SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ilya Tarshansky readily admits he’s not a great public speaker.

So, he sat Thursday evening in front of an audience of about 100 people at the Folsom Community Center and answered their questions as best as he could.

He’s a survivor of the Oct. 7 surprise Hamas militant attacks on Israel. Tarshansky, his 15-year-old son, Lior, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gali, hid in a safe room of their home in Kibbutz Be’eri. They desperately held the safe room door closed as invaders tried to knock the door open, before their home was set on fire.

Disoriented by the intense black smoke, Tarshansky and his daughter escaped the burning home. He was rescued hours later but his daughter was taken by Hamas militants and held hostage for 54 days. His son never made it out — they found his body in the safe room.

Tarshansky was asked how he copes with the memories of what happened to him and his children that day.

“When I’m busy with something, I don’t think about it. When I’m in solitude at home? Yeah, of course,” Tarshansky said at Thursday’s event in Folsom. “To me, I’m still on the 7th of October. I don’t believe seven months has passed.”

Jewish center hosted event

The Jewish Community Center of Folsom and El Dorado Hills invited Tarshansky to provide a first-hand account of what he and his children went through, along with the devastation of his community of Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel a few miles from the border with Gaza. He has been on a speaking tour in the United States talking to groups about what he went through and seeking donations to help survivors of the Hamas attacks.

Rabbi Yossi Grossbaum of Chabad Jewish Community Center, who introduced Tarshansky, said the discussion was not a pleasant topic but extremely important in the context of the circumstances. He reminded the audience that over 100 hostages taken from Israel remain in captivity.

“We have to make sure that when we face adversity, it shouldn’t take us down,” Grossbaum said. “It should strengthen us.”

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