The relentless voice for Israel’s hostages

It’s 9pm on a chilly Sunday evening, and Nivi Feldman has arrived at a house in Borehamwood to meet Shaun Lemel, a 26-year-old Israeli–American who survived the Nova massacre. He’s flown to London with his younger brother, Ben, to give testimony to MPs at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

The fact that it is late and cold is irrelevant to Feldman. There is no hard and fast rule for her job; it’s all consuming, 24/7. She greets the brothers, fresh off the plane, warmly, with hugs. The three start chatting about the days ahead as they’re offered soup and sandwiches. They stay up until one in the morning working on a powerful speech, after which she goes home, catching a few hours of sleep until they all catch a train to the North-West.

Nivi leads the UK’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum, and simply put – she never stops: from briefing British Jewish leaders, journalists, and campaigners, appearing regularly on media outlets including Sky News and LBC; organising visiting delegations of hostage families and Nova Festival survivors; launching a project to twin parliamentarians with hostages in Gaza; pressing international mediators for a deal that ensures the return of all hostages both living and dead; liaising with the United Synagogue, the Office of the Chief Rabbi, the Board of Deputies, UJIA, ambassadors of all countries that citizens held captive in Gaza; Christian allies and hostage vigil leaders in multiple UK cities.

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Two painful years on from the day when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, murdering 1,200 innocent men, women, and children and taking 251 people hostage, the 38-year old is speaking to Jewish News ahead of Sunday’s central London vigil, marking yet another horrific milestone of waiting, praying and daring to hope.

“It’s really devastating that we’re here”, she says. “When I took the role, I thought it’s going to be two, three months of really hard work, and they’ll be out of there. But we’re still here, fighting every day.”

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She had helped set up the Borehamwood Hostages Vigil a week after 7 October. She joined the Forum in January 2024 – and was leading its community efforts by March. It’s a voluntary, unpaid position, but it’s all encompassing.

“It’s more than a full time job,” says Feldman, switching between our interview, giving a kiss to her youngest child, last minute co-ordinations for the Lemel brothers and fending off a nasty cold.

“When I organise a delegation, it takes a week or two around the clock, putting in all the right meetings and getting all the logistics done. And when they’re here, it’s from 8am until midnight, to make sure they get everywhere they need to get and all their needs are met.

“And when there is anything that Hamas sends out, or anything that sends things on a tailspin, we’re working around the clock on press releases, getting interviews, getting the right messages out. Whenever there are requests from organisations for public speaking and interviews, I put as many families up as I can. And when they’re not available, I’m available to go, or I ask people for my team to go.”

From the Israeli embassy, to parliamentarians, to advocacy groups, to friends and families of hostages, Feldman and the Forum have become the linchpin of hostage activism in the UK’s Jewish community.

The bold initiatives of the UK Forum that have commanded national attention include a poignantly empty Seder table opposite Downing Street, a sombre vigil with bright orange balloons to mark the second birthday of Kfir Bibas, (kidnapped and later murdered by Hamas alongside his mother Shiri and brother Ariel) and a convey of coffins on the day their bodies were returned to Israel.

That’s in addition to the unceasing collaborative efforts Forum members have been part of including creating posters, stickers, yellow ribbons, dog tags and challah bakes.

Feldman and her voluntary team include printers and jewellers Jack and Devorah Miller, activist Haya Langerman, and professionals from all walks of life, including Ariella Knoble-Gershon, the campaigns officer at the Board of Deputies, and PR and press expert Gail Garcia Davidson.

The latter, like Nivi, are in constant contact with parliamentarians and community representatives across the political and religious spectrums.

Feldman recalls one vigil where, for the first time, members of the Reform movement shared a stage with those from the United Synagogue. “Everyone came together happily. I think they see the hostages are something that everyone can stand behind.”

It is often hard enough for ordinary members of the community to cope with the aftermath of 7 October. How has Feldman, almost two years after this tragedy, managed to continue to operate with laser-like focus?

“What keeps me going is keeping them going,” she says of the hostage families she has become part of.

“I remember in March, I spoke with the Levinson family, and they said, ‘you know, Nivi, we don’t even have the energy to get out of bed some days. And it’s people like you that come with glimpses of hope and ideas and initiatives that keep us going.'”

The bodies of Staff Sgt. Shay Levinson, Ofra Keidar and Yonatan Samerano, murdered and abducted by Hamas on 7 October, would be retrieved by the IDF in June of this year, three months later.

When Feldman does return to Israel, she’s usually “spent more time with hostage families than friends or family. It’s like this ongoing relationship to make sure they know that I care about them, that we’re thinking about them, to think what else we can do for them.”

Interestingly, she finds that “the hostage families overall feel that the UK government gives them more time and information than the Israeli government”. However, she makes clear she was “really upset that the Prime Minister wouldn’t make time for a meeting set for the British-linked hostages. They just wouldn’t allow families of Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal or any other families of current hostages to join. I was really, really frustrated.”

Feldman is also frank in her thoughts about the UK government’s recognition of a Palestinian state, calling it “really hurtful”. The Forum “was really upset that they’re doing it at a time that there’s still hostages. They’re basically rewarding Hamas for 7 October. Recognising Palestine at this point is strengthening Hamas and taking away the chances for our hostages to come out. Sympathy for Israel has plummeted so much. The needs of the hostages have gone up and they need help more than ever to survive and to get out of there.”

She’s mindful that she “needs to be always really respectful” of the hostage families. “There’s a really wide range of people; very right wing to left wing. It was EVERYONE that was attacked that day in Israel. So the hostages are from such a wide variety of completely different beliefs, so I need to be really respectful that I’m the voice for all the hostages and the hostage families.”

Eddie Hammerman, co-founder of the Borehamwood Hostage Vigil, calls Nivi a force of nature: “unstoppable, fearless, and fiercely driven. Her mission is clear and unwavering: to bring the hostages home”. He describes her energy and drive as  “mindboggling”.

Knoble Gershon, who worked directly with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum before joining the Board, and continues to work closely with Nivi, calls her a “a powerful, wonderful individual who has continued to raise awareness of the hostages at the highest places”.

As commentators, politicians and news stations scramble to assess and dissect the latest meetings, statements and soundbites from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Trump, Feldman considers the ultimate question.

“Are the hostages going to come home? They have to, they HAVE to. We have to believe it. The heart-breaking thing with the Levinson family, was that they thought, okay, Shay came back. They finally closed that horrible circle, but they’re still in that place of, ‘why did it have to happen to our son? Why did it happen to him? Why did he have to go through all of it?’ They’re still not able to move on.”