Day 540 - Jonathan Dekel-Chen: US feels like hostages’ only beacon

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today's we're bringing you an episode of What Matters Now, our weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This installment is hosted by arts and culture editor Jessica Steinberg, who is speaking with Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of released hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen.

Dekel-Chen, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was a vocal and visible hostage parent throughout the months of his son’s captivity. Sagui Dekel-Chen was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, while his pregnant wife and two young daughters hid in their safe room.

Dekel-Chen discusses the relief he and the family experienced upon seeing his son released home to Israel, the challenges that Sagui, the family and the Nir Oz community still face, and the sense of rebirth that Sagui feels post-captivity.

For 496 days, Sagui didn’t know the fate of his nuclear family, as well as what happened to extended members of his family and friends.

Dekel-Chen also reflects on the sense of abandonment felt by many hostage families from the Israeli government throughout the months of the war, and particularly now, since the army returned to fighting in Gaza, leaving 59 hostages still in captivity.

He speaks about the tremendous support he and other hostage families received from the US government, both from the Biden and Trump administrations, and his surprise to learn that American Jewish organizations didn’t band together to support the hostage families.

So this week, we ask history professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen, what matters now?

Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Freed hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen with his father Jonathan aboard an IDF helicopter en route to the hospital soon after his release from 498 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, February 15, 2025 (IDF)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel What Matters Now, a weekly podcast drilling down into one issue facing Israel right now.
0:10.6	So I am here today on Sunday afternoon with Professor Jonathan Dekelchen.
0:17.6	We're actually at the BGU radio station, which has generously offered us
0:23.9	their space in order to record this What Matters Now podcast, because Professor Dekelchen lives
0:30.2	in Kyriakat right now. I'm in Jerusalem. And first and foremost, welcome Professor Dekelchen.
0:36.9	Welcome, Yonatan.
0:38.3	Hi. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming to talk to us. You and I have spoken a bunch of
0:44.4	different times over the last year and a half as you were struggling to bring your son, Sagid DeKalkan,
0:52.1	home. He was taken from his home, from Kippets near Oz,
0:56.3	where you also live and where he was living with his family,
1:00.6	with his wife, Avital, their two children.
1:02.8	Avital was pregnant at the time.
1:04.7	She has since had their third child.
1:07.6	And you, I can remember seeing you at a press conference, I believe, on October 8th in Tel Aviv,
1:15.5	with other dual citizens, American citizens, dual American Israeli citizens, speaking about your loved one in your case again, your son Sagis.
1:25.0	And this unfolding nightmare that no one really knew what it was
1:30.3	or what it looked like at the time. And of course, you've been one of the American-Israeli families
1:36.0	within that particular group, but of course, just part of the hostage family group,
1:40.9	speaking about your son, speaking about the other hostages, trying to push through
1:44.5	this deal, and then thank God, Sagie came home, which feels miraculous to all those of us
1:51.5	watching it. And how does it feel for you? Well, the world stopped on October 7th for anyone
2:00.1	who had any connection to the horrific events of the day,
	...

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