From Julie Zuckerman: A Bit of Breath, 105 Points of Light
Dear friends,
Note: Shabbat shalom or shavua tov depending on when you are reading this. Today, December 1, 2023, I left home at 6:30 this morning to drive my daughter back to her army base near Beersheva, and it is now a half an hour before Shabbat starts and I’ve just returned home from a quick visit to my son at his base to bring him supplies. In between, I was helping collect and package cauliflower and trying to finish the newsletter to get it out today…so please excuse any typos or sentence fragments! Scroll down for book recommendations, two Literary Modiin events, a story of the month, a recipe and more.
Most of this introduction was written Thursday, November 30, 2023.
Julie Zuckerman, from juliezuckeman.com
As I write, we are on day 55 of our new reality, and thankfully we’ve had some glimmers of light in the last week, as some of the hostages have been returned. What tomorrow will bring, I don’t know, but I can tell you that every evening for the last week, I’ve been glued to the news or refreshing my screen constantly until each of the hostages slated to be released has reached Israeli soil. I then spend the following day watching the videos of the joyous reunions and crying happy tears for these families again and again.
My husband - who is in the States at the moment - just wrote, “I don’t think people here understand how happy Israelis are for each individual hostage released.” Well, I’m here to tell you that we are. We hear the list of those slated for release and send messages of fingers crossed and prayers that the release will go smoothly. When there are delays it feels difficult to breathe and our stress levels are sky-high. And if this is what it feels like for an ordinary Israeli; I cannot imagine what the families are going through.
As I write, two hostages were just released and we are waiting on the news of the other eight who are supposed to be released today. As I write, the five young men I mentioned in last month’s newsletter — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, our friends’ son; Andrey Kozlov, my former coworker; and Gali and Ziv Berman and Alon Shamriz, my daughter’s friends — remain hostages in Gaza. Please visit oneminaday.com to take one minute of your day to make a call and help save their lives. (Edited to update: six additional hostages were eventually released late last night. So thus far: 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity in Gaza: 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals and 1 Filipino. And Israel estimates that 137 hostages are still being held in Gaza).
We are already a nation that is somewhat used to going from the depths of sadness to the heights of joy. Each year, we go straight from the somber, reflective day of Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Hostile Acts) into the joyous day of Yom Ha’aztmaut (Independence Day), often with a transitional ceremony in between. But of course, nothing prepared us for our current reality.
A small example: two weeks ago there was a lovely bat mitzvah at my shul; the bat mitzvah girl was surrounded by her family, including her parents and siblings, her grandfather who’d taught her how to read Torah, all of her aunts and uncles and cousins, most of whom belong to our shul. A truly joyous occasion which allowed us to stop thinking about the horrors of October 7 for a few minutes. At the end of services, the names of the (then) ~240 hostages in Gaza were read, and we were brought back to reality. And then we went outside for the bat mitzvah kiddush and to wish the family well. It’s enough to give anyone whiplash.
In the last week or so, many of my friends with kids serving in the IDF in or near Gaza were able to finally visit with them. My older daughter has now joined the ranks of those in the reserves, which means I now have three out of four kids serving, but none are in/near Gaza. It is impossible to plan for the future — will the universities hold a shortened semester (currently delayed by two months and slated to begin on Dec. 24)? What will happen in Gaza “the day after”? No one knows. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, if the truce will be extended further or if we will be back at war. (Edited to update: Hamas violated the ceasefire early this morning, and the short pause which enabled us to get some of the hostages back and a bit of breath, as well as getting some humanitarian aid into Gaza has now ended, and we are back at war).
Israelis of all ages and political stripes continue to volunteer as much as they can, including helping in agriculture, cooking food for soldiers/displaced families/shiva homes, serving in community patrols and more.
Halavai (may it be true) that by the time I’m writing next month’s newsletter, I’ll no longer feel a need to write this long introductory section on what’s happening on the ground here. Halavai that the healing will have begun.
Read the rest of Julie’s letters on her Substack page here.
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