DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina native Keith Siegel is home with his family in Israel after more than a year in captivity. Siegel was one of three hostages released by Hamas in Saturday’s hostage-prisoner exchange under the delicate ceasefire.
“I still feel that I’m in a dream,” said Keith’s nephew Itai Siegel.
Itai and many other family members and friends watched on television as Keith returned home. Keith’s wife Aviva Siegel and other immediate family were close to tears as they hugged Keith for the first time in over a year.
Aviva was also captured by Hamas on October 7, but she was released in November 2023 under an earlier deal.
“Within this nightmare, there is a dream. A dream of hope. A hope of hugging my uncle again. And I am just waiting to hug him and touch him and feel him for real,” Itai said.
The Triangle community is also celebrating Keith’s return. Many people grew up in the Durham and Chapel Hill area with Keith and have been praying for his safe return.
Members of the Beth El Synagogue in Durham, where Keith grew up and where his mother remained a devout member until her death in December, gathered Saturday evening to sing and pray for him and the Siegel family.
“We’re so happy to see Keith reunited with Aviva and his children and his grandchildren,” Beth El’s interim rabbi Rachel Posner said.
Posner said, while she never met Keith, she has heard so many stories from those who knew him.
“I also talked to another friend in the community who grew up with Keith, who said that he was a person who never said a bad word about anybody,” she said.
At Saturday’s event, Posner said it is clear Keith’s connections to the area go beyond the synagogue. People he went to school with also came to the celebration.
While it is a joyful day, Posner said it is also bittersweet.
“We’re holding joy, but we’re also holding sadness for all that’s lost. We’re holding anger,” she said. “We know that the road to healing is long…we know that we don’t really have a full understanding of the psychological and physical toll that this experience has taken, and it’s going to be generations that are affected by this trauma.”
Both Posner and Siegel’s family say the work is not done. They will continue fighting to bring all the hostages home.
“This is a momentous occasion, but it’s a complicated occasion because as I said, our joy is not full. It is tempered by the feelings of anxiety about the condition of the remaining hostages and of the great desire to continue to pray for peace for the Palestinians and for everyone in Israel,” Posner said.
Itai said he wants to make sure people do not forget those remaining hostages.
“We need to make sure that they get released. It’s not over till everybody’s home,” he said.
Beth El Rabbi Daniel Greyber will be traveling to Israel in the next week to meet with the Siegel family and to tell Keith that North Carolina has never forgotten him.
