Forever in Your Hands

As the body of the last hostage was returned for kever Yisrael and the dark, gruesome chapter has come to some kind of closure, what of the live hostages, months after their return? “We’re living on a new level of reality,” says Bar Kuperstein. He’s grateful for the gift of perspective, but admits that even as he and his friends look pretty good on the outside, the scars and trauma will take another miracle to heal

“Shalom, Bar Kuperstein. How are you?”

It’s hard to believe I actually said the words I’d rehearsed countless times, ever since I spoke with Julie Kuperstein two years ago.

“One day, you’ll sit with Bar himself, and he’ll tell you everything,” his mother promised then, although at the time, when most of the captives were being held deep in the bowels of Gaza with no foreseeable way out, it didn’t seem remotely possible.

But Julie Kuperstein never lost her emunah compass, always talking about “the day of redemption.” She just knew the day would come.

“Shalom, shalom!” Bar answers effusively, his characteristic sweetness radiating outward — the top layer of an underlying steely strength.