Welcome home, Edan
Enormous hometown crowd cheers hostage’s release from Gaza
Hamas released Edan Alexander, an American Israeli citizen from Tenafly, back to Israel under a deal reached with the United States. He’d been held hostage by the terrorist group in Gaza for 584 days.
The release, conducted Monday evening in Gaza, may inaugurate a new phase in the hostage crisis that has consumed Israel since Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023, taking 251 captives and igniting the war in Gaza.
Israelis and Jews around the world felt joy; even if it was mixed with fear, joy took over. And nowhere was that more true than in Edan’s hometown, Tenafly.
A call to the local community went out over email, text, and WhatsApp on Sunday night.
“Come to Huyler Park in downtown Tenafly at 5 a.m. to celebrate — Edan Alexander is coming home.”
Edan, who was 19 when he was kidnapped and is 21 now, was born to Israeli parents in Tenafly and grew up there. He graduated from Tenafly High School, and then he joined the Israel Defense Forces as a lone soldier, becoming part of the iconic Golani Brigade. Hamas abducted him from his IDF post near the Gaza border; he joined 250 other hostages. Now, the United States negotiated his release, in a move that shocked both Israeli officials and his friends and family in New Jersey.
“Yes, it’s early,” the WhatsApp message continued. “And yes, it might be a little cold. But we are strong, united, and our love will warm us all.” It went on to urge parents to let their children skip school to join the crowd in the park. “Let them experience a morning they’ll remember for life.”

By 5 a.m., the time that initial reports suggested Alexander could be freed by Hamas, the suburban New Jersey park was packed with friends of his family, members of the local Israeli expat community, and hundreds of local residents and officials.
Bergen County’s Northern Valley is home to many Israelis, who retain their allegiance to Israel as well as to their new country. The community is tightknit. Many of them know the Alexander family, and Edan’s ordeal has been personal to many of them.
A massive screen and audio system, set up overnight by local companies, broadcast Israel’s Channel 12, where reporters were offering a play-by-play of the preparations for Alexander’s release. Sometimes the screen showed a broadcast from Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, where a similar broadcast showed the crowds in Tenafly.
The crowd included Daniel Solomon of Cresskill. His parents, Elinor and Ido, are Israeli; his father and his friend Asaf Wolff of Cresskill were active in a group called Bereishit, which was dedicated to helping local American-Israeli children maintain their Israeli identity while living fully as Americans. Mr. Wolff is on its board. When he was a child, Edan went to a Hebrew school program that Bereishit ran.
In January of 2024, Ido Solomon and Asaf Wolff put together a soccer evening to raise funds to help fight for the hostages’ release, and also to provide some joy to the traumatized community.
“I said back then that we will do another soccer party, hopefully with Edan,” Mr. Solomon said. “And we will be able to do that, for real. He will be able to participate in it.”
All the Solomons knew the Alexanders — parents Yael and Adi, their daughter, Mika, and Edan and Mika’s little brother, Roee — before October 7. So did most of the community. Everyone knows them now.

The rally “honestly felt like a party,” 18-year-old Daniel Solomon said. “There were the best feelings there. Everyone was so happy, full of joy, dancing around. I have a friend who was there at 5. He said, ‘I am not leaving until I see them on the big screen. He was there until 1:30 p.m. He was there the whole day.’” And he knows that his friend would say that the long wait was worth it.
“There were excused absences from Tenafly middle and high school today,” for kids who wanted to go to the square for the wait and the celebration, Daniel said. “There was tremendous support from the community.
“And I saw some teachers there who I recognized from Cresskill High School,” the recent Cresskill High School graduate continued. “I spoke to them for a little while.”
The crowd wasn’t all Israeli, he said, although certainly it attracted Israeli Americans from across the Northern Valley. “There were a lot of American Jews, and also a lot of people who aren’t part of the Jewish community came to show their love,” he said.
Ms. Solomon wasn’t at the rally; she was at work in Teaneck. “The feeling there was tremendous joy,” she said. “Everybody feels incredibly blessed and grateful for reaching this moment.
“On the other hand, people are extremely worried. Joy comes with worry. Everybody feels like we are living a dream right now. We’re very grateful to this administration, to President Trump. But no one knows what is behind this. But now everyone is very happy.
