Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, 77-year-old Shaul Stampfer has joined numerous demonstrations to draw attention to the plight of the hostages held in Gaza by the terror group.

Still, Stampfer said he has often felt uneasy with what he described as “the simplistic analysis of the situation” by organizers, as well as with the protests’ confrontational style.

“There are many different political views in Israel today, but the one thing that unites everyone is the concern for the hostages’ welfare,” he said. “The disagreements lie in what steps should be taken, and what tactics might end the fighting—but we all want them home.”

As protests demanding a hostage deal and an end to the war erupted across Jerusalem on Wednesday as part of a “Day of Disruption,” Stampfer joined a rally that sought to provide space for those wishing to express solidarity with the hostages without advancing any particular political agenda.

“It is an amazing event,” Stampfer said.

Stampfer, his wife and the other participants gathered by the Jaffa Gata just outside Jerusalem’s Old City, with signs reading “Different opinions, one heart — All the hostages home.”

“We knew that today was going to be a day of protests in Jerusalem, and that emotions were going to run high, with people growing angry from all directions,” said Rachel Sharansky Danziger, a Jerusalem educator and activist who organized the rally.

“Our goal was to create a space where people with very different views—about what government policy should be, or even about whether protesting is the right thing to do—could still come together and express what we all share: the desire to see the hostages brought home,” she told The Times of Israel in a phone interview ahead of the event.

Sharansky Danziger initiated the gathering with fellow Jerusalem activist Zvi Zussman.

Zussman became active in the movement to bring the hostages home in the immediate aftermath of October 7. Less than two months later, in December 2023, his son Ben was killed while fighting in Gaza.

“I personally believe it’s clear that the hostages must be released. Securing their release would be our real victory over Hamas, and eventually we will find a way to compel them to lay down their weapons and relinquish power,” he told The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the “Different opinions, one heart” rally.

“I am also active in opposing the government in many ways, because unfortunately, its current decisions are putting the hostages at risk,” he added.

Sharansky Danziger, meanwhile, has been skeptical about protesting amid the war.

“I believe that protests that focus on the government, while they may achieve some good things, for example, strengthening the hostages still in Gaza, who hear about that and know that they’re not forgotten, might also bolster Hamas’ refusal to give in,” she said. “I worry that the damage might outweigh the benefits, and that’s why I don’t go to protests.”

Yet Zussman and Sharansky Danziger, who know each other well, both felt that as Israeli society grows increasingly polarized over the ongoing fighting in Gaza, it was important to show that people with differing views can still unite around shared values.

“We wanted to make clear, front and center, that yes, we have different opinions and disagree on how to secure the hostages’ release—but we all agree that bringing them home is vital for everyone, and that’s why we choose to stand together,” Sharansky Danziger said.

To keep the event focused, Zussman and Sharansky Danziger chose to minimize speeches and emphasize singing instead.

Participants performed iconic Israeli songs, including “Jerusalem of Gold,” Al Kol Eleh (“Over All of This”), and the prayerful song for captives, Achenu (“Our Brothers”).

Around 150 people attended the rally, many wearing knitted kippot or the colorful head coverings typical of the national religious community.

Until recently, Zussman— who like Sharansky Danziger is a religious Jew —considered mobilizing the national religious community to address the hostages’ plight his central mission.

“I organized prayer rallies and published a booklet of essays by prominent national religious figures,” he said. “But today’s rally isn’t about that. There are both secular and religious participants here, from the right and the left, and the point is that everyone felt comfortable coming.”

For Zussman, his son’s memory is a source of strength.

“It gives me a louder voice, and it’s a way to share my values, values that Ben grew up on and believed in,” he said.

Sharansky Danziger said the current emergency also echoes her family’s experience of tragedy and redemption, recalling how world Jewry worked for her father Natan Sharansky, who spent nine years in a gulag, to be freed by the Soviet Union.

“In the name of mutual responsibility, Jews around the world fought for the Jews of the Soviet Union—including my parents, without whom I would not have been born,” she said.

Closing the event, Sharansky Danziger read the names of the 48 hostages still in Gaza, including the twenty believed to be alive, as well as two captives for whom there are grave concerns for their well-being and those who bodies need to be returned for a dignified burial.

“I came to this rally because I identify with its values,” a participant, Shosh, 75, told The Times of Israel, as she was leaving the gathering (she declined to give her last name). “I do not go to the main protests, because I am skeptical about their loudness and extremism, but I feel a deep pain for everything that is happening in the country.”

“I believe that the message of this event is the correct one: regardless of political opinions, all the hostages needed to come back on October 8, 2023,” she added.