A little over one year ago, Denver Jews gathered at the JCC to raise awareness for the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. Much like this year, temperatures were too cold for the weekly outdoor Run For Their Lives walk, so an indoor venue was sought. It was also a milestone date — 100 days since Oct. 7, 2023, when 250 were taken by Hamas terrorists.
Among the speakers on Jan. 14, 2024, was Rabbi Avraham Mintz. The previous month, in December, 2023, the head of Chabad of South Metro Denver had visited Israel on a solidarity mission. There, he had visited with a hostage family, the parents of Karina Ariev, an IDF soldier who was kidnapped on that fateful day.
Mintz prayed together with the Ariev’s in Karina’s room, which the family had prepared with all of her favorite things, ready for her return home.
Mintz said he told the family that he would return to Israel when Karina was freed, for a festive meal of gratitude, a celebration.
A year and a month later, Mintz’ — and so many others’ — prayers had been answered.
On Jan. 25, 2025, Karina Ariev was released by Hamas, along with three other female soldiers: Liri Albag, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy.
“I am overjoyed,” Mintz told the Intermountain Jewish News the following day.
He has stayed in touch with the Ariev family since his visit and said that “It feels like a loved one coming back to life.”
“Coming back to life” — is how Mintz described the feelings to his family and congregation.
Although he is the only member of his family to have met the Arievs, he says that each member of his family was enthralled by the news of Karina’s return.
“It’s amazing how the children — and I have young kids as well — how much they understand and can appreciate the bigger picture, the unbelievable joy, because they followed my journey and we have pictures of her in our home and in my office. Karina — and the others — are familiar faces. Because we had that special connection . . . we feel like a family member with her.”
Mintz acknowledges the unusual relationships that have taken hold of world Jewry, where strangers become family — a sensation that Karina’s sister Sacha says her sister is having to comes to term with, learning that the quiet girl from a small town outside of Jerusalem is now a public figure.
“It’s strange because how much does she know us?” Mintz asks rhetorically.
“But what we know about her and her family and the connection is something which we feel is unbelievable. To see that, even in my younger children, how excited they were to see a picture of her hugging her parents. They didn’t just glimpse at it and go to the next picture. I watched them take it in. It was unbelievable to see that connection, that Jewish spark, which connects all of us.
“I spoke to my children about what it felt for me. I [cited] the prayer for bringing the dead back to the living.”
Like many, Mintz is concerned about security risks the ceasefire poses to Israel. In exchange for the four released on Jan. 25, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners, some of them serving sentences for capital crimes.
One them was Yasser Abu-Bakr, who according to Palestinian Media Watch and the Times of Israel was serving a 115-year combined sentence for arming the terror cell that carried the bombing of a Netanya hotel lobby that killed nine-month-old Aviva Malka. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Abu-Bakr to congratulate him upon his release.
But that doesn’t tamper Mintz’ overwhelming feeling of Am Yisrael Chai, the people of Israel live.
When Mintz visited the Ariev family in 2023, he brought funds he had collected in Colorado — not for the Ariev’s daily needs, but for the celebration they would hold when Karina returned home.
“We believe and we push ourselves to believe, and we hope and we pray . . . but at the same time, watching the news, knowing — or not knowing — how evil Hamas is . . . then if she actually comes home, there was nothing else in our tradition other than techiyat hamaytim that I could point to,” Mintz says, “a family member coming back from the dead . . . To see her hugging her parents is so special.
Coincidentally, the Mintz family had a February trip to Israel planned, during which they will hope to meet with the family of hostage Elkana Bohbot, a young father who was a DJ at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.
Mintz’ community has been helping the Bohbot family financially and Mintz plans to meet with Bohbot’s brother while in Israel.
The Arievs know that Mintz will be in Israel. He has offered to bring anything they may need from the US and has let the family know that he would be happy to meet.
“But I want to give them space with everything that is going on,” he says.
“But I am going to stay in touch. Whether it’s this trip or another, if it’s not the right time, we are more than happy to wait. The most important thing is that Karina is getting what she needs, and the time and space she deserves.”
Embarking to Israel, Mintz takes with him the message that Sacha, Karina’s sister, shared with him after Karina’s return: “She reminded me that we still have to do whatever we can to pray for everyone who is still left behind and to make sure they come home.”
© IJN 2025
