October 7th survivor shares her story at Bangor synagogue

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - On October 7th, 2023, Chicago residents Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the attacks in Israel.

Originally in Israel to celebrate Judith’s mother’s 85th birthday, Judith and her daughter were held captive for 2 weeks before becoming the first hostages to be released.

Raanan shared her story at Congregation Beth Abraham in Bangor Wednesday night.

She spoke about the harrowing experience, including watching her daughter suffer the same circumstances.

“My mindset was, ‘I’ll do basically almost anything in the book to get her out because she’s the future,” she said.

For Raanan, staying true to who she is as a person was what kept her going during her time in captivity.

“I also had in mind on a constant basis that God forbid she saw me dying, then she’ll remember that her mother stood to advocate for Jewish inheritance and to remain a good person, keep Shabbat, to pray to God, to do good things,” she said.