“We’re seeking to be inspired and united.”

Orly Chen lives in Tenafly, but she’s from Israel, and she’s been active in advocating for the hostages since they were kidnapped. By late October 2023, Jewish activists had begun setting Shabbat tables with empty place settings for the hostages in public spaces. Each seat had a hostage poster, with a picture, taped to it. In some places, the children’s seats had teddy bears on them. (All of the children were released in late November 2023, except Ariel and Kfir Bibas; later the world learned that they and their mother, Shiri, had been tortured and murdered in captivity.)
In November, Ms. Chen and her friend Daphna Arad of Englewood Cliffs had set up a Shabbat table for the hostages outside the old train station, where the rally on Monday was held.
“We almost, like, created a Hostages Square here in Tenafly,” Ms. Chen said on Monday; that had been true in 2023 as well. “And when, God willing, he’s going to come back to Tenafly, there’ll be a really nice and warm welcome here.
“We are so blessed,” she concluded. “We are really so blessed to have such an amazing, amazing community.”
“Amazing to be there, the day after Mother’s Day, with my own son,” Rachel Taylor of Tenafly said. “No family should have to endure the suffering the Alexanders have been through. While it was announced that Edan needed assistance walking, he looked better than we had expected in the first photos of him released. Privileged to freely stand outside in the sunshine in Tenafly to celebrate Edan’s bravery and homecoming, even as our soldiers continue to fight for our homeland.”
As the sun rose, the crowd thickened. Mayor Mark Zinna of Tenafly — who Ms. Chen said had helped to coordinate security, and who has supported local residents in their push to have the hostages released throughout the ordeal — was there.
So was Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Dist. 5), whose district includes Tenafly; he’s running for the Democratic nomination for governor. So was Assi Berman Dayan of Tenafly, a founder of the New York division of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Hundreds of people showed up at the rally.
Local rabbis turned out alongside their congregants, and children came with their parents. Some people brought camp chairs, and many wrapped themselves in Israeli flags. At one point, men and boys put on tallit and tefillin for Shacharit. Cafe Angelique, an Israeli-owned restaurant housed in the old train station, opened, serving breakfast for hungry rallygoers who’d left home too early to eat; its menu includes such Israeli delicacies as Jerusalem bagels, shakshuka, and hummus.
And a giant yellow banner reading “Welcome Home Edan” was unfurled.
After the rally, many local, regional, and national groups sent out messages.
Amid the relief and joy, there were other, more somber notes.
Rabbi Daniel Cohen of Temple Sharey Tefilo Israel in South Orange felt both joy and resolve.
“I am grateful he has been released by the Hamas terrorists who abducted and held him in depravation for over a year and a half,” he said. “I am thrilled for him and for his family.
“Full stop.
“AND
“I am worried about the implications for the remaining hostages Hamas still holds. I pray that both the American and the Israeli administrations will remain laser-focused on the release of the remaining hostages until the very last one is finally returned.”
Rabbi David Vaisberg of Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston similarly tempered joy with apprehension.
“We are beyond thrilled and relieved to hear of Edan Alexander’s release and return to his loved ones,” he said. “We pray that he finds healing and wholeness in after this awful ordeal.
“We hope that the world takes note of what he has to say about his treatment under Hamas’ brutality, that the other hostages’ release is demanded with just as much conviction, and that everyone recognizes that while Hamas stands, neither Palestinians nor Israelis will find safety or peace.”
Meanwhile, a world away from New Jersey, Hamas released Edan under a deal it reached with the United States.
The release, which happened in Gaza on Monday evening, may have inaugurated a new phase in the hostage crisis that has consumed Israel since October 7.
“I’m very happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who until recently most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be released in about two hours,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference Monday morning. “He’s coming home to his parents, which is great news.”
Israel announced that it would send a team to Qatar to continue negotiations about the remaining hostages. Israeli media also reported that following the deal for Alexander’s release, Israel would let humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time in two months.
“If confirmed, Edan’s release must mark the beginning of a broader agreement to secure the freedom of all remaining hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing relatives of most of the hostages, said in a statement before Edan was released. “We pray that this is not just the beginning of Edan’s return, but of the return of all 59 hostages. No one should be left behind.”
According to reports, Hamas handed Edan over to the Red Cross, who drove him to Gaza’s border with Israel and transferred him to Israel. The handover was quiet, with none of the menacing theatrics that Hamas had used when releasing dozens of hostages earlier this year during a temporary ceasefire. (Hamas fears the United States’ wrath, Saudi media reported.) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized that any diminished army operations in Gaza were meant only to allow for Edan’s safe passage. And the families of up to 23 other living hostages were fretting over whether his release, as joyous as it was, would reduce U.S. pressure for the war to end and their own children to be freed.
Many sources told the Times of Israel that Edan’s release was largely the result of a backchannel operated by a non-governmental person who passed messages between Hamas’s leadership and the U.S. special envoy to the Mideast, Steve Witkoff.
Israel wasn’t even notified about the decision to release Edan until it was finalized, the sources said.
In a video statement, Mr. Netanyahu attributed the captive’s freedom to “military pressure and the diplomatic pressure applied by President Trump,” calling it “a winning combination.”
Mr. Netanyahu vowed that the war would continue. He recently said that achieving a military victory in Gaza is more important than returning the hostages, even as polls show that most Israelis believe the opposite.
After he was released, the public learned that Edan had been beaten at the beginning of his captivity, and he had flea bites and bruises all over his body, according to Israel’s Channel 12. He had been severely tortured, the network said, and for some unspecified time his captors kept a bag over his head. He didn’t know he’d be set free until hours before it happened.
He didn’t get much food during much of the time he was held hostage — mainly small amounts of pita, rice, and beans. During the ceasefire, from January to March, he was given meat. Other hostages who had been released earlier had reported the same thing.
His captors considered him an asset because of his American citizenship.
He reportedly said that he’d been moved around, held both above ground and in tunnels. The senior Hamas officials who guarded him were sure to tell him brutal details about the October 7 attack. He also said that he’d seen his family on television, advocating for his release.
Edan’s father, Adi Alexander, spoke to Channel 12 by phone after Edan was released but before they saw him. “It’s an out-of-body experience,” Mr. Alexander said. “It’s very exciting. We couldn’t sleep all night.

“I saw the picture. He’s handsome, standing on his feet. That’s what’s important. He’s a little pale, thin, but a tall boy. This is my boy.”
On Tuesday, Yael and Adi Alexander expressed their gratitude to Mr. Trump, Mr. Witkoff, and U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler for their work in bringing their son home.
Neither Ms. Alexander, who spoke in Hebrew, nor her husband, who delivered his statement in English, mentioned the Israeli government, except to call on Mr. Netanyahu to listen to the country’s pleas to bring the rest of the hostages home.
“I say that the return of Edan should be only the beginning of bringing back the rest of the hostages,” Ms. Alexander said. “We have no time to wait. Time is running out, and the world is watching us.”
She thanked the Israeli public for supporting her and her family in the effort to free her son. “Most of the public believes that bringing back the hostages is the most important goal, a national and Jewish goal,” she said. “It’s not about the political right or left, but about the human heart.”
She said that Edan told them that he’d suffered terrible fears in captivity, and a lack of water, food and other aid. He also described the terror he experienced when the IDF would strike Gaza, destroying buildings.
“The strikes and bombs made him think that every moment was about to be his last one,” she said. “Edan, my hero, you returned from the horror. But other hostages are still living through that threat, they are still living in that hell. My heart has returned to beating, but they still need to return home.”
She said that every day that her son was in captivity was like an eternity.
Mr. Alexander emphasized in English what his wife had said in Hebrew.
“It’s wonderful to have Edan home,” he said. “It’s a gift from God to watch him hug Yael, his brother, and his sister, knowing that his suffering is over and that our family can begin to heal.”
He said that soon Edan will be back in Tenafly, where he’ll reunite with his friends.
“Those happy times may include a beer or two,” he said, noting that Edan had already enjoyed his first beer after months of captivity on the rooftop of the hospital, a moment that the released hostage also shared on social media.
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