199 Days (Passover)
Tonight, Passover begins, a holiday to celebrate the hard-fought freedom of Jewish people. This year, the holiday is not a celebration, but rather a grim reminder of history repeating itself. Somewhere in Gaza, 133 hostages remain, many, but not all, Jews. They have been held 199 days and in just the last week, the efforts to bring them home have been overshadowed by an unprecedented, massive (and thankfully unsuccessful) attack on Israel by Iran, followed by an Israeli retaliation. What happens next, we do not know.
What we do know is that these actions have re-energized vitriolic protests from pro-Palestinian groups nationwide, many of the signs reading “From the River to the Sea,” a call for the eradication of Israel and its people. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib declined to condemn protesters’ chants of “Death to America” and in New York City, Columbia University students have built an on-campus encampment that serves as ground zero for the vilest anti-Semitism this city, if not this country, has seen in decades. Their actions have morphed from their First Amendment right to protest the war in Gaza and the fate of innocent Palestinians, to unadulterated, full-throated Jew hate. So much so that Jewish students have been advised to leave campus.
Why is it that this generation cannot hold two thoughts in their heads? It is possible to have concern for the innocent Palestinians - a concern I share – AND understand that Israel has a right to defend itself against an unprovoked massacre of its civilians. That Hamas shows the same amount of humanity toward its own people as they did for Israelis on October 7 is the primary reason that there have been so many civilian deaths, injuries and denied access to aid. Which is why Hamas must be eradicated.
That said, I, like many Zionists, disagree with many of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s policies and actions. That doesn’t affect my belief in a Jewish state. See? Two thoughts at once. The fact that students at an Ivy League school like Columbia, reflexively default to an oppressed/oppressor Marxist paradigm, is not just sorrowfully disappointing but makes me shiver at what this next generation brings to bear when it comes to understanding geopolitics. Gone is discourse, gone is critical thinking, gone is nuance. Frankly, gone is learning…from history, from oppositional views and from anyone who doesn’t reinforce personal viewpoints. Dispiriting and frightening, I fear for the world if these are the tenets of our best and brightest.
Meanwhile, campus silence regarding the hostages is resounding.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t losing hope in the hostages’ survival. According to The Wall Street Journal, during the most recent hostage negotiations, Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar told negotiators that they could not locate 40 live hostages, the first phase of a proposed deal. It’s hard to read that and not lose hope.
But now cannot be the time to lose hope. I’m putting that in writing not just to compel you, but also to convince myself.
Now more than ever, we must be extraordinary in our capacity to hope. There is an old Jewish adage that if two cars meet at an intersection; one a wedding party and one a funeral party, the wedding party is to proceed first, because joy must always precede grief. Light before darkness. Hope before despair. Jewish people well know that there is time enough for grief, so they grab joy by the collar and hold on tight for as long as possible. Which means, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, hope cannot be extinguished. Hope allows us to visualize safe returns. Homecomings. Resolution. Peace. Eden. Arbel. Matan. Schlomi.
Tonight is the time to remember and pray for the 133 souls still imprisoned in Gaza. Romi. Guy. Tal. Sagui. 133 human beings who need your help, my help, the help of their countrymen and women, their leaders, and frankly whatever help is out there. Sasha. Keith. Eli. Loitu. When was the last letter you wrote to President Biden, to Prime Minister Netanyahu? [Their emails and are at the end of this blog.]
When was the last time you lit a candle, prayed for them, donated to the Hostage Forum that supports the hostage families? [The links to the Hostage Forum is at the end of this blog.]
Say their names tonight. Noa. Omar. Hersh. Liri. Set a place for them at your table. Ohad. Chanan. Judy. Ilan. Before being taken hostage, these young people and hundreds of others were dancing in a beautiful clearing, awaiting the sunrise, and reveling in the freedom of being young. What a contrast to where they are now. Think of Oded, an 83-year-old grandfather and great-grandfather, who hasn’t seen the sun in six months. Think of Dolev and Arbel, siblings taken from the kibbutz where they lived alongside their brother, whose shoulders fold into his body as he weeps retelling the story of their capture.
133 names. Yorgam. Omri. Avera. Alexander. Naama. A collection of young and old, male and female, brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, mothers, fathers, grandparents. A diverse group comprised of more than just Israelis. There are eight Muslim Arabs, two Black African Christians, eight Thais. They are from Mexico and Nepal, Catholic and Hindu. There are five Americans. What unites them is that all of them are in horrific danger and all could benefit from our immediate collective action. So please, when you’re through reading this, do one thing. Write, text, call, email, donate…and then do it again.
Imagine them coming home. Or. Bar. Ofer. Inbar. Gad. David. I’m not giving up on them. And I’m not giving up on those Columbia students who call for my death. They are being held hostage, too, to a deadly, misguided ideology. So tonight, I’ll pray for them, too. Because I can hold two thoughts in my head at the same time. Actually, I can hold 133.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s email
President Biden’s email
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Hostages & Missing Families Forum
https://stories.bringthemhomenow.net