NEW YORK — Several hundred Jewish New Yorkers and allies gathered at Central Park on Sunday morning to dedicate a bench to the Israeli hostages taken captive by Gaza terrorists, in an emotional last event for a community that came together each week for the captives for more than two years.

“We always said we wanted one last time to gather, one last time when they’re all back, and now it’s finally here, so we wanted to mark this event together,” said Dana Cwaigrach, the New York director for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum US.

The American hostage advocates began gathering on Sundays in Central Park, on the Upper West Side, shortly after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and onslaught. The effort to free the hostages served as common ground for nearly all of the New York City Jewish community, whose roughly 1 million members are often riven by political and religious divides.

The meetings often drew hostages’ family members and released captives for emotional meetings with the New Yorkers, and local officials came to express support. The Central Park rallies, as well as similar events in the city, sometimes drew thousands of participants.

A community coalesced around the gatherings, held in the snow during brutal winter cold and in the sweltering summer heat, with attendees getting to know one another over the months.

The last regular rally took place in February, after the last hostages’ bodies were released from Gaza.

Sunday’s meeting marked an emotional send-off for that community, with some attendees wiping away tears during speeches at the bench dedication.

“Happily, it ended, but sadly, it ended too, because we became like family. You were with us,” Maurice Shnaider, the uncle of slain hostage Shiri Bibas, told the crowd on Sunday.

“I lost five members of my family — sister, brother-in-law, niece, and two great-nephews,” Shnaider said. “You remember them. You know them. You don’t forget them. They........

© The Times of Israel