Lest I forget you, the hostages!

These photos cannot capture the power of witnessing the long line of posters on either side as you walk towards Passport Control. Each poster represents one of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. If you arrive to Israel by air, you will know right off that this is a country in trauma and that this is a country that wants YOU to know that it is a country in trauma. If you’ve ever attended a Jewish funeral at which the comforters form two long lines while the survivors walk through, this was the opposite. I was a mourner with no comfort from the long lines of faces on either side as I walked and walked and walked the mourner’s path.

The specter of October 7 was made even more visceral on the shuttle bus from the airport to Tel Aviv. Of the seven passengers, there were 3 ultra-Orthodox women, 2 ultra-Orthodox men, a young Filipina woman, and myself. In the chit-chat that occurred during our journey, we discovered that Camille, the Filipina woman, was a survivor of the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, where she was a caregiver to a 95-year-old woman. By bribing the Hamas terrorist with the money she was planning to bring her family in the Philippines, they escaped physical harm. One of the many articles about this incident and Camille’s “shero” status can be read here: https://www.jns.org/filipino-caretaker-31-saves-95-year-old-from-hamas-terrorist-with-bribe/

Camille was just now returning from her postponed trip to the Philippines and spoke of the horrors she witnessed on October 7, the trauma, her gratitude to be alive, and her promise to stay with her charge until her death (God willing, by natural causes).

When I walked around Jerusalem later in the day, I saw several posters that featured Hersh Polin Goldberg, whose mother Rachel has been an indefatigable voice keeping the hostage situation on the front burner both in the U.S. and in Israel. I also spotted another large poster featuring pictures of all the hostages. These posters in the U.S. are being torn down and vandalized. Not so here.

A friend in the U.S. loaned me her dog tag for my trip which reads “Bring them home now” in English and “Our hearts are with the hostages in Gaza” in the Hebrew. I spotted a couple of other people on the street wearing the same dog tags. 

Learning about the importance of redeeming captives was one of the earliest lessons I learned about Judaism. So why is it that a government that is so religiously aligned with right-wing Orthodoxy has not prioritized it as the primary value it is? (No, I do not think that the war as it is currently playing out has the redemption of the hostages as its primary objective.)

Hersh Polin Goldberg, one of the hostages

A large poster of all the hostages on a random street.

I’m wearing this dog tag around my neck while I’m here, a loan from a friend in the U.S.

I had conversations with the friends with whom I am staying and another friend with whom I took a long walk. There is, of course, fear. There is rage. There is horror. Not just about the Hamas atrocities or about the hostage situation, but also about the incompetent and callous Israeli government that holds power, a government that has done little to heal the wounds or inspire confidence, but that has, in fact, been compounding the trauma Israel faces.

One of these friends, a long-time Meretz voter (a left-wing party) reminded me that voting now has to be played as a chess move, not a love letter, and that she will have to vote for a more centrist party when the next elections come around– God willing, soon! — in order to insure a new government coalition, since there’s slim likelihood that Meretz could prevail in large enough numbers to make a difference. Idealism vs. Pragmatism because the necessity of ousting Bibi is so vital.

There is no arguing that Israel is at a critical juncture. I am here to witness, to listen, to learn, and to mourn. And I will impart what I learn along the way.