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While visiting her boyfriend’s family for the religious holiday of Simchat Torah, a young Israeli woman, Sapir Cohen, was taken hostage on October 7, 2023. She spent 55 days in captivity in Gaza before she was released in a deal with the Hamas terrorists who took her and hundreds of other Israelis captive. Cohen’s boyfriend, Sasha Troufanov, has been held captive with one hundred others for exactly one year, today.
Cohen visited my children’s overnight sleepaway program this summer, telling campers about the plight of those still left behind in Gaza while sharing her own experience.
She shared, “Down there [in the tunnels] there is no light. Sometimes a terrorist would use a flashlight, but even then, I couldn’t see anything. There is also no air.” She went on to explain the lack of oxygen, the prevalence of humidity and mold, and the lack of food. She experienced this for less than two months; Sasha and 100 others have for twelve months.
She goes anywhere she can to share her story in order to raise awareness about the hostages who have spent a year of their lives wasting away in the tunnels of Gaza, because she knows the world has lost interest. There are no yellow ribbons lining the trees of America’s small towns in honor of the four Americans still being held hostage; nor were there large memorials for Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a young American boy who was taken hostage and executed in the tunnels in Gaza one month ago.
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Even Troufanov’s own employer has forsaken him. Despite working as an engineer on a pivotal project for Amazon, the Seattle-based company has been silent about his plight.
Amazon isn’t alone in their disinterest in their imprisoned Jewish employees. One year ago, PepsiCo’s subsidiary, SodaStream, had one of its employees, Guy Gilboa-Dalal taken captive as well, and Pepsi have maintained their silence. Pepsi has had no issues speaking up and ponying up on other social issues, yet, when it comes to their own staffer kidnapped from a music festival, they can’t be bothered to advocate for his immediate and unconditional release.
On the anniversary of October 7th, hostage Emily Damari’s mother Mandy spoke out about her daughter, violently taken from a Kibbutz on the Gaza border, Kfar Aza.
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In her British accent, Mandy pleaded, “I would like to feel that the British public were behind her, and the British government were behind her, and they were saying there is a British hostage held captive in the terror tunnels by Hamas in Gaza. I want them to know she’s there, and to advocate for her release, unconditionally and immediately. She’s a young woman, and who knows what’s happening to her. If there’s a way to put her on social media, and see her out there. Remind people that she’s there, [and] make sure she’s not forgotten.”
The worst fears of their families and loved ones have been realized; Sasha, Guy and Emily have been forgotten. Put simply and bluntly: Hostages and their families feel alone and forsaken because they have been. Their employers have abandoned them, and their governments have, too. The world community and organizations, tasked with advocating for the most vulnerable among us, have clearly indicated that Jews don’t count in their hierarchy of victims.
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Not only are the victims of October 7th forgotten, they have been transformed into oppressors by evil individuals and organizations who have decided that Jewish lives simply do not matter.
Amnesty International UK, in the days leading up to the anniversary, justified the massacre and reminded their followers “Don’t let anyone tell you that this all started on the 7th of October 2023.”
In response to Amnesty, pro-Israel influencer Hen Mazzig asked, “So when did it start? In 2002, during the Second Intifada, when I was almost killed in a terror attack? Or in 1951, when my family was expelled from Tunisia for being Jewish? Or in 1941, during the Farhud, when my family members were killed and expelled from Iraq? Or the Hebron massacre in 1929? When did it start? When did the world become so apathetic as to deny Jews the right to mourn our dead and post videos like this on the day we commemorate the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? And October 7th hasn’t ended for us, because 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza for 365 days.”
A year on, millions of Jews, both American and Israelis alike, are all still trapped in October 7th, but the year is still 2023, not 2024. Life has moved on as we have scrambled to try to beg for sympathy, relevancy and attention while the world marks holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Easter and Passover, all the while we struggle to remind the world that we are still trapped in October. And here we are, back in October.
In her famous book, “Anne of Green Gables,” L. M. Montgomery wrote, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
For Jews, our world has been nothing but Octobers for the last twelve months. Finding ourselves back in October is a painful reminder that our hearts, all 101 of them, still lay captive in Gaza. It won’t stop being October 7th until they’re all home.