Pay it forward

On Oct 3, four days before Israel was to mark the trauma, shock, and horror that began its longest war to date, the Israeli military helped free a Yazidi woman abducted by ISIS at age 11.

The woman spent 10 years in captivity, ending up in Gaza with a Hamas member affiliated with ISIS, according to the Israeli army. The man was killed recently, presumably in an Israeli air strike, allowing her to flee to a hideout from which she was rescued in an operation that involved Israel, the US and other international actors, the army statement said.

The news of Fawzia Amin Sido’s freedom was marked with celebration in Iraq – and by Steve Maman, a Jewish businessman from Canada who has been nicknamed “The Jewish Schindler” for his work rescuing hundreds of Yazidi children abducted by ISIS.

I am thrilled beyond words that Fawzia was freed. Only in my worst nightmares can I begin to imagine what she went through.

Women are too often and too consistently victims of wars, hatred, and violence. Fawzia should have been freed years ago, and Maman’s efforts are to be commended.

But I can’t help asking, “why?”

I can’t help asking why no report mentioned the 13 Israeli women still being held in Gaza after an entire year. Women who are very likely being raped. Women who are being mistreated.

I can’t help asking why no one mentioned the Israeli men still imprisoned in Gaza.

I can’t help asking why no one highlighted how Israel made it a priority to help free a young Iraqi woman in the midst of its own significant problems.

“What would the world look like if there was international cooperation, care, and concern for all women?” a friend asked this week when we were talking about Fawzia.

Maman, whose website says: “One who saves a life saves a world entire” is only one person. And one person alone cannot resolve all the evil in this world.

Perhaps the Jewish state’s role in freeing Fawzia from Gaza will be a moment of “what goes around comes around” in the most positive sense of the idiom?

I hold out little hope.

Now, when antisemitism is spreading like a pandemic, when the Anti-Defamation League reports a more than twofold leap in the number of antisemitic incidents in the US in a one-year period, hope is a distant twinkle on the horizon of a dark, dark sky.

Now, when major news outlets who reported the rapes suffered by Israeli women on Oct. 7 are accused of faulty reporting and others preferred to stay away from the story altogether, hope twinkles in that sky only rarely.

Throughout history, women of every color race and religion have been targets of war.

It is time that humanity realizes the world would be a better place if everyone worked together to guarantee the safety of all women in all conflicts.

I wish for Fawzia a life of quiet, calm and recovery from her terrible trauma.

And as we approach Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday that marks the end of a period of introspection and repentance, my hope is that Israel’s willingness to direct its soldiers to help free an enslaved Yazidi woman might open a tiny crack in that dark sky, a crack that will allow that star to shine just a little bit more brightly.

And my prayer – my wish – and for this coming new year will be:

May all of humanity learn to pay it forward.