, about celebrating Passover this year:
“When I think about Passover, the Holiday of Freedom, I can’t help but see it through what I went through. While the Jewish people sat around the Seder table telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt, I was far from home, in a place where the word ‘freedom’ was almost foreign. In captivity, I understood how that ancient story is not just history – it is alive, breathing, and sometimes deeply painful. I found myself holding on to the idea of an exodus, of light at the end, of the possibility that it would come to an end.
“On the second holiday of Passover, while I was still there, I was filmed in a video addressed to my family. It was a complex moment. On one hand, I wanted them to see me, to know that I was alive; on the other hand, I knew the reality in which those words were being spoken. Within all of this, I tried to convey something real, some thread that could connect me to them. I remember thinking about them all the time – about home, the table, the familiar places that had suddenly become a distant dream.
“In our family, the Siegel family, the Seder night was always a special moment of togetherness. Not just the reading of the Haggadah, but the songs we sing again and again, the children’s questions, and the way we pause and truly listen to one another. In captivity, these memories stayed with me. I tried to hold on to them – the voices, the laughter, the feeling of being together – to remind myself that I had somewhere to return to.
“Even in the difficult conditions, I tried to preserve something human. At times, I asked myself and those around me to pause and think of one good thing, however small. It didn’t erase the hardship, but it gave me something to hold on to, a sense that I was still myself.
“Aviva, in her own way, took everything we went through and managed to write about it in her book, The Main Thing Is to Wake Up to a New Morning. When I think about it, I understand how the ability to tell, to remember, and to give words to what we experienced is part of our way forward.
“The moment I returned home was a true moment of freedom. But life afterward is not a single moment – it is a sequence of days. Today we are together, trying to return to the simple things – to sit together, to talk, to just be.
“There is something very delicate about the way we are rebuilding our routine, without rushing, without loading it with big words. I am relearning the meaning of freedom – not as a declaration but as small moments of presence, of family, of breath.
“Perhaps this is what true freedom means to me now.”
And perhaps David’s and Keith’s stories can give us greater insight into what true freedom means for all of us.
Join the crowdfunding campaign: https://yad.reachhands.com/cuniogswe