Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of the late Omer Neutra, delivered the following at the unity rally "Singing Together for Their Return" in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv earlier this evening (Tuesday).
"Last year on Simchat Torah eve, we were at our home in New York. As always, Omer made sure to call us. Maintaining our family connection was very important to us, even though we were split across two continents. During that period, he called less frequently than usual because he and his soldiers were working intensely to manage the chaos along the security fence throughout the holidays," the parents said.
"On that Friday evening before Simchat Torah, he told us things had calmed down and they were told to lower their alert level. After a month of his team being split up, with everyone taking turns for Shabbat and holiday leaves, he was looking forward to having everyone together to build team cohesion. This was typical of Omer's character - he always thought of others, always considered his team - right up until his final moments in the burning tank. That's where we lost him, and he was taken to Gaza," they continued.
They stated, "Since then, for 14 months, 422 days, we fought to bring him back. We hoped he was alive, hoped it was just a matter of time. We knew he was strong and if he had been taken alive, he would endure."
"Last Sunday night, we received the devastating news through our military liaison that Omer was no longer alive and had actually been killed on October 7th," they recounted. "On one hand, this deflated all our hopes, but on the other hand, we know the battle to return all the hostages and to bring Omer to a proper burial in Israel isn't over."
"Since then, we've served as a bridge between the Jewish community in the United States and our communities and family here in Israel. We've been there for many years and were always part of the community. When Omer was taken, we immediately began this fight for him, and for 422 days, we felt our role was to represent the hostages before the American government, " they said.
"When we learned Omer was no longer alive and held a service at our synagogue in Long Island, one of the first consolers, who is part of the American hostages' families, approached us and said: 'Orna and Ronen, there's a reason you didn't know Omer wasn't alive. You were among the leading voices in the struggle here in the United States, and if you had known, your fight wouldn't have been the same. This struggle, God willing, will now help bring the hostages back soon,'" the parents said.
"The whole world knows who Omer is. He became a child of the entire Jewish community: because he truly grew up within it, he embodied all the values and hopes of Jews who send their children to Jewish schools, Jewish camps, and countless visits to Israel. All this sorrow poured into the shiva.
"During the shiva, thousands came to comfort us - entire schools arrived by bus from all over the region for three days. We felt Omer's spirit with us because Omer is a bridge between all the different communities he was part of, both there and here. People thanked us for allowing them to comfort us, and we felt they were consoling us on behalf of all of Israel. The pain of the last year simply channeled into Omer's shiva.
"When I entered Beit Ariela earlier, I felt that Omer embodies the fact that we are truly one people: all of us, both there and here, and our pain here is their pain there. We must not forget this during the rebuilding, to give them their place," the parents concluded.