well celebrations are spilling into a second day over the long awaited release of Vid Idan Alexander the 21-year-old Tennifly native was freed on Monday after spending 19 months in Hamas captivity the last known living American Israeli hostage hundreds gathered at a downtown Tennifly park to await the news erupting in cheers hugs and tears as images of Adon being reunited with his family played out on screens a moment of unity nearly two years in the making ted Goldberg was there idon Alexander's family was emotional to see him after he was held hostage by Hamas for nearly 600 days meanwhile in Idan's hometown of Tennifly thousands turned out to sing dance and celebrate his release since October 7th we've all became a big family we all miss him and thank God he's back this is heartwarming on the other hand maybe not so surprising but uh cuz that's who we are we come together so many times for loss and uh memorial and this is just a unique opportunity to come together for celebration we are family friend of the Alexander and uh this is one of the happiest days for us it's really it's unbelievable we are so excited it's uh one of the you know happiest day after October 7 they started gathering around 5:00 a.m yesterday in downtown Tennifly patiently watching Israeli news for updates but then they saw Idan speaking on the phone with his parents oh my god Ian and finally a picture from the Red Cross confirming he was alive coming here it's it's just fantastic to see that the uh that the Jewish community the Israeli community the Tennifly community working really hard to to uh to bring home uh Idan Alexander and it's it's just beautiful to see for close to 600 days the community gathered for regular walks to raise awareness for Idan and the other hostages held by Hamas since the attack on October 7th since October 7 we're constantly following what's going on with the hostages we are walking every Friday we're walking uh you know to remind the world and to support the families uh that there are hostages there and that we're waiting for them so it's cold it's rainy it's hot it's humid so so what right we go back to our homes h So you think about the cause right and the purpose an's parents are Israeli and moved to America when he was a baby he grew up in Tennifly and moved back to Israel serving in the Israel Defense Forces when he was taken hostage we've always been thinking about be done and how like we've wondering how he's been and all that and um trying to spend the most time with Roy and all that so yeah it's really it's really been nerve-wracking we've just been nervous all the time cuz uh we've got a news that something's bad happened but then we've got news that it's not true so it's just been up and down i don't think we ever imagined another option than continuing to have hope it's amazing i'm proud of this community it's uh so strong uh we really you know uh uh supported Alexander family uh in the toughest days and uh we're also very happy for them to to bring it down finally to bring it down idan was the last living American hostage held by Hamas while people celebrated yesterday there was a somber note as there are still hostages waiting to be reunited with their families is only one out of 59 right we still have 58 more hostages that need to come home our job is not done and uh the pain is not gone and until all of them are home we as a people cannot begin to heal it's been horrible knowing he's there all the rest of the hostages are held captive but now he's back and let's hope for the rest to come back and we can all celebrate even more even with that concern yesterday was a huge celebration from a place that never lost hope in Tennifly i'm Ted Goldberg nj Spotlight News