In the fall of 2023, Judith Raanan was planning a trip to visit Israel with her daughter Natalie to see Judith’s mother, who would be celebrating her 85th birthday.
Natalie wasn’t so keen on the trip, but Raanan insisted, the latter recalled as she spoke before an audience gathered at the Wilton Library on Monday evening, Dec. 8.
“‘Mom, I don’t want to go,'” Raanan said her daughter told her, to which she replied, “I promise you a vacation you will never forget.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Raanan and Natalie, both from Illinois, were in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel, close to the border with Gaza, when they were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists who held them captive for two harrowing weeks before they were released.
“I’d also like to say that our story, meaning myself and Natalie, my daughter, is unique,” Raanan said. “Each story of the hostages is its own story.”
The evening’s program was organized by Chabad of Wilton.
The Hamas attack on Israel resulted in 1,200 deaths and more than 250 people taken hostage.
Rabbi Mendel Kantor said while Raanan’s story illustrates that there is evil in the world, it also reminds people of the good.
“That day we saw an evil in the world that this generation never really witnessed before. And yet, despite this darkness, we saw something else,” Kantor said. “We saw community, the people rise. We stood up to that evil and invited with light, with love, with an unwavering belief that good will overcome evil. The light will always push away at the darkness.”
Kantor said the message is a good one to hear as Hanukkah approaches.
First Selectman Toni Boucher presented Raanan with a menorah in honor of the courage she showed during her experience in Gaza.
“We stand united behind you and our community stands united behind you,” Boucher said. “We hope that you’ll treasure the small token of our love and appreciation.”
That October day in 2023, the two women received a call from Raanan’s mother to not leave the safe room. It was early in the morning.
“One step, I get up from my room,” Raanan recalled. “One step, two steps, three steps — not even three, two and a half — BOOM. There’s a rocket exactly where I was standing.”
Raanan was thrown to the floor by the blast. She said the invasion appeared to have been well coordinated by Hamas.
“They came from the sea, they came from the sky with parachutes, and they came from the land,” Raanan said. At this point, Raanan said a feeling of guilt started to come over her, as she had urged her daughter to come with her on the trip, but now, with whatever would happen ahead, Natalie’s safety would be her first priority.
Raanan said she had taken an Arabic language course at a local community college, which came in handy when talking to anyone from Hamas.
The two women were gathered along with other families by the armed men who wanted them to sit on the floor against the wall.
“And again, I see a movie coming through my head of the Holocaust — wow, they made us sit down and make it easy for them to kill everybody in one shot,” Raanan said. She said that she and her daughter were careful not to sit on the floor.
One of the families there had lost an 18-year-old girl, who was struck with a stray bullet which had come through a door.
The journey to Gaza was a perilous one, which started on foot. The journey also meant seeing the death that resulted from the invasion.
Raanan said she thought she might be killed but hoped that if that were so, that she would die in Israel.
“I don’t want to die in foreign land. This would be a personal insult to me. If I cannot live in this country, then I would rather be dead in this country,” she said.
Once they arrived in Gaza, they were brought to a hospital.
“They’re holding us like prey, Jewish prey,” Raanan said. They were brought to a room where there were three mattresses on the floor and blood on the wall.
The women were given a chance of clothes, and then were put on stretchers and moved to another hospital, and later to a private home where they were guarded around the clock.
“Now I understood something. It clicked in my brain,” Raanan said. She realized they were worth more alive to Hamas. “If they wanted to kill us, they would have done that by then.”
As more violence and bombing ensued, the hostages also had to be moved around.
“The electric is off now, the water, everything is being harmed on the system. And this was the scariest of my time there because we had to walk between houses,” Raanan recalled.
But her focus remained on keeping her daughter safe and her spirits up.
“In that place, I wanted to cheer up Natalie,” she said. “Right away, I saw them bring some pencils, and Natalie drew beautiful things.”
