By Andrew Silow-Carroll
(JTA) — Last Sunday in New York, thousands marched in the annual pro-Israel parade, less a celebration this year than a rally for the hostages held by Hamas since Oct. 7. The parade’s sponsor, New York’s Jewish Community Relations Council, said its goal was “sending an urgent message to the world: ‘Bring Them Home Now!’” — raising awareness of the plight of the captives, without calling for specific actions to free them.
By contrast, the day before, tens of thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv called on the government to strike a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire in the eight-month war in exchange for the return of the 120 remaining hostages, living and dead. Coupled with calls for the dismissal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for early elections, the rally in Israel was sharply political and specific in its demands.
In Israel, many if not most advocates for the hostages have been vocal in criticizing their government and calling for a ceasefire; in the United States, Jewish groups and individuals have been invoking the hostages either in apolitical gestures of solidarity, or to defend the aims of the war.
“It’s really clear that in Israel ‘bring them home’ is directed at the government,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of the liberal human rights group T’ruah, who has written on the subject after attending a number of the rallies on visits to Israel. “Among U.S. Jews, there seems to be a belief that ‘bring them home’ is directed at everyone but Israel.”
Saturday’s dramatic rescue by the Israeli army of four hostages briefly confounded the divide. But even as Israelis celebrated in the streets and, in the case of war cabinet member Benny Gantz, tabled efforts to pressure Netanyahu on the war, many emphasized that a ceasefire deal remained the most likely way for hostages to come home.
Since Oct. 7, Jews in Israel and the United States have developed an array of symbolic, public and ritual responses to the tragedy in Israel. They include empty “Shabbat table” displays representing the captives, empty chairs in synagogues and at the seder table, pieces of masking tape with the number of days since the hostages were taken and “kidnapped” posters featuring images of the hostages. “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv has become a pilgrimage site for Israelis as well as American Jews visiting the country.
The We Are All Hostages movement wants more from American Jews, and said in their letter that they are available to speak to Jewish groups to press their case. “Your voices are crucial to saving our family members. Your voices can help end this war. Lives hang in the balance,” they wrote. “Our families hang in the balance. We need you with us.”
In Washington, D.C., since shortly after the Hamas attacks, about 100 people gather every Sunday for a “Bring Them Home Now” rally in front of the American Red Cross headquarters. Because they are Israeli Americans — members of the group UnXeptable D.C., formed before the war to protest Netanyahu and his proposed judicial reforms, later pivoting to support Hamas’ victims, aid Israel’s vulnerable populations and advocate for the release of the hostages — the vigil organizers have tried to straddle the line between what the cause means back home and to non-Israeli American Jews.
“At first we were very careful not to be political, and the strongest goal we had was to keep the issue of the hostages in the public eye,” said Vered Guttman, a food writer, one of the rally organizers and a representative of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel. “After about three months we were starting to be more frustrated with the Israeli government. And as more time passed, it became very clear that it’s a political issue that we could not ignore — or ignore what was happening in Gaza.”
The speakers started to demand that the government sign a deal, and to praise President Joe Biden for talking about the hostages and an endgame to the war in ways that Netanyahu avoided. Most of those attending the vigil are American Jews, who keep returning while occasionally bristling at the politics of some of the speakers.
“We’re kind of gentle,” said Guttman, noting that while UnXeptable speakers will call on the Israeli government to sign a ceasefire deal, they invite guest speakers from across the political spectrum, from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat, a frequent critic of Israel, to Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which has close ties with Israeli officials.
Such an approach, she said, “makes our tent wider, and it brings a new audience to the discourse.”
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for Ideas for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.