MILWAUKEE – Rabbi Joel Alter stepped to the podium and asked six questions: “Are we celebrating? Are we joyful? Are we grateful? Are we furious? Are we frustrated? Are we grieving?”
Murmurs from the audience answered the six questions: “Yes.”
Alter agreed. It’s “yes,” he said, “to all of them.”
Speakers approached the podium with a mix of emotions – joy over the release of three hostages and a deal for more to come, but also with heartfelt pain and concern. The event, “A Gathering for Prayer and Gratitude,” was held Jan. 20 at Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid in Glendale. About 150 people attended, on short notice, with more online.
Rabbi Joel Alter, of CBINT, proposed the community-wide event, but it was planned with help from the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis and Milwaukee Jewish Federation. The Monday night event came after a weekend of breathtaking developments. Three hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners were released as part of the first phase of a ceasefire agreement. Over the following six weeks, 30 more hostages are to be released (possibly including more after Chronicle press time), as are hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, according to CNN.
The program featured song and prayer, including Hatikva and the Mourner’s Kaddish, representing hope and loss.
Miryam Rosenzweig, president and CEO of Milwaukee Jewish Federation, took to the podium and talked about her experiences during recent trips to Israel, including the race to a saferoom during a rocket attack. She said she watched Israelis get back to daily life after the attack, responding with resilience. “I walked away with a lot of hope,” she recalled.
Rosenzweig and others have noted that the ceasefire deal releases murderers and rapists in exchange for hostages. But Rosenzweig pointed out, thinking of the hostages: “I know that if it was my family member, I would want them out now.”
Local rabbis and cantors spoke and prayed. Among the clergy who participated were rabbis Jessica Barolsky, Mark Berkson, Noah Chertkoff, Moishe Steigmann, and Hannah Wallick, along with Hazzan Jeremy Stein and cantors David Barash and Richard Newman. Other community members, including Noa Gerassi, Milwaukee community shlicha, also participated.
Yonat Piva, who expressed concern for both Palestinians and the hostages, strummed a guitar to a song she wrote.
After a moment of silence, community volunteer Eileen Graves took to the podium: “We offer God deep gratitude for the release of three hostages, a chesed, a mercy that fills our hearts with relief and hope with the knowledge that they are there are three of many.”
Rachel Meldman, a student at Cedarburg High School, was among the speakers: “I lift my heart with joy that yesterday, three hostages were returned to Israel. We’re so blessed that Emily, Doron and Romy are free back with their families, in solidarity and with the one heart of our people.”
Liran Gerassi, who has served in the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, noted that “the relentless vigilance demanded in a combat zone is its own kind of exhaustion, one that wears down both body and soul. The opportunity to step back even briefly from that heightened state of alertness, is a gift that cannot be overstated.”
But some in the Jewish community say they worry the released Palestinian prisoners will return to terror, question to what extent hostages will be alive and healthy, and dread learning of the horrors they have endured.
Alter said: “We’re not so naive as to celebrate, but neither are we so pinched as to be unable to recognize the enormity, the possibility of this moment.”
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