We cannot rest until all of the hostages return home to Israel

I wear a thick metal bracelet.

It’s similar to one I wore as a little girl; that bracelet was inscribed with the name of Ida Nudel, a Russian Jew who was imprisoned for 17 years in the Soviet Union – including four years in a Siberian labor camp. She was imprisoned because she had requested a visa to move to Israel.

The bracelet I am wearing now bears the name of Dolev Yehud.

Dolev is 35 years old; he loves comedy podcasts and stand-up comedy. Trained as a medic, he volunteers for Magen David Adom – Israel’s central agency for first-aid responders – and United Hatzalah, which uses specially-equipped motorcycle ambulances to provide emergency services within three minutes of a call for help.

Dolev is the husband of Sigal and the father of four children, although he has yet to meet the fourth. That child was born after Dolev was kidnapped into the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

There are hundreds of bracelets like mine, each inscribed with a different name.

Names like:

Or Levi, who is the father of a 2-year-old son and whose wife was murdered at the Nova desert music festival.

Noa Argamani, a data engineering student whose mother is dying of cancer and who turned 26 in captivity.

Kfir Bibas, about whom not much is known because he was only 9 months old when he was taken hostage.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American citizen whose left arm was destroyed during the terror attack and whose last texts to his parents were “I love you” and “I am sorry.”

Jewish tradition holds that the first human being was created alone “to teach you that anyone who destroys one soul . . . it is as if they destroyed an entire world. And anyone who sustains one soul . . . it is as if they sustained an entire world.” It’s not just people, or even souls, who remain imprisoned. It’s entire worlds.

Psalm 90 enjoins us to “count our days rightly,” and reminds us that for God, a day is like a thousand years. Since Oct. 7, just over 100 days have passed. But to God – and to the hostages’ families and friends, and to the Jewish community – it does not feel like 100 days. It feels like 100,000 years.

When I look at my bracelet, I am reminded to advocate for Dolev Yehud, and for the worlds held captive alongside him. I am reminded to call and email my elected officials, write letters of solidarity and offer financial assistance as I am able. I am reminded to draw near to my synagogue and Jews all around the world, to seek and find and give solace as these 100,000 years drag on.

I am reminded to hope and to pray.

And I am reminded of another day in October – Oct. 2, 1987. That was the day that Ida Nudel received her visa from the Soviet Union to emigrate to Israel. It was the end of her long detention, a day made real through her courage and the support of the international community.

I took off my Ida Nudel bracelet that day. I pray every day to take off my Dolev Yehud bracelet.

I pray we bring him home.

Bring Them All Home.

Rabbi Elaine Rose Glickman serves as a member of the clergy team of Temple Emanu-El in Sarasota. She is the assistant executive director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network and a board member of the West Florida chapter of Jewish National Fund.

I am reminded to draw near to my synagogue and Jews all around the world, to seek and find and give solace as these 100,000 years drag on.