In the wake of Sinwar’s death, Where are the Upstanders?

The news broke over the first day of the Sukkot holiday of the death of Sinwar, leader of the terrorist organization Hamas, and architect of the devastating horror of October 7th, 2023. Many commentators will offer much on the military significance and challenges of this moment. As a Jewish educator, my reflections, and expertise, are on something more intimate and familiar. Looking back since October 7th, I wonder now, as I have wondered all year, will this be the moment when the upstanders show up? 

Looking back on this last year, achingly reflecting that 101 people are still being held hostage in Gaza 377 days later, I have been waiting to see the upstanders in this ever-unfolding story. Time and again I am struck that one of the most critical lessons and central tenants that we have held in the years since the Holocaust has been that there can be participants, and there can be bystanders, but the people who make a difference in the world and help move the needle are the upstanders. They bring redemption. It has not been easy to locate Upstanders in Gaza or in the story of the hostages being held there. Many have made excuses for the people in Gaza, including lamenting the conditions of the Palestinian people and the conditions on the ground.

In my own family, my children are fourth generation survivors, here because a single family risked its own safety and held a Jewish family in the cellar, feeding them as they best could, protecting them from the Nazis. Upstanders, this family was recognized as righteous gentiles, who allowed my husband’s grandmother and her three sisters and parents to survive the Holocaust. There was nothing easy in doing this, but it was driven by a commitment to our shared humanity. There were many excuses they could have made and they didn’t. These are the stories absent from the hostages being held captive in Gaza.

Today, the stories of the hostages, held deep underground in tunnels, with limited food and water, only relay sad refrains of Gazan families cooperating with the terrorists. Women forced to cook and clean and not offered any food or water for themselves. The young yazidi woman rescued by the IDF told the story of ten years of enslavement in Gaza. The opposite of upstanders, the picture painted in Gaza is of bystanders and participants.  

There is tremendous potential in this moment with the leader of Hamas dead. People on the ground have a new opportunity in the face of evil now eliminated, to do the right thing. How often do we each find ourselves quoting Mr. Rogers, and his famous statement, “look around and find the helpers.” This could be the moment of becoming the helper. Picture it: a Gazan might call the Red Cross and let them know hostages are in the apartment next door; a nurse might report that hostages are being treated at their local hospital; or a mother might reach out to a reporter and share that she knows there are tunnels under her school where hostages are being kept. It is time for us to expect this of every Gazan, time for all of Gaza to be ready to be upstanders in this war.

In every crisis humanity faces we look for those who shine the light on our common shared humanity. Gaza can be no different. With the elimination of the leader of Hamas this is the moment for Palestinians to take the brave step and embrace the day after October 7th, 2024, as a day of being upstanders. As an educator I cannot underscore how important it is for the people of Gaza to feel empowered by an expectation that they can, in the face of these new circumstances, step up and be upstanders. We can expect of them, the world can expect of them, especially in the face of the uncertainty in the wake of Sinwar’s elimination, to step up, to stand up, to be part of the day after. The hostages must come home immediately for anything else in the region to change, and anyone and everyone can be the upstander who helps move that needle.