A full year's worth of Jewish holidays have nearly passed and the Neutra family is still waiting for their beloved Omer to return home. "We keep on hoping that every time a holiday like this shows up, there'll be a miracle," his father Ronen said. October 7 marked one year since Ronen and Orna Neutra's son was taken hostage during Hamas' terror attack on Israel.
A commander in the Israel Defense Forces, Neutra was patrolling a border during the time of a ceasefire. They never imagined the border would be breached. Omer is not an Israeli child for whom service was his destiny.
He was born and raised in New York and grew up a quintessential American life. "He's this big, tall guy, big smile on his face. He's the one who breaks the ice," his mother said.
A Knicks fan, captain of his sports teams, attending summer camp — he took a year after high school to live in Israel, and that changed him. "He connected to the people, he connected to the land, he connected to the family," his father said. "He felt that he must protect the only Jewish land.
" What has unfolded over the last 365 days in that region is beyond their worst imagination. From the war itself to the antisemitism across college campuses, to painful frustration with leaders who hold their son's fate in their hands. "That's also been a very big disappointment," Orna Neutra said.
"You know, that understanding that there are forces that are much bigger, and they're not necessarily clean. You know that all these leaders ar.