Alon Ohel will turn 24 on Feb. 10—that is, if he’s still alive.
Ohel, a talented pianist, was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel. It left more than 1,200 people dead.
His American cousin, Benjamin Mittman, a Merion Station resident, is planning a “Yellow Piano” concert on Feb. 23 in Wynnewood that is free and open to the public.
Ohel is a classically trained pianist, and his family “believes in the power of music,” said Mittman. “They’re a very musically oriented family and Alon, when he left for the festival, he left his piano open. He usually closes it.”
And so, his family set up a yellow piano in Hostage Square in the middle of Tel Aviv. Yellow is the color of the reminder ribbons for the hostages.
“The piano is there for people to play in support of the hostages and to send got thoughts to Alon, who is alone in captivity,” said Mittman.
Yellow pianos have since appeared in cities around the globe, including Paris, Berlin, London, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, and Pittsburgh. “And now we’re doing one here in Philadelphia,” he said. “Because there are so many hostages that are not part of the so-called Phase One of the deal, which just includes a small portion of the hostages for many, many terrorists with lots of blood on their hands.”
The Yellow Piano in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.
Mittman told DVJournal he was “glued to the TV” as the Oct. 7 attack unfolded.
“There was a lot of confusion, given the total annihilation and atrocity,” he said. “It was hard to keep up. And then word started filtering out here to the U.S. from my relatives in Israel that Alon was taken hostage.”
“He had gone down to the Nova Music Festival,” said Mittman. “I think he was there about an hour before the attacks commenced. He was there a short time before all hell broke loose.”
“Alon and his friends managed to escape the Nova Music Festival campground, but they took refuge in a roadside bomb shelter,” said Mittman. “That wasn’t closed off. There was no door…The terrorists arrived and proceeded to throw multiple grenades into the shelter and all this was caught on camera, by the body cams the terrorists themselves wore.
“And there was one individual in the bomb shelter who caught and threw seven of the live grenades back at the terrorists. I believe the eighth one exploded in his hand, killing him and several people,” said Mittman.
“The terrorists sprayed machine gun fire into the small bomb shelter that was meant to hold just a handful of people,” said Mittman. “And then eyewitnesses said there were four who survived the attack.”
“My cousin, Alon, was taken and three other hostages,” said Mittman. “One was (Israeli-American) Hersh Goldberg, who the terrorists eventually executed when they thought he was going to be rescued by Israel.”
“There’s footage of my cousin being grabbed by the hair and taken out of the roadside shelter and thrown into a truck by the terrorists to bring him back to Gaza,” said Mittman .
“Since he was only 22 at the time, he’s already spent one birthday in captivity,” he said. “There’s been no information about his whereabouts, about his status.”
The free Yellow Piano “You Are Not Alone” event is set for Sunday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. Kaiserman JCC, Wynnewood, in support of all the remaining hostages.
Performers include Olga Borisovsky, William Fleming, Matthew Fischer, Yelena Podgorny, and Michal Schmidt. The pieces are those that Ohel loves: “Claire de Lune,” by Claude Debussy, and several others by Robert Schumann, George Gershwin, and Joseph Haydn.
While the concert is free, registration is required.
“We’re trying to get the word out,” said Mittman. “We’re trying to keep these hostages front and center of the people with power and influence, the politicians, to help pressure them and bring our people back home.”
