We held firm, now they are home

For the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages in Gaza. This is a momentous inflection point, marked by emotions as complex as they are profound. While the instinct might be to celebrate, we carry with us the sobering reality that so many of those returned came home as mortal remains, their lives brutally cut short, their families forever incomplete. Yet there is undeniably relief and definitely a measure of joy at the conclusion of Israel’s longest war and the final release from the torment of knowing that families were counting each excruciating second as their loved ones endured the most horrendous conditions of captivity. As is our way, always carrying a touch of salt with our joy! 

This week, as we take off our yellow ribbons and our dog tags, the paraphernalia of a community in pain, we shed the weight of 843 days of collective anguish. As one commentator put it, from now, empty chairs will revert to waiting for late guests, missing signs will be for cats and dogs. The monsters will return to children’s closets, where they belong. Parents will know where their children are. Yellow will go back to being yellow again … the colour of the hopeful rising sun. 

The date 7 October represents the greatest tragedy to befall Jewish life since the Holocaust, a shocking reminder of the callous brutality of our enemies. Then came 8 October, the immediate surge in antisemitism and hatred that followed the horrors of that black Sabbath. It shocked world Jewry and continues to alter fundamentally how we operate; how we see ourselves; how we navigate public space. My hope is that with the recovery of the remains of Ran Gvili, we may now enter a period we might call 9 October, one marked by the possibility of healing. 

I am so proud of our people, who, in spite of overwhelming hatred, aggression, and bigotry, held firm. We wore our ribbons, T-shirts, and dog tags. We ran every week in solidarity. We reserved places at parking lots and Shabbat tables. We included their names in our liturgy. For two years, we advocated – on Nelson Mandela Bridge; on the promenade in Cape Town; on Durban Beach; at Great Park Synagogue; with teddy bears outside the South African Broadcasting Corporation; and at the Constitutional Court. We refused for a single moment to allow the world to forget that these hostages remained in captivity. It is this sustained effort in unity, across the globe, that ensured that the pressure remained on those who could make a difference, and who, I believe, are ultimately responsible for the return of these bodies. We brought them home. Now we pray that the return of the hostages will lead to sustainable peace.