BRING THEM HOME

SOPHIA FRANCO

TODAY, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH, I HAD INTENDED TO WRITE AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE ISRAELI RALLY IN WASHINGTON DC, BUT AS I SIT AT MY COMPUTER, I CAN’T KEEP MY EYES OFF THE TELEVISION. THIS MORNING, 13 ISRAELI HOSTAGES, 10 THAI HOSTAGES AND 1 FILIPINO HOSTAGE ARE CURRENTLY MAKING THEIR WAY FROM GAZA TO EGYPT, AND THEN HOPEFULLY TO ISRAEL.

After 47 days in captivity, this is a true miracle, so, I will start by thanking Hashem. He is great in every way. I know this, even in the face of so much suffering. I know this, even as we watched in horror, as Hamas threw all shame and decency out the window. Our sages say that suffering helps bring us closer to Hashem, virtually, “up the ladder,” but truly, I don’t think this was the suffering anyone had in mind.

For most of us, the last seven weeks have held fear, and not much else. Fear of hate, fear for the hostages, fear for the state of Israel and the soldiers who defend it — and mostly, the real fear that we are not safe here in America, or anywhere. There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. If you are curious, alternatively there are 15.2 million Jews — approximately 6.8 million in Israel, and 6 million in the United States. With these numbers in mind, this particular fear has taken up most of our brain space.

It is a fact that thousands of Palestinian “civilians” helped perpetrate the October 7th attacks, and thousands of others cheered them on jubilantly, in Gaza, and globally. While so many Muslims are peaceful, non-jihadists, so many more have proven not to be, and with the pliable young minds of university students captured, groomed and mobilized for a fight, it’s truly hard to think of anything else. In the Jewish Journal, Gary Wexler reported that Palestinian campus activists have ensured this, spreading hateful lies and building the infrastructure for this alternative universe for a quarter of a century. Many organizations representing people seen as oppressed were inspired to identify with the Palestinians, swaying students of every variety.

I have personally watched so many ignorant, stubborn and angry humans tearing down the posters of the 240+ men, women and children being held hostage in the tunnels of Gaza. Why? When your puppy is lost, nobody tears down those signs. When I was a kid, I remember the missing children’s faces staring back at me from the milk carton, as I ate spoon after spoonful of cereal. Why would any civilized human want a child to celebrate his fourth birthday in the hands of monsters? If it were their grandmother, would they not want her home?

Often, over the last 49 days, I have thought about the time when 240 girls were kidnapped from Nigeria. Oh, how the world’s activists screamed! Oprah! Michelle Obama! Angelina Jolie! So many Hollywood stars, up in arms. Today, their silence (and so many others) is deafening. Where is the outrage as underage girls were savagely raped in front of their mothers by these sadistic monsters; when babies were torn from their mother’s wombs and burned alive inside kitchen ovens? Where are their souls? Where are their minds?

But alas, they accuse, “fake news!” They claim that video footage of the worst massacre in Jewish history since the Holocaust was staged. (I mean those are the rules pro-Palestinians play by, so I imagine they assume we do the same). Raw footage accumulated by Hamas’ own go-pros and cell phones should verify truth, but some of it is just too difficult to fathom. Maybe the naysayers should visit Israel, as so many Jewish sympathizers have over the last seven weeks. Maybe they should see the bloodshed for themselves.

Unfortunately, smart, educated university students have fallen prey to mass manipulation. They call Israel a genocidal, colonialist, apartheid state. Genocidal, really? How many Palestinians are in Gaza, and is that number growing, or shrinking? Gaza is ruled by Hamas. The fact that they use women and children as human shields and build their headquarters under hospitals and schools, this is not Israel’s doing. The only people denying basic necessities to the Palestinians, are their own leaders. So, as I watch the national news showing the hostages being released, I can’t help but sound smug, “Oh, there are hostages being held in Gaza; really?” It kind of feels good to prove the cynics wrong.

