Thirty young Israeli orphans visiting New York this month took part in a joyful evening marking their bar and bat mitzvahs.

I met Tal Goldstein-Almog, 11, when he was visiting New York a couple of weeks ago as part of a group of 30 Israeli youngsters. The rising seventh grader told me he taught himself English (which he speaks well), out of boredom. Same goes for his learning to play drums. “Also from boredom, I taught myself,” he said with a smile. He enjoys coding in school, is a fan of American football, especially the Patriots, and someday would like to be a basketball player and a comedian – because “I make people laugh.”

Considering his personal history, Tal’s sweet, outgoing personality is truly remarkable.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Tal, his parents, and three siblings hid for several hours in their home on Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, before Hamas terrorists broke into the family’s safe room. They murdered Tal’s father, Nadav, 48, and sister, Yam, 20, an off-duty IDF soldier, and took Tal, his mother Chen, sister Agam, 17, and brother Gal, 11, into Gaza as hostages. For the next 51 days until their release, they were kept in “tunnels, buildings and malls,” Tal told me. “It was scary, we didn’t know what would happen and I felt lost.”

A key factor in Tal getting through this unimaginable experience and thriving these last several years is an Israeli government-sponsored group, the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization (IDFWO). Since 1991 it has provided emotional, social and........

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