Former NBA star and Los Angeles Laker Josh Powell visited the Iris Smith World Jewish Sports Museum in Ramat Gan, Israel, last week to meet Yosi Shnaider, whose cousin, Yarden Bibas, remains a hostage in Gaza along with his wife, Shiri, and their two young sons, Ariel and Kfir.
Powell has represented the Bibas family in the “SportsSpeakUp” campaign of the Maccabiah, the world’s largest Jewish sports event. The campaign pairs the remaining 101 people who were taken captive by Hamas during the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 with internationally known athletes and former athletes who work to ensure that their stories stay in the forefront of the media, even as time goes on.
The meeting began with a private lunch in Kfar Maccabiah, before heading to the museum to learn more about the place of sports within Jewish culture and how sports have contributed to Jewish resilience, in Israel and throughout the Diaspora. The meeting was also attended by former Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball player Tal Brody.
For Shnaider, every effort relatives make to keep the Oct. 7 stories in the headlines is critical to bringing the hostages, including his own family, home. “It’s been a year now, and the most important thing for us is to try to keep the story alive until they come back,” he said. “As human beings, we tend to forget. Everyone goes back to their business and lives and forget what happened on the seventh of October. We cannot allow that to happen.”
He continued, “There are still hostages in Gaza. There are still two babies in Gaza. The fact that people like Josh are coming all the way to Israel to see the things that happened in the kibbutzim and in the Gaza Strip, to hear stories and to support us—it means a lot to us.”
In talking to Shnaider and Powell, it becomes clear that being forgotten and not being heard are two sides of the same coin. Powell emphasizes that it is important for the families of the hostages and Israelis, in general, to know that he and others hear them and are with them.
“As a human being, I know what it feels like to have my voice silenced. Having gone through trauma and abuse as a child and experienced things in life—these are the reasons I speak up and do the things that I can do to help those that experience the same things,” Powell said. “This goes hand in hand with what’s going on here with the people of Israel who are going through so much and a lot of times feeling unheard.”
Global ambassador of the Maccabi World Union Eric Rubin was part of the effort to facilitate the meeting between Powell and the Bibas family’s relatives. “Ever since Oct. 7 and the hostages being taken, we’ve been trying to figure out a way to make sure the world doesn’t forget. The hostages don’t have voices now, so we need people that can speak for them. Professional athletes can use their platform to remind the world that a 1½-year-old baby and a 5-year-old boy—and Holocaust survivors and women—are being held captive, and the world cannot forget.”