His release would be music to their ears.
The family of a classically trained Israeli pianist who was kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks is staging a heartfelt “yellow piano” concert near Philadelphia to push for him and other hostages to be set free.
“They need to be brought home alive,” said Idit Ohel, whose son, Alon Ohel, was kidnapped by the terrorist group.
“When [musicians] play the yellow pianos … they’re giving part of themselves to Alon and the other hostages — and making sure they’re not forgotten,” said Ohel, of Lavon, Israel.
Alon’s family first set up a yellow piano — the color of hostage reminder ribbons — in Tel Aviv, urging people to play with “empathy” for those kidnapped.
The concerts, which highlight Alon’s passion for music, have since lit up public spaces from Washington Square Park in New York City to Paris, Berlin and London.
Alon, 24, was at the Nova Music Festival on rural land near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked the event with rockets and gunfire — killing at least 340 people, Israeli authorities said.
Alon and his friends fled to a nearby bomb shelter, where terrorists took him and three others hostage, according to authorities.
There is violent footage of terrorists dragging him away alive from the roadside shelter, and he has not been heard from since.
On Sunday, his family said recently released hostages revealed that Alon is alive, but is injured and not receiving the care he needs, according to the Times of Israel.
Even before this news, the family organized the concert for Feb. 23 in the Philadelphia area to keep attention on him because there are still at least 65 of hostages who aren’t part of the “Phase One” hostage release agreement, said his cousin, Benjamin Mittman, who lives outside Philly.
“It’s important to keep their names in the forefront, they need to be brought home, regardless of politics, and that’s the purpose of holding this event,” Mittman said. “The crux of the program is to encourage sending positive music and feelings towards the remaining hostages.”
Alon, a talented pianist enrolled at Tel Aviv’s Rimon School of Music, left his piano open at home before heading to the all-night dance festival in October 2023, Mittman said.
“He usually closed it. And so his parents thought that was very symbolic, that it should remain open and be used until he comes home,” Mittman said of the inspiration for the event.
Alon’s family has been playing piano in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to remind Israel he is still in captivity since he was taken, Mittman said.
They also invite “onlookers and passersby to play in empathy and in sympathy with the hostages,” Mittman said.
The concert will be held on Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Kaiserman Jewish Community Center in Wynnewood, Pa. — about 30 minutes from Center City, Philadelphia.
Musicians will play some of Alon’s favorites, including Claud Debussy’s “Clair de lune,” Joseph Haydn’s “Piano Sonata No. 37.”
“We’ve booked exceptional, classically trained musicians, including a veteran of various different operas, a baritone, who will be accompanied by the piano and by a violin,” Mittman said.
Hamas took roughly 240 hostages — including women and children — during the attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In total, the attack killed some 1,200 people.
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