Since Gadi Moses’s release at the end of January after 482 days in captivity in Gaza at the hands of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, his daughter Moran has been struggling to keep up with him. The 81-year-old hostage returned with an energy that defies his age and his ordeal, driven by a renewed determination to help rebuild his beloved Kibbutz Nir Oz.
“He has no brakes,” Moran said recently to interviewer Racheli Avidov and an intimate audience at the Valley Train Heritage Site in Kfar Yehoshua.
The gathering was part of “Stories That Bind Us: Memory and Dialogue of October 7” at Heritage Sites, a program launched by the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites (SPIHS) with the support of Jewish National Fund-USA. Moran had just returned that morning from Poland, where she and her father participated in the International March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a trip he insisted on joining.
“He is truly made of the material of heroes,” Moran said. “I hope I got some of his genes.”
As she shared her own story, it was clear that Moran Moses inherited more than just “some” of her father’s strength. She and her two young daughters spent 10 harrowing hours in the safe room of their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on that fateful day, without water, food or bathroom access.
Throughout those hours, Moran held the door handle shut, hoping to slow down any terrorists prowling the kibbutz in search of their next victims. In retrospect, this method often proved futile, as terrorists shot through doors or set homes on fire to force people out.
For much of that time, Moran whispered to her husband, Inon, who was on the other end of the phone. He had taken their two sons to spend the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah with family in Moshav Eliakim and rushed home from synagogue when news of the attacks on southern Israel began to spread.
“At the last minute, we managed to score three tickets for the Bruno Mars concert, and I decided to treat the girls,” Moran explained about their decision to split up that weekend. “We never made it to that concert.”
The audience listened, rapt, as Moran told her gripping story—punctuated by many tears and moments of dark humor—as she described the ordeal she and her daughters endured.
She tried to shield them from the horrors playing out just beyond the window, but it was impossible to ignore the gut-wrenching screams of victims, the deafening bursts of gunfire, the manic shouts of Allahu Akbar! (Arabic for “God is great!”) and the smell of burning homes.
Moran admitted that she said goodbye to her husband several times that day—when they heard terrorists break into the house or when she heard gas cylinders exploding on the patio that separated her home from that of their neighbors and close friends, Tamar and Johnny Siman Tov, who were later found murdered along with their 5-year-old twin daughters and 2-year-old son.
“I told Inon that I loved him, and I begged him to look after the children,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how this day would end.”
Gadi Moses and his 79-year-old former wife, Margalit, were both taken hostage that day from Nir Oz. Gadi’s longtime partner, Efrat Katz, was murdered. Margalit was released two months later as part of the first hostage deal, but Gadi spent nearly 500 days believing that Moran and his granddaughters had not survived the massacre.
But survive they did. After 10 hours, the army evacuated the survivors from their homes and gathered them in the kibbutz kindergarten for protection ahead of the broader evacuation.
The full extent of the devastation only became clear later. “Eighty percent of the homes were burned,” Moran recalled. “One in four residents was either murdered or kidnapped.”
Three months in cramped hotel rooms in Eilat proved too much for the reunited family, physically and emotionally. “We were living through one long shiva. We buried 63 friends.” Eventually, they moved to the Jezreel Valley to be closer to extended family.
There, their path crossed with Dikla Liani, manager of the Valley Train Heritage Site in Kfar Yehoshua, who offered the venue for the family to celebrate their daughter’s bat mitzvah.
At first, Moran refused. “There was no way I could celebrate without my dad present,” she said. But in time, she was convinced it was the right thing to do.
She said the event gave her the strength she needed to shift gears and begin publicly campaigning for her father’s release. The rest, thankfully, is history.
“When the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites launched the ‘Stories That Bind Us’ initiative, I immediately thought of inviting Moran to speak,” said Dikla. “Last year, she was torn with emotion, knowing her father was being held in subhuman conditions while the family marked this happy occasion. This year, we are thrilled that things have come full circle, and she can share her story—one with a relatively happy ending—in the very same place.”
‘Strength from one another’
Noa Gefen, development director at SPIHS, said she was grateful to Jewish National Fund-USA for supporting this initiative and helping to bring such powerful moments to life at nearly 30 heritage sites around the country.
“Holding these gatherings at heritage sites is no coincidence,” she said. “These places carry the weight of our shared history and remind us that resilience is woven into our national identity. Moran and Gadi are proof of that. In times like these, heritage sites become spaces of healing—where personal pain meets collective memory, and we draw strength from one another.”
Many tears were shed during this emotional evening, and Moran Moses demonstrated that she is undoubtedly her father’s daughter, a woman whose strength and composure continue to inspire.
“We don’t need sympathy,” she said. “We aren’t scared. We’re survivors.”
The Valley Train Heritage Site
Finally, the story of the Valley Train Heritage Site in Kfar Yehoshua, where the gathering took place, is worth telling.
The legendary Valley Train operated from the early 20th century, running from Haifa through the Jezreel Valley and on to the Arabian Peninsula. For nearly 50 years, it served as a vital link between East and West—connecting communities, bridging cities and countryside, and bringing Jews and Arabs together.
Today, the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites tells its story at one of its most important stops: the historic Al Shaman Station at Kfar Yehoshua. The site features preserved stone buildings, a historic water tower and restored train carriages, showcasing the legacy of the Valley Train and its role in pre-independence Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel).