On Saturday, January 18, our hearts broke all over again when a video was posted to Instagram. The video was of a beautiful red-headed toddler, approaching his front door. When it opened, there stood a smiling mother, leaning down, arms outstretched. She was welcoming her son Ariel home to meet, for the first time, his baby brother Kfir who had just been born.
On January 18, Kfir Bibas turned two. As a Hamas hostage in captivity. His and Ariel’s whereabouts unknown. Hamas says that the two children were killed long ago — but no location, no confirmation, no remains.
We are living a most painful paradox.
We watch the beautiful Ariel gently lay his head on his new baby brother. We cry for Ariel, Kfir, Yarden and Shiri Bibas, we cry for everyone murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, for every single hostage taken.
But then, on January 19, we cry again — for the three beautiful, vibrant, young women reunited with their families 471 days later. Tears of pain mixed with tears of joy.
Emily, Romi, Doron. They are not mere names, pictures on a poster. They, and all of the hostages, live in the souls of Jews everywhere.
The inhumane kidnapping of 250 people on Oct. 7, 2023, broadened the Jewish people in a completely new way. Many of us, myself included, learned that we deeply care for and love every member of the State of Israel. That its minority populations are not entries on a census, but woven into our souls.
We cry bitterly for murdered hostages Youssef Zaydani and his son Hamza, both Bedouin, and we cry tears of joy when Farhan Alkadi, also a Bedouin, is rescued.
Our Jewish family has expanded.
This is a week of tears of joy — and pain.
We see innocent civilians exchanged for far larger numbers of convicted murderers — as if this were equitable. This is not justice!
A painful paradox — when we see Israel capitulating to a deal that will not release all of the hostages but will strengthen the death cult obsessed with eliminating Israel and its citizens en masse.
A painful paradox — our collective tears, mothers and daughters reunited, welcomed home, while in Gaza, armed terrorists surround the six Hamas and ICRC hostage exchange vehicles, with others chanting “Watch out Jews.”
Ironically these videos posted by Hamas, while presumably intended to frighten or demoralize us, only invigorate my sense of connection with Israel and the Jewish people.
“We live in parallel universes,” said Rabbi Doron Perez to a Denver audience last Sunday. The chairman of World Mizrachi lost his son Daniel on Oct. 7, 2023. His remains are being held captive by Hamas.
I know in which of the two universes I dwell; as Perez said, the one that won’t give up on the hostages, that does not use civilians as human shields, that builds bomb shelters for its citizens instead of tunnels for its terrorists.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
© IJN 2025
