The Jewish Federation of Cleveland held its closing campaign event on Dec. 8 at the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, featuring guest speaker Eli Sharabi, a former Israeli hostage held captive by Hamas for 491 days in Gaza.

Sharabi spoke of his background, his deep connection to his former home of Kibbutz Be’eri and the life he built there before he was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists who carried out a massacre of over 1,200 people and took 254 hostages captive on that day. 

“When videos started to show on television from Sderot, Ofakim, and the Nova festival of young people running for their lives, we understood that this situation is not in control,” Sharabi said.

After Sharabi was released on Feb. 8, 2025, he was inspired to write a personal memoir of his life, Hostage, published on June 5, 2025, covering his experience as a captive of Hamas. 

As described in the book, Sharabi was raised in a religious community in southern Tel Aviv, born to Yemenite and Moroccan Jewish descent.

At the age of 16, he moved to Kibbutz Be’eri, intending to live in a more peaceful environment.

“I grew up in South Tel Aviv in a neighborhood that wasn’t easy,” Sharabi says in an interview with Rabbi Aron White. I decided to leave the city for an agricultural life on the kibbutz.” 

Sharabi never enjoyed the loud urban environment of Tel Aviv, so moving to Be’eri he intended to live a quieter life and to find a closer-knit community to be a part of.

Across Israel, Kibbutzim are known as community living areas and are traditionally based on shared property, shared resources and agriculture.

Sharabi quickly grew connected to the daily rhythm of life in the Kibbutz, eventually taking on leadership roles including treasurer and economic coordinator.

Leanne Brisley, Sharabi’s wife, was a British-Israeli citizen who was born in Staple Hill, Bristol, UK, and traveled to Israel on a volunteering program to help in Kibbutz Be’eri. 

Shortly after arriving in Israel, Lianne met Eli, and the couple chose to build a life together on the kibbutz. She quickly became fluent in Hebrew and built a long-term career as the community dental nurse.

In July 2000, the couple got married and later had two kids; Noyah was born in 2007, and Yahel was born in 2010.

Their peaceful life in Be’eri came to an end on the morning of Oct. 7, starting at 6:30 am.

“The terrorists entered the kibbutz, shooting and breaking into homes,” Sharabi said. “Messages from friends and neighbors began flooding the WhatsApp group chat: ‘Someone shot Mom,’ ‘Someone shot Dad,’ ‘Our house is on fire.’”

For more than four hours the Sharabis were stuck in the safe room, and at 10:45 their home was breached by ten terrorists.

Noyah (16), Yahel (13), and Leanne (48) were all tragically murdered that day, and Eli was held hostage in Gaza for 491 days.

“I held on to hope. I imagined the life we would rebuild. I dreamt of seeing my family again. Only when I returned home, I learned the truth,” Sharabi told the The Times of Israel “My wife and my daughters had been slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.”

Eli’s sibling, Yossi Sharabi, was also held hostage in Gaza for 100 days before he was murdered. Eli only found out on Feb. 6, two days before he was released.

During the event, he explained that during his first 52 days as a hostage, he was held captive by Hamas in a Palestinian family’s home and was tortured and embarrassed by his captors.

In the tunnels, Eli was held captive with fellow hostages Hersh Goldberg Polin, Ori Danio, who were murdered, and Eliad Cohen, Or Levy and Alon Ohel, who survived.

As the oldest Israeli hostage in the group, Eli emerged as a role model, guiding the other men in how to behave with their captors and helping to establish rules that preserved their humanity.

“We spoke about who in our group is going to beg [the captors] for food,” he said.

On Feb. 1, 2025, Eli found out about the three-phase agreement in which 33 hostages would be released, and both Or and Eli learned they were going to be among the first few hostages released.

The three-phase agreement stated that Hamas would release 33 men, women, and children in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners.

On the day of his release, they rehearsed for their ceremony in which they had to stand on stage to answer questions, which Sharabi described as his last form of humiliation.

Sharabi closed off his speech at the Hebrew Academy with a final reflection on his captivity while also expressing his gratitude for his freedom.

“When you spend 491 days and 440 of them 50 meters underground, not as a free man, but as a man that needs to ask permission to go to the toilet, and begging for food, and begging for my life, you have lots of time to think with yourself,” Sharabi said.

“And then you understand that it becomes clear that you don’t miss any material things,” he added. “You just want five more minutes with your wife, with your children, with your brother, with my mother, with my friends, and you are willing to pay all the money you have in the world for these five minutes. Since then, I appreciate all the basic things in life.”