Former hostage leads prayers at mass tefillin event in Tel Aviv

With his hand covering his eyes, Bar led the crowd in a thunderous “Shema Yisrael.”

By Jewish Breaking News

In a moving scene at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square—recently renamed Freedom Square—former hostage Bar Kuperstein stood beside his father, Tal Kuperstein, both wrapped in prayer shawls as they recited the blessing over tefillin.

Inside the square’s prayer tent, which has served as a spiritual anchor throughout the war, the pair joined hundreds who gathered for the 10 a.m. mass tefillin event—an initiative Bar himself had called for, to pray for the return of the remaining 11 hostages.

On Tuesday evening at the public at an evening in honor of hostages who are still held hostage in Gaza, Kuperstein made a public request, “While in captivity [where there was no tefillin], I dreamed to put on tefillin,” as he asked others to join him in fulfilling his dream. By taking part in a mass tefillin laying event today.

The tefillin tent, established by Julie Kuperstein, Bar’s mother, has hosted daily prayer services, Torah learning sessions, and opportunities for Israelis and visitors alike to lay tefillin in solidarity. Rabbi David Lau, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, attended and offered words of blessing.

As Bar wrapped the black leather straps around his arm and whispered the ancient words of faith, his father—seated in his wheelchair—did the same. Those gathered around including Chief Rabbi Lau, blew shofars, broke into song and dance, and held the elder Kuperstein’s hands in a circle of unity and joy.

With his hand covering his eyes, Bar led the crowd in a thunderous “Shema Yisrael.”

In a similar expression of renewed faith, freed hostages Sasha Troufanov and Sapir Cohen recently visited Chabad-Lubavitch holy sites in New York, where Sasha too was photographed donning tefillin—a symbol of gratitude, survival, and unbreakable spirit.

Meanwhile, IDF soldier Matan Angrest, who was abducted from his tank at the Nahal Oz base during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault, has returned home after more than two years in captivity.

Angrest was among the soldiers seized in the early hours of the surprise attack on southern Israel and was wounded during the fighting before being dragged into Gaza, where he endured harsh conditions until his release last week.

Upon his return to Israel, Angrest’s first words were not of anger or vengeance, but of faith. His only request was for a pair of tefillin and a siddur (prayer book) — a quiet, powerful act of spiritual resilience that moved the nation.