Amidst Tragedy, the Love of Humanity Guides Our Resolve

Dear Friends and Partners, 

Like of all of us, I am heartbroken and enraged at the news of the brutal murder by Hamas of six hostages in Gaza, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, z”l, Almog Sarusi, z”l, Alex Lobanov, z”l, Carmel Gat, z”l, Eden Yerushalmi, z”l, and Ori Danino, z”l.

Each death in this horrible war that our enemies imposed on us is a tragedy. We mourn and grieve for each of them. But the human brain can’t conceive of tragedy in abstract terms. We need to give it a name and a face. It’s not that Hersh was more beloved, more important, or more precious than any of the other people that Hamas murdered or tortured. But he, like baby Kfir and Naama, became the embodiment of the pain that we’ve experienced for the past 11 months. They incarnated the hope that Rachel Goldberg-Polin kept telling us “Is mandatory,” and that has now become badly shattered. Maybe that’s why these murders feel more personal, more immediate, more tragic.

The hostages are not numbers for us. They are people who have become familiar to us, whose faces we know, whose stories we’ve been sharing for 11 months. We feel we know them. We feel a little like they’re part of our families. While nothing compares to the indescribable pain that the families are experiencing, we all feel that we’ve lost something precious and irreplaceable.

Even as we mourn the loss of these precious souls, we continue to pray for the safe and immediate return of all of the remaining hostages, and we plead with the international community to exhaust all means of pressure on Hamas and its enablers so that they are released immediately.

And yet, we are not broken. Our enemies think that our concern for the hostages make us weak. They don’t understand that the way we care for each and every one of our sons and daughters is our strength. It may sometimes feel like a vulnerability, but it’s what makes us invincible.

Philanthropy represents “the love of humanity,” the exact opposite of what Hamas stands for. So our response as funders has to be to keep giving, to keep helping, and to stand tall and proud as Jews and Zionists while doing everything in our power to help our Israeli brethren – and each other – in these fateful hours.

I've said before that this crisis is the test of our generation. On days like today, that is truer than ever. 

From the beginning of this crisis, JFN has been mapping the needs in Israel and elsewhere. Like every other funding field, especially ones with political undertones, helping the hostages and their families can be hard to navigate for the uninitiated, with many organizations doing different things and asking for funds. Our colleague, Maya Golan, has developed unique expertise and relations in the field of support for the hostages and hostage families, and she’s available to field inquiries and questions.

May the memories of those we have lost be a blessing, and may we be deserving of that blessing. May we honor their lives every day through our actions and our courage. May comfort come to all who are mourning this day. May each of us find strength in the example of our heroes as we move forward together.

-Andrés Spokoiny
President & CEO, Jewish Funders Network