By Esti DeAngelis, Managing Editor, and Shira Kramer, Editor-in-Chief
“After 738 days, there are no more living hostages held by Hamas in Gaza,” StandWithUs posted to their social media accounts on the morning of October 13.
As the last 20 living hostages arrived in Israel, these words reflected a relief that can only be understood and experienced in real time. 738 days have never carried so much weight, and the nation that has felt their heaviness is now breathing for the first time.
While speaking to the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum in May, freed hostage Noa Argamani said, “We can’t heal until every hostage comes home.”
Two years after their original capture, the hostages are no longer hostages; they are survivors. As Israel and the rest of the Jewish world rejoices, the 167 people who returned alive over these last two years must learn to live in their new world.
Now, the survivors of captivity will begin a long, painful healing process. And so will our nation as a whole.
Because though it may have been these survivors who have seemed the most in need of our efforts, it is, in fact, they who now illuminate our path forward. While they thanked us for fighting for them, it is we who should be thanking them. These survivors have shown us what it looks like to be broken and to begin to piece yourself together again. They have shown us how to be grateful for the small things. They have taught us about resilience in the face of unbelievable adversity and have become heroes for our children to grow up admiring. They have unified a nation.
For all the hostages have given us, the least we can do is to try to emulate them. As we ask ourselves what it means to mourn and rebuild, we can look to Eli Sharabi and Yarden Bibas. To make music again, we can learn from Alon Ohel and Daniella Gilboa. Agam Berger and Rom Braslavski show us what faith looks like when there is every reason to lose it. Elkana Bohbot, David Cunio, Maxim Herkin and Omri Miran teach us that a father can endure anything for his children. Each of these survivors, from child to elderly, has, in their own way, shown us something of how to move forward.
No, we weren’t directly affected like they were, but their pain tore throughout the Jewish nation for two years. Every report, every video, every moment of uncertainty touched us in profound ways.
Here, at the YU Observer, we hold the hostages’ stories near our hearts. Over the last two years, we have reported on them, the war and the feelings of our students. But these conversations are far from over. As the world begins to move on, we will look toward the people who have been affected the most for a roadmap to the future.
Photo Credit: Ashley Hefner