To commemorate Shavuot, the Jewish holiday that celebrates God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Forum of Hostages and Missing Families, a volunteer group founded by relatives of abduction victims in the Gaza Strip, has published a cookbook it created called “A Shavuot to Deserve.”
This year, Shavuot begins on the evening of Tuesday, June 11th, 2024, and runs through Thursday, June 13th, 2024.
The prologue to “Longing for Shavuot” expresses the pain families endure as they face another holiday without their loved ones.
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“Shavuot means ‘week’ in Hebrew, and we have been looking forward to the return of Shavuot for months now,” the group said, “and we can’t wait to make the recipes in the book together with them.”
According to the Hamas website, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum was established within 24 hours of the Hamas terror attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 people in the attack, and multiple sources report that approximately 125 of the 252 abducted Israelis and foreigners remain held hostage in Gaza.
The Forum for Hostages and Missing Families was established within 24 hours of the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
During Shavuot, homes and synagogues are decorated with flowers.
On holidays, it is customary to stay up all night studying the Torah, especially the Book of Ruth, and then read the Ten Commandments in the morning.
None of the recipes contain meat.
Lil Alter, a forum volunteer and cookbook author, said another Shavuot custom is eating meals that contain dairy products.
She told Fox News Digital that’s why the cookbook features “a lot of cheesecakes and quiches and lasagnas.” [It’s] It is associated with Shavuot, dairy products, and the “family” aspect of the festival.”
None of the recipes include meat and many are Middle Eastern, including tomato and pepper soup from the Negev and Moroccan cookies.
The new cookbook, “Savouts: Recipes for Their Table,” features 75 recipes across 180 pages, “from pastries to start the morning off, to hearty winter soups and soul-warming desserts,” the organization says of those still missing and held against their will. (Hostage and Missing Family Forum)
Vegan options include salads, vegetables, fruit, tahini, hummus and baba ghanoush.
The book has a total of 180 pages and 75 recipes, “ranging from pastries to start your morning off, to warming winter soups and soul-sweetening desserts,” according to the organization.
“Food means a lot.”
“When you talk to Jewish people, food is a very important part of our daily lives. We come together every Friday,” Alter told Fox News Digital. [for Shabbat dinner]and we get together every holiday… We wanted to keep the hostages in our hearts by thinking of them in a positive way, and we feel like food is a positive way to show that.”
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The cookbook begins with an optimistic message from freed hostage Louis Herr, 71, who expressed his hope of cooking with his fellow hostages soon.
According to multiple sources, his 10-year-old grandson, Hal, was rescued from Gaza along with his brother-in-law by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on February 12, 2024, after 129 days of captivity.
Louis Hur, 71, expressed hope of cooking with the hostages soon, whose 10-year-old grandson was rescued from Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on February 12, 2024, along with his brother-in-law, after 129 days of captivity. (Louis Ha)
The video shows Har being warmly greeted in an Israeli market by happy reunitees, with one person asking him: “When are you going to make pizza again?”
“Grandpa Lewis’ Pizza” was the first recipe featured in “A Longing for Shavuot” Recipe book.
Alter told Fox News Digital that the group wanted the book to be a hopeful one. “When he comes back, [they] We’re all going to come back and have a big party!”
The cookbook was printed at Beeri Printers, a large printing press located in Kibbutz Beeri, just three miles from Gaza.
Cookbook The document was printed at Beeri Printers, a massive printing plant known as Israel’s “Ground Zero,” located in Kibbutz Beeri, just three miles from Gaza.
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According to multiple reports, nearly one in 10 of the city’s more than 1,000 residents were killed by Hamas terrorists and at least 26 were kidnapped. Despite the tragedy and destruction, Beeri Printers reopened for business just 10 days after Oct. 7, Alter said.
Yossi Shalabi, 53, and his brother Eli, 55, residents of the Beeri kibbutz, were abducted during the attack, more than three months later, according to reports. Yossi Shalabi was likely killed accidentally during an IDF airstrike in Gaza.
The Shalabi brothers, Yossi, Eli and Sharon, are celebrated in a new cookbook in which Yossi and Eli Shalabi are portrayed as dedicated family men. A cookbook, featuring recipes for their favourite dishes: maakda, Moroccan potato pancakes and spicy fish balls. (Yossi, Eli and Sharon Shalabi)
The Facebook page for the Genesis Prize, an award that recognizes Jewish achievement, features a photo of the recipient’s brother, Sharon Shalabi, holding up a sign of the two of them.
