{"id":143559,"date":"2026-02-24T06:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/143559\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:57:08","slug":"freed-israeli-hostage-recites-shema-prayer-on-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/143559\/","title":{"rendered":"Freed Israeli hostage recites Shema prayer on NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Israeli hostages Matan Zangauker, Ilana Gritzewsky,<\/a> and Segev Kalfon led thousands of Jewish teens in a communal recitation of the Shema prayer in New York’s Times Square on Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This event was part of the Chabad-Lubavitch CTeen International Summit, an annual conference for Jewish teens from around the world.<\/p>\n

The ceremony also honored the memory of those killed at the Bondi Beach terror attack, which took place at a Chabad Hannukkah celebration in Sydney. <\/a>The victims included Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who had established a local CTeen chapter shortly before he was killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, chairman of Chabad\u2019s Global Networks, announced that a new CTeen center, “Rabbi Eli’s CTeen Lounge,” will be built in Sydney in memory of Rabbi Schlanger.<\/p>\n

The Bondi attack followed a spate of antisemitic incidents in the country, including the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue.<\/p>\n

\"ThousandsThousands of Jewish teens gathered in Times Square for a Chabad-sponsored event on February 21, 2026. (credit: ITZIK BELENITZKI\/CTEEN)<\/p>\n

“The first night of Hannukkah\u00a0should have been a moment of light,” said Rabbi Kotlarsky. “But on this night, darkness came crashing in, taking the lives of fifteen holy souls.”<\/p>\n

“If there\u2019s one thing we will make sure of,” Kotlarsky added, “light will always have the final word.”<\/p>\n

Schlanger’s teenage daughter, Priva, also addressed the crowd, saying:<\/p>\n

“Losing my father shattered our world. But it did not shatter his mission,” she said. “Darkness doesn’t define the moment. Our actions do.”<\/p>\n

Segev Kalfon launches US Chabad tour<\/p>\n

Segev Kalfon is expected to remain in the United States, embarking on a \u201cChabad House tour<\/a>\u201d across the country, during which he will share his firsthand account of more than 2 years in Hamas captivity.<\/p>\n

His tour is being facilitated by Merkos 302, the Chabad World Headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n

Teens stranded in NY due to inclement weather\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over 1,000 teenagers who participated in the CTeen summit over the weekend were stranded in New York, unable to return home due to the winter storm<\/a> that overtook the region, according to a Monday update from the CTeen organization. The group offered additional activities and workshops for the teens waiting for their flights home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Rebbe taught us that one is never stuck,” said Rabbi Kotlarsky. “We don’t control the situations we find ourselves in, but how we respond, we do. Instead of seeing this as a setback, the teens are seizing the opportunity to grow and connect with their peers in an uplifting environment.”<\/p>\n

Esther Davis and Reuters contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Israeli hostages Matan Zangauker, Ilana Gritzewsky, and Segev Kalfon led thousands of Jewish teens in a communal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36296,3596,9,24,11,10,60231,33560],"class_list":["post-143559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-chabad","tag-gaza-hostages","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-prayer","tag-teenagers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}