County road named after Omer Neutra, Plainview local and Israeli soldier killed in Oct. 7 Hamas attacks

Nassau legislators voted Monday  to dedicate a county roadway after Omer Neutra, the Plainview native and Israeli soldier killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

Part of Manetto Hill Road between Washington Avenue and Old Country Road will be designated “Captain Omer Neutra Way.” Nassau County lawmakers  passed the bill unanimously with a 17-0 vote, and the dedicated road will include  the Mid-Island Jewish Community Center, where the Long Island Jewish community has gathered to demand the release of Israeli hostages.

Neutra was one of nearly 1,200 people killed by Hamas in the October 2023 attacks. Militants took 250 others hostage that day. In response, the Israeli military has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians. Neutra was initially believed to have been kidnapped and held captive by Hamas.

After more than a year of praying for his safe return from Israel, Neutra’s parents learned in December last year  that he was killed. The 21-year-old was a platoon commander with the Israeli Defense Forces. His body is still being held by Hamas, his parents have previously said.

“We are appreciative of the Legislators for their moral clarity and honoring Omer in a way that will allow our neighbors to think of him every time they drive by the Mid-Island JCC,” Neutra’s parents wrote in a statement Monday. “It is so appropriate to have Omer’s name attached to a place where members of the community he loved have consistently gathered together since Oct. 7  to fight for the return of Omer and the other hostages.”

Earlier this month, the Midway Jewish Center of Syosset dedicated a Torah scroll in Neutra’s honor. His parents, rabbi and other community members called on officials to help get Neutra’s body released and transported back to the United States.

“We’re going to miss Omer forever … Right now, we have a duty to bring him home for a proper burial,” Neutra’s father, Ronen Neutra, said at the ceremony.

Neutra was set to attend Binghamton University, his childhood friend previously told Newsday. But after a gap year in Israel, he joined  the Israeli military alongside his new friends.

“Omer gave so much and had so much left to give,” Neutra’s mother, Orna Neutra, said earlier this month. “We are only beginning to grasp our new realities.”

Every Sunday morning for months, Long Islanders calling for the release of Israeli hostages walked a 1.5-mile route to the Mid-Island JCC as part of a global effort called “Run for Their Lives.”

“His roots are in Israel,” Neutra’s childhood friend, Hayden Roth, previously told Newsday. “That was the place he loved.”

No date has been announced for a formal street renaming ceremony.