I’ll tell you what felt really good though. The rally. That felt like power. It felt like strength, and it felt like fighting back. In the parashah that week, it said, “Yaakov halach l’ beit Lavan,” And Yaakov went to the white house… When I woke up that crispy morning to a photo of hundreds of men in kippot and tefillin, praying at sunrise on the white house lawn, I was amazed. Once again, we see hints of the Torah playing out in real time this year, chapter by chapter. At the rally, holding our Israeli flags, standing in such an open space and being among so many Jews at once frightened us at first — we were surely a target for some Palestinian sicko with an automatic weapon, or worse — but someone handed me a paper with a beracha to be said whenever you are in a place with more than 600 Jews. Saying it, I felt safe, I felt invincible. I felt a solidarity as never before. Being there, I was making a difference.

We continued to push through to the front, looking for people we knew. What was funny though, was that everyone looked like someone we knew. But then there were others who didn’t look like us, and they, too, were holding signs. They, too, were singing Hatikvah along with Omer Adam. Whether they had pink hair and tattoos, white skin, brown skin or black skin — whether they wore kippot and tzitzit or a Madhappy sweatshirt, we were all at peace, together. The energy and camaraderie were incredible. Different people from all walks of life marching to the same beat of the same drum — Kumbaya at its finest.

As Mijal Biton cried out with incredible strength and honesty, I was so proud. Our rabbi’s daughter’s passion echoed within me. She spoke about the “iron curtain of hate” felt by all those who know oppression: “I stand here for all us who remember that in every generation they stand up against us, to destroy us, and for all of us, who thank G-d that America and Israel changed the world and became our safe haven. We stand here united, to fight against terror and antisemitism in our streets and in our universities. We stand here in support of our nation of Israel who have stood up like a nation of lions to liberate Israeli and Palestinian children from the nightmare of Hamas.” She begged us to breathe new life into the promise of hope and freedom; to use all that we have: our voices, our votes, our feet, and our prayers. Standing there, I nodded, “Yes, yes, I will. I am.”

And then there were the parents of the hostages; heartbreaking, honest, each forced to transform from mom to activist, public speaker, and the voice of hope during a time of despair. Listening intently, no one could look away. Thousands of placards in the crowd, large and small, created a force; innocent faces on posters, pins, and sweatshirts. Their eyes cried out to each of us, “save me!” And so, filled with love, we stood. We sang. We prayed. We are Jews, and that is who we are. We are challenged to rise, every day of our lives.

On this heroic day, almost 300,000 people showed up to march for Israel in our nation’s capital. In a fight between good and evil, love and hate, civilization and barbarism, we stood for the release of our people. We stood for peace and for unity, the way only we can, with derech eretz and decorum. Nobody beat anyone. Nobody defaced any property. Nobody cried for blood or murder, and nobody ruthlessly planned an inhuman massacre of people sleeping in their beds, or dancing happily at a party in the early hours of the morning. In fact, almost every speaker prayed for the release of all the victims of this hateful war — both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, because they are hostages of Hamas, too, aren’t they?

After the rally, there were hugs and high fives, and more singing to the heavens to let our people go! When a policeman was asked how he liked the day, he smiled and said he had received a career’s worth of thank yous in one afternoon. Baruch Hashem, there’s a difference between us and them, and I think that on this day, that was more than apparent.

This week in the parashah, Yaakov asks Lavan to give him back his women and children. Today, November 26th, as I watch the news 56 hostages, b”h, have been released so far. It has been 50 days since October 7th, and 188 are still in captivity by Hamas, as far as we know. I pray that by the time you read this, all of the hostages will have been released. I pray that all our soldiers will come home, safe and sound, and no more civilians will be hurt. I pray for peace in Israel and around the world. But as we release so many Hamas terrorists simultaneously, and give them this moment to regroup, I also pray that they do not go on to do this all over again. I cannot forget that more than 1,400 innocent people will never come home, and that the ugly head of hate has only been hiding all these years, and has now come out to play. So, mostly, I pray that good will always win over evil, and Mashiach will come soon. Am Yisrael Chai.

Thank you to Rabbi Shlomo Farhi for his always inspiring classes, to Rabbi Amram Sananes for his parashah teachings and to Rabbi Yotav Eliach who taught me Zionism a million years ago and still continues to educate me whenever I read his words.

Sophia Franco is a community writer. Among essays, songs and biographies she also composed I Can Be, We are a Miracle and I am Alive for Yaakov Shwekey.