- December 13, 2025
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After Sarasota's Gisele Pintchuck and Omer Shem Tov of Israel embraced for the first time on Oct. 27, both said it was as though they had known each other their whole lives.
Having held a poster of Shem Tov's at the Sarasota Farmer’s Market Saturday after Saturday, until his release from captivity in February 2025, after 505 days, it was a moment Pintchuck had long hoped for.
When the opportunity came to host Shem Tov in Sarasota, Pintchuck served as the organizer of the event, and the two met the same day that he spoke at The Ora.
His speech recounted his experiences after Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival kidnapped him on the night of the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023, held in complete darkness for a period of that time.
He told the story of how his faith and his belief in optimism ultimately guided him through the unimaginable experience.
Since his release, Shem Tov, 23, has traveled internationally to share his message.
He said he had two messages for the Sarasota community, the first being the top priority of the remaining hostages, who all are deceased and whose bodies have yet to be released.
"The second thing is, ever since I came back, and ever since I was kidnapped, I feel like I understood something about life — a small thing,” he said. “I’m not a rabbi or a priest or anything, no, nothing like it, but I saw darkness, and I believe that a person who experiences true darkness … after he experiences true, true darkness, he experiences true light, and I try to share this light with some people.”
For Shem Tov, the night of the Oct. 7 attacks began as a youthful celebration among friends who had just come out of the army, but it ended with him being taken captive, along with his friends Maya and Itay Regev.
“I can tell that on the first two weeks of captivity, I was very in denial and very, like, blaming God for everything,” he said. “Why me? Why me? Why me? I did not steal. I'm not a thief. I'm not a murderer, so why me? Why was I taken? I was just having fun at a party.”
Yet says he realized that God gives people the ability to choose "between good and evil, and between light and darkness."
During a brief ceasefire in November 2023, Shem Tov would remain alone following the release of the Regev siblings.
Immediately after that, Shem Tov was held in total darkness, 120 feet underground in a cell too small for him to stand up, where he remained for the next 50 days.
There, he only had diminishing portions of pita bread, a food he could not eat due to having celiac disease, and salty ocean water to drink.
"I was in complete darkness," he said. "I thought that I'm going crazy, and after some time, I found peace in the darkness, and I believe God saved me."
Afterward, he struck a deal with his captors that he would perform work for them, including cooking and cleaning, in exchange for being allowed to keep a devotional book and prayer card.
The prayer card featured Psalm 20, which includes the words “May the Lord answer you on a day of distress."
Although he did not know it, that was the same psalm that his mother, Shelly Shem Tov, would read in his room at home.
It was also the same psalm that Gisele Pintchuck had kept with her after reading it aloud at a Chabad event months prior.
Pintchuck first joined in advocating for the release of Shem Tov and the other hostages during a solidarity trip to Israel shortly after Oct. 7, where she met Shelly Shem Tov.
“There were other families there, but it happened to be her, and her message was so compelling, was so painful, and although there were hundreds of other people in that room, I felt she was speaking directly to me,” she said. “It was a call to action from a mother to another.”
Pintchuck said she has three young sons whose pastime is festivals, and she felt as if Omer Shem Tov's story could have been theirs.
As soon as she returned home, she joined with a group of individuals from Sarasota's Israeli community who would hold signs at the Sarasota Farmer's Market each week, calling for the release of the hostages.
For over 100 weeks, they stood there through heat and rain, while everywhere Pintchuck went, she carried a miniature poster of Shem Tov to show others.
When Shem Tov's name was announced among a group of hostages who were being released, she held on to the hope that he would come back alive.
"It was a very, very happy day," she said. "I was grateful. I was so grateful, the prayers, support, the people who stood and understood who Omer was, for us in our community, for me, personally, that he was home."
Before beginning his speech in Sarasota, Shem Tov referred Pintchuck as his “second mother.”
He said earlier that day, “I came back home like eight months ago now, and I've met many people who foster me and know me. Of course, these are special, but every time I meet someone like this, it's just, it first of all, it warms my heart, and it's amazing. It's amazing to see that someone that… is on the other side of the world, doesn't really know me, just decides to fight for me. It's amazing, and I'm so thankful for it. I am.”