She also sang songs for Natalie, including Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” even though her daughter said the song didn’t fit the place.
“I said to her, ‘Honey, this is exactly the time and place to sing it,’” Raanan said.
Eventually, the women got word that they were being released.
“No matter how far you run away from God, He will find you, wherever you are,” she said.
This is a significant personal narrative. Since it differs in tone, length, and global focus from GOOD Morning Wilton’s usual hyperlocal coverage, it would be helpful to understand the editorial reasoning for selecting this piece and presenting it in this format. Explaining the criteria for publishing long-form, non-local narratives would add clarity about how this fits within the outlet’s mission.
Thanks for asking. Ms. Raanan was invited by a Wilton religious organization to speak in Wilton to a Wilton audience — approximately 100-120 people were in attendance at the event. The first selectman was in attendance and presented the speaker with a gift. That certainly fits the criteria for a local connection. The piece was written by a freelance reporter in standard news/journalistic style and length — no different than the way GMW covers all news coverage. That Ms. Raanan told her personal account that’s part of a story of national and global significance of interest to many people is not an unusual thing for us to cover either — consider this story about a father from a different CT town invited by Trackside to speak about teen suicide and mental health. We’ve written about other more general topics through interviews and personal stories — transgender experience, mental health struggles, racism, to name a few. This was a newsworthy Wilton story for us to cover.
Thank you for explaining the local connection. I appreciate that context. My question was actually about editorial format rather than newsworthiness. This piece was presented in a narrative, emotionally framed style with global focus, which felt different from GMW’s typical reporting voice. That’s why I was asking whether there is a standard for distinguishing news reporting from personal testimony or opinion pieces when the tone departs from your usual style. Clarifying those distinctions would help readers understand how to interpret pieces presented in this format.
And I recognize the examples you mentioned, but those pieces functioned differently because they were local stories told within a local frame. This one relied on global context and an emotionally persuasive narrative structure, which is why it stood out stylistically. That’s the distinction I was trying to understand — how GMW differentiates between personal narrative, opinion, and standard reporting when the framing shifts.
Thank you for the follow-up — happy to clarify.
GOOD Morning Wilton uses the same reporting standards for all news coverage. When we cover someone speaking at a public event in Wilton — a town board meeting, a community program or a guest speaker presentation — our job is to report what was said and what happened. Just like we quote what someone says during a Board of Selectmen meeting, we quote what someone says when they’re giving a talk or presentation.
That’s exactly what this article did because we were covering a newsworthy event. The reporting reflects what was said, where it was said, and how the audience engaged, rather than adopting an editorial voice or offering opinion.
The subject matter the speaker was discussing may be global, but in hyperlocal news, we regularly cover local events where speakers discuss topics that reach beyond Wilton because the event is happening here and is part of the community’s conversation. What’s more, when Wilton is visited by a speaker who is newsworthy because of who they are on a global stage — like famous author Mitch Albom or, in this case, one of 250 people taken hostage — that’s exactly what makes it a hyperlocal story.
To be clear about our editorial distinctions:
—News coverage reports about things that happen in town. It is written in a neutral, third-person voice, and documents facts, statements, and the context of a public event — as this piece does.
—Opinion pieces, editorials and personal essays are clearly labeled and come from a writer sharing their own opinion.
—Feature Stories, profiles, and Q&As are built around a person, not an event. They explore someone’s background or perspective in depth even when no specific public event may be involved. In those cases, the format is intentionally more centered on the individual and usually involves a one-on-one interview.
I appreciate the opportunity to explain these distinctions — promoting news literacy and helping readers understand how to read the news is important to us, and questions like this allow us to make our process more transparent.
I hope this helps clarify how the piece fits within GMW’s mission and reporting approach.
What an incredible story. Thank you Judith Raanan for sharing what was a horrific experience. It can’t be easy speaking about this but like many stories of survival it’s important to let people know. Hopefully we all get to a point where this doesn’t happen any more and wars to end it are long in the past.