The Diary That Survived Entebbe

Fifty years ago, as Israeli commandos raced toward Uganda’s Entebbe Airport on a daring mission to rescue more than 100 hostages, one of those waiting inside the terminal was quietly documenting the ordeal.

Now, half a century later, his daughter is sharing his account with the world.

Ester Smith’s parents, Yehuda and Regina Gottlieb z’’l, were among the passengers aboard Air France Flight 139 when it was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists in June 1976. During seven days of captivity, her father kept a handwritten diary, recording events as they unfolded without knowing whether he and his fellow hostages would survive.

“Though we began as strangers, this shared experience slowly began to draw us together,” he wrote. Later, as the hostages faced threats and ultimatums, he recorded their determination: “We will not allow our morale to be broken.”

Smith, a longtime Jewish National Fund-USA supporter who grew up in Israel and now lives in Austin, Texas, describes her father as the group’s “consoler-in-chief”—an eternal optimist who spent much of his captivity reassuring others. His words captured small but powerful acts of Jewish resilience:

“One of the most moving entries is from Friday evening before Shabbat,” Ester shared. “Since they didn’t have candles, a woman asked my father if he had matches. The hostages stood the matches upright in a container and lit them, as makeshift candles.”

After seven uncertain days—and pages of diary entries written in increasingly smaller text as Ester’s father tried to conserve paper—the hostages were finally rescued. During the operation, the commandos instructed them to leave everything behind and run.

“Fortunately, my father had his hand luggage with him because the diary was inside it,” Smith said.

Though her father hoped to one day turn the diary into a book, the memories proved too difficult to revisit, and it remained unpublished for decades.

“After my parents passed away, I brought the original diary and his handwritten transcription back from Israel,” Ester shared. “I couldn't even bring myself to open it. It sat in a drawer for 35 years.”

Then Entebbe unexpectedly reentered her life.

The two quickly discovered an extraordinary connection. Both had grown up in Ramat Gan, just streets apart. More remarkably, after returning from Entebbe, Ilan had met and interviewed another Ramat Gan resident who had survived the hijacking.

That man was Smith’s father.

“Within five minutes of meeting Gadi, I felt as though we'd been joined at the hip,” Smith recalled. “We became lifelong friends.”

The friendship led to numerous Jewish National Fund-USA presentations, allowing them to bring the story of Entebbe to audiences across the United States, including at a recent event at the organization’s New York office commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Entebbe rescue.

“We realized during our presentations that many younger people have never heard of Entebbe,” she said. “That’s remarkable because Entebbe remains a unique historical event that has never truly been replicated or surpassed.”

When Smith told Hershko about the diary gathering dust in her drawer, he urged her to publish it.

“One evening, I finally took the diary out,” Ester remembered. “My hands were shaking, and my heart was pounding. I told myself I would read just two pages. Instead, I began reading, and the next day I started translating it into English and Hebrew.”

Herzog wrote that Gottlieb’s journal sheds light on “the courage and resilience demonstrated not only by the rescuers, but by the hostages themselves,” drawing a connection between their experience and the resilience demanded of the hostages taken on October 7, 2023.

For Smith, publishing the diary fulfilled a promise across generations—not only honoring her father’s wish, but ensuring that the story of Entebbe, and Israel’s refusal to leave anyone behind, is carried forward for years to come.

“The next time I visit Israel, I'll bring a copy of the book with me to my parents’ grave and show it to my father,” said Ester with pride. “Finally, I'll be able to say, ‘Here it is.’”