The caption next to it reads: “My brother Yossi was killed in captivity. My brother Eli, who is still in captivity, does not even know that his wife and two daughters were murdered on October 7th. We have already lost four family members. We refuse to bring home a fifth coffin.”
Yossi and Eli Shalabi Recipe book.
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Recipes for their favourite dishes include maakda, Moroccan potato pancakes and spicy fish balls.
“Food is home”
Yossi Shalabi’s wife, Nira, told Fox News Digital in a text message, “Meals have always been and will continue to be a family gathering in the Shalabi household. Meals are home, and home is in Yossi and Eli’s hearts.”
Spicy Fish Balls are featured here in the new cookbook, “Shavuot of Longing.” (Eli Shalabi)
Carmel Gatto, 40, an occupational therapist who lived with her parents, was also abducted from Beeri Kibbutz.
Her cousin, Gil Dickman, told Fox News Digital that Gatto’s father hid in the bathroom and watched helplessly through a window as terrorists took his daughter, son, daughter-in-law and grandson from their home.
Dickman said the terrorists shot and killed Gatto’s mother minutes after she was kidnapped.
Gatto’s favorite dessert, chocolate log, holds special meaning to his family.
Gatto’s surviving relatives are now anxiously awaiting her return, but Dickman said she is hopeful after two hostages released on the 50th day of the war reported that Gatto has helped them stay healthy by exercising.
“She was like a guardian angel to them,” Dickman told Fox News Digital.
Dickman said Gatto’s favorite dessert, the chocolate log, has special meaning to the family because his grandfather used to make it for them before he passed away in 2018.
The chocolate log holds special meaning for Carmel Gatto’s family because her grandfather made it for them before he passed away in 2018. (Carmel Gatto)
He said he hopes that somehow Gatto will know that there are people baking with the recipe.
“To me, this is a way of sending a message that we’re still fighting for her, we still remember her,” he said.
He said he did not know anything about Gat’s condition at this time because Hamas was not allowing the Red Cross to visit the hostages.
The Israeli-American mother of one of the hostages taken on October 7 says her faith has helped her get through the deepest parts of her suffering.
“We fear the worst, we fear that her life and soul are at risk while she is there… Relatives of women who may become pregnant and men who may be abused are desperately hoping for the release of their loved ones.”
“The world has completely forgotten about October 7th. We must remind people that there are still babies, old people, women and men held captive by terrorist groups. It is a crime against humanity that is happening right now, just kilometres away from us, and it is unbelievable,” he added.
“Ready for every holiday”
Another hostage, 19-year-old Lili Albagh, was kidnapped along with four other teenage female soldiers from Nahal Oz military base, where other reports said 66 soldiers were killed by Hamas terrorists, according to The Jerusalem Post.
In a text message to Fox News Digital, Albaug’s mother, Shira, described her daughter as “full of joy, full of laughter and always smiling.”
She said her daughter was outgoing, confident and optimistic and dreamed of studying design.
The new cookbook, “Shavuot of Longing,” features a recipe for Shlomi Ziv’s favorite dessert, rose cookies. (Shlomi Ziv)
Shira said her daughter loved celebrating holidays and preparing holiday meals at home, and the recipe dedicated to her is “a recipe that Grandma Nila always prepares for every holiday, and Lila loves it.”
Itai Shellenberger, a volunteer with the Hostage and Missing Families Forum and author of “Shavuot of Longing,” said the book’s call for people to choose a recipe and dedicate it to the hostages on social media to raise awareness for them.
“During Shavuot, there will be thousands of videos on Facebook and Instagram offering recipes dedicated to the hostages,” he predicts.
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As previously reported by Fox News Digital, on June 8, in the largest hostage rescue operation since the start of the war, the IDF safely rescued four hostages held in Gaza – Noa al-Ghamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrei Kozlov, 27.
The book’s appeal is for people to choose a recipe and dedicate it to the hostages on social media to raise awareness.
Ziv worked as a security guard at a music festival until the daughter of a nurse who treated him at Sheba Medical Center was murdered. He studied interior design and is described in “Shavuot of Longing” as a family man and “the most fun-loving uncle.”
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“Longing for Shavuot” includes recipes for Ziv’s favorite dessert, rose cookies, and Almog Meir Jan’s favorite orange cake.
“A longed-for Shavuot” Available for purchase It will take place in the U.S., Canada, Israel, Australia and the U.K. All proceeds will go to the Hostage and Missing Families Forum.
