Dozend of Israeli hostages honored near Philadelphia Art Museum steps
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Israel now says there are more than 240 people being held hostage amid the raging war in the Middle East. Outside the Art Museum Friday evening there was a moving tribute to the dozens who are missing.
This weekend marks four weeks since the Hamas attack.
People in the city want to put faces to the number of Israeli hostages and make sure no one forgets about them. A large empty Shabbat dinner table was set up right below the Art Museum steps.
The empty chairs represented each hostage who was taken by Hamas on October 7th.
"It's been 4 weeks since 242 people were kidnapped from their homes, including kids children, babies," Organizer Dafna Ofer said.
On the back of the chairs were pictures of each hostage. There was a high chair and a bottle for the babies who were taken.
"We want to make people understand 242 is not just a number it's people behind there," Ofer said.
In attendance was Amichai Shdema. He said his 84-year-old stepmother Ditza Heiman is one of the hostages.
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He said she lived near the Gaza border and his family lost contact with her after she went hiding in a safe room within her house.
"She doesn't answer the phone anymore," Shdema said. "They keep trying to call her to get in touch then someone answered the phone and it was Hamas. So they figured at this point something is very bad."
He said his family believes someone broke into her home and put her into a car based on video clips they found.
"So that's what kind of important for us to note that she was taken alive," Shdema said. "So there is no more information, few days later a representative of the government came and officially told us the family that she is officially hostage."
Shdema said his stepmother is the core and rock of their large family and it's a very challenging time for all of them. He said the hardest part is having no information but he is finding strength in all of the support.
"People are trying to come together and help," he said. "It's a positive."
As time goes on, the family said they are constantly glued to their phone, checking it every second to see if the hostages were released.
