Segev Kalfon Visits Western Wall for First Time Since Release, Receives Ancient Artifact Symbolizing Faith and Survival

Segev Kalfon, who was held by Hamas for 738 days, visited the Kotel today for the first time since his release, in a moving moment of personal survival with the deep spiritual symbolism of the site.

Kalfon arrived at the Kotel together with family members and met with Eric Gertler, trustee of the Zuckerman Institute for Israel and the Zuckerman Family Foundation, which supports preservation of the Kotel’s heritage and archaeological excavations beneath the area. During their meeting, Gertler presented him with an ancient clay vessel fragment uncovered in the tunnels beneath the Kotel, a personal gesture meant to honor Kalfon’s endurance.

“Just as this ancient relic survived thousands of years beneath Jerusalem,” Gertler told him, “so too Segev’s spirit, courage, faith, and inner light survived the darkness and returned to the light. We know that his strength and resilience are the same qualities that have preserved the Jewish people throughout history, and we must continue to tell the story of his survival and the resilience of our nation to every generation.”

Kalfon toured the Western Wall tunnels and the archaeological sites below the plaza, where guides described the historical layers of Jewish continuity that span centuries of exile, destruction, and return.

At the center of the visit, Kalfon joined the Rabbi of the Kotel and Holy Sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, and recited Birkat HaGomel, the traditional blessing said upon surviving life-threatening danger.

“The Kotel is the heart of the prayers and hopes of the Jewish people for many generations,” Rabbi Rabinovitch said. “For two years, millions prayed here for the return of the hostages. Today we thank God for the miracles and for Segev’s return to his family.”

Over the weekend, Kalfon spoke at a Kesher Yehudi Shabbat event at the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, where he described attempts to preserve the Shabbat atmosphere even underground.

“We were in a place of impurity, in the roots of Islam,” he recalled. “We were in a small tunnel, shaking the place, shaking the Shabbat… We sang ‘Lecha Dodi,’ ‘Bar Yochai,’ welcoming Shabbat.”

He spoke of makeshift rituals, such as making Kiddush on water, half a pita with cheese as their “festive meal,” and improvised Havdalah over a flashlight and a bottle cap.

“That’s how we passed the time there,” he said. “I truly felt that God was with us. Not to forget where we came from. That’s how it was.”