Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar officiated the wedding ceremony of two people who were taken hostage by Hamas and later released. The marriage of Aleksandr Trufanov and Sapir Kohen took place in Israel on July 5.
According to a statement from Chief Rabbi Lazar's press service, Israeli President Isaac Herzog also attended the ceremony. Lazar described the marriage as 'a great victory' and said, 'This wedding is a celebration for the entire Jewish world.'
In his speech, Lazar also recalled the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure the release of the hostages. Putin had met with Aleksandr Trufanov, his mother Yelena, and his fiancée Sapir Kohen at the Kremlin in April 2025.
More than 250 people were taken hostage in the attack launched by Hamas from Gaza on October 7, 2023. Among them were Donetsk-born Maksim Harkin, Russian citizen Aleksandr Trufanov, his mother Yelena Trufanova, his grandmother Irina Tatti, and his fiancée Sapir Kohen. Trufanova, Tatti, and Kohen were held for 52 days, while Aleksandr Trufanov was held for 498 days before being released on February 15, 2025, as part of a ceasefire agreement.
The wedding was attended by the young couple's friends and other former hostages. Speaking to journalists in Moscow earlier, Trufanov had said that he believed in God and had begun learning about Judaism. At an event in Moscow on December 9, Chief Rabbi Lazar announced that freed hostage Maksim Harkin and his mother Natalya Harkin would set out to pray at the grave of the revered rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York.
