Dear friends and colleagues,
17 days passed since the horrific terror attack of Hamas on Israeli villages. Every day reveals more horror stories about kids that were tortured in front of their parents’ eyes, parents who were slaughtered in front of their little kids and more horrible barbaric acts that we haven’t seen since the holocaust. I never knew I had so many tears in my eyes.
Many of you have sent me letters of condolences and support. I am deeply grateful for these tokens of friendship and encouragement during these horrific times.
Unfortunately, the horrors haven’t stopped. After killing more than 1,300 babies, children, women, men and elderlies, and injuring thousands of people on this deadly attack, Hamas terrorists are now hiding in schools, hospitals and other public buildings in Gaza, causing suffer to many innocent Palestinians. Hundreds of rockets, from the many thousands that were fired by Hamas on Israel since October 7th, fell on Gaza territory bringing more destruction to this miserable piece of land. Palestinian families who asked to run away from the fighting zone were shot to death by Hamas terrorists. After Hamas ruined every negotiation for peace in the last 30 years, it is crystal clear now that as long as Hamas exists, peace will not arrive to our region.
One of the most unbelievable horrors of Hamas was the kidnapping of more than 220 people, from 9 months old babies to 85 years old women, that are now held by Hamas as hostages somewhere under the ground in Gaza. Babies and little children whose parents were murdered in front of their eyes have been isolated from the world for 17 days. I can’t think of crueler and more heartless act.
For those little children we created a special version of the prayer – Bring him home, from Les Misérables:
Tomorrow, on October 25, the Israeli Opera was supposed to present special events to mark the International Opera Day. But in this moment of war and grief, we cannot celebrate. In this hard time for the Jewish people, I’m daring to approach you with a request: please join us in this prayer for the return of the kidnapped people to their homes; please post our prayer on your social media accounts; please share it with opera lovers from all over the world. I’m allowing myself to hope that with this joint prayer of all of us this torture of innocent children will end. Please help us to BRING THEM HOME
With hope for better days,
Zach Granit
THE SHLOMO LAHAT OPERA HOUSE
