Eli Sharabi After Captivity: 'For 16 Months I Dreamed of Kiddush and Friday Night at My Mom's'

"For 16 months I didn't see an egg; for 16 months I dreamed of the Kiddush, of Friday-night dinner at my mom's. In that time, you distill what really matters, and it's never material things. Why would I care if I have a Subaru or a Mercedes when I'm 50 meters underground? I just want to hug my family again." So said former hostage Eli Sharabi, in an interview published over the weekend in Maariv.

According to Sharabi, he is now focused on strengthening Jewish communities around the world. "I got pulled into the world of hasbara—advocacy—and into strengthening the Jewish communities I meet in many countries worldwide. My book has already been translated into 18 languages, and it's not always economical, but it's important to me that it reach as many people as possible."

"I want as many people as possible to be exposed to my family's story," Sharabi emphasized. "When I reached the cemetery for the first time, I apologized to Lian and the girls for not being able to save them, and I promised them I would do everything so that they and my brother would not be forgotten. And if it has been decreed that I be part of Israeli hasbara abroad in the face of rising and surging antisemitism—that's what I'll do. Unlike people who represent policy or the government, you can't argue with me about the facts, about what I experienced, about the murder of my family. It's also important to me to strengthen communities where the situation breeds despair."

Sharabi, who weighed just 44 kilos when he emerged from captivity, added: "Today I know how to value freedom and other basic things much more. I know what real hunger feels like, and it's not what we feel when we say 'I'm dying of hunger' after four or five hours without eating. I appreciate having toothpaste, hot water in the shower, that I don't have to eat moldy pita and beg to burn it on the gas so I don't taste the mold."