Jewish historian

The Hostages on This Fast of Esther

Today is the Fast of Esther.

For the hostages still alive in Gaza, every day is the Fast of Esther.

Only they, unlike us, don’t get to choose if or for how long.

Their hangman’s noose, as every released hostage has described it, is before them always, daily, every minute.

They plead with us, almost in the very words of the Book of Esther: gather all the Jews and other people of good will or power to effect salvation–

and get us all out. Now. Expeditiously. No partials, no dragging it out over more weeks or months.

It was one day of gathering moral strength and fortitude and then it was go time. The threat was immediate and so decisive action had to be.

Leave the political games to the Hamans and to the amoral others for whom this is all a game, of power, of interests–

and behave as Esther of that book instructed her uncle to do, and did herself.

Bring this Fast of Esther, the Hostages’ Fast, to an end.

About the Author

Shulamit S. Magnus Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History at Oberlin College. She is the author of four published books and numerous articles on Jewish modernity and the history of Jewish women, and winner of a National Jewish Book award and other prizes. Her new book is the first history of agunot and iggun from medieval times to the present, across the Jewish map. It also assesses and critiques current policy on Jewish marital capitivity in the US and Israel and makes proposals to end this abuse. Entitled, "Jewish Marital Captivity: The Past, Present, and End of a Historic Abuse," it is in press with New York University Press. She is a founder of women's group prayer at the Kotel and first-named plaintiff on a case before the Supreme Court of Israel asking enforcement of Jewish women's already-recognized right to read Torah at the Kotel. Her opinions have been published in the Forward, Tablet, EJewish Philanthropy, Moment, the Times of Israel, and the Jerusalem Post.