Sharing hope amid heartbreak
"I had goosebumps and I want to thank everyone we've met in Australia for bringing me and my little heart, hope," says Tom Ken-Dror.
The audience at the 2025 UIA NSW 2025 campaign launch on November 11 at Central Synagogue was deeply moved by words of hope from Israeli guests Tom Ken-Dror – whose brother Jonathan was murdered at the Nova festival – and Kibbutz Re’im resident Liam Or, who was held captive in Gaza for 54 days.
But both were equally moved by the audience’s – and the broader Australian Jewish community’s – embrace of them, as was Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, chair of the Jewish Agency’s Victims of Terror Fund, who interviewed them.
Or and Ken-Dror are just two of 11,000 people the fund has directly assisted since October 7, 2023.
Describing Jonathan as having a magnetic zest for life, Ken-Dror said all the good that he spread in the world finds a way to continue, “and this is something very powerful that I’ve felt here”.
“We’ve been welcomed with open hearts and this love is everything my little brother represents.
“On our first night, at a Perth event, the entire crowd stood and applauded us and that’s when I started singing Hatikvah for the first time since Johnny’s murder.
“I had goosebumps and I want to thank everyone we’ve met in Australia for bringing me and my little heart, hope.”
Three months after her brother was murdered, she gave birth to Lior Jonathan.
“He really saved me,” Ken-Dror said, adding that his birth “was the first day that my mum took off her black clothes … and that’s the power of hope”.
Or said, “The Jewish community here has given us such a big hug.”
Although he still finds it very hard to discuss details of his captivity and he prays for the release of all remaining hostages, Or said his ordeal has changed his perspective on life.
“The second that I came back, I told my father it was like the lowest a human can ever be – being literally 70m under the ground – so from there, you can only get up.
“So, it’s all about spreading love, life and pure happiness and I think this is what I’m going to do.”
Another highlight of the event was Penny Hurst presenting the Louis Klein Award for Outstanding Leadership – for the first time in 12 years – to Steven Lowy, who next week will be in Israel to officially end his five-year term as chair of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Hayesod-UIA.
Nahmias-Verbin, Or and Ken-Dror also spoke at a UIA event in Melbourne on November 13.
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