For Georgetown Rabbi Ilana Zietman, it was really hard to look at her two boys yesterday morning, after the return of deceased hostages held by Hamas to Israel.
"While I don't really have that many comforting words to give, I think it's just best to be together, and to try to not go at this alone," Zietman said at a Thursday memorial gathering to honor the lives of the hostages: Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children -- Ariel and Kfir.
More than 30 students, faculty, and staff stood together as the sun fell below the horizon and the wind gusted over the cold brick of Red Square, with temperatures feeling like 13 degrees Fahrenheit. Students and two Rabbis organized the event, and it was co-publicized by Georgetown Jewish Life, the Georgetown Israel Alliance, and Chabad Georgetown. Zietman was one of four speakers at the Feb. 20 vigil.
"Our Talmud says that those who save a single life, it's as if they saved an entire world. And those who destroy a single life, it's as if they destroyed an entire world," Rabbi Zietman said in her prayer.
The four hostages' remains were reportedly returned from Hamas to Israel earlier on Thursday. However, shortly after the memorial ended, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that Ariel and Kfir's remains had been identified, but another body that Hamas released was not the boys' mother. Since then, Hamas confirmed the accusation and said they released Bibas's body on Friday -- though it is still being identified at the time of publication. The identity of Lifshitz's body was confirmed. The Abu Kabir National Center of Forensic Medicine conducted the identification process in collaboration with the Israel Police, and notified the Bibas family. The statement also said that Hamas murdered the two boys in captivity in November 2023.
Talia Zamir (CAS '25), co-president of Georgetown's Jewish Student Association, noted before beginning her remarks that the IDF had not identified Bibas.
"Today in Israel, it violently rained as people lined the streets to watch the bodies of Shiri, Ariel, Kfir, and Oded finally return home, as if heaven opened its mouth and cried with us, as if like us, heaven could barely breathe in anguish," Zamir said in a speech.
Speakers described the life of Lifshitz, a human rights advocate and journalist. Lifshitz would drive weekly into Gaza to pick up sick Palestinians and transport them to Israeli hospitals, according to his family. In his free time, the father of four, grandfather, and great-grandfather played the piano and looked after his garden, planting cacti.
In the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people, including residents of kibbutzim, small Israeli towns centered around collective farms, and attendees of the Nova Music Festival along the Gaza border. Hamas militants took another 251 people hostage into Gaza that day, including Oded Lifshitz and his wife, Yocheved. After Thursday's release, 66 of the hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 that the IDF believe to be dead.
Since Oct. 7, the IDF has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, among them thousands of civilians, through its ground invasion and bombardment of Gaza. This most recent escalation is part of a conflict that has been ongoing since before the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, which led to the displacement of at least 700,000 Palestinians.
On Jan. 19, a six-week ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took effect. Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas will release 33 hostages and Israel will release 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. Stages two and three of the agreement, which have not yet taken effect, call for a permanent ceasefire, the return of all hostages held by Hamas, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
At the memorial, Zamir spoke to the community through tears.
"Today should not have been what it is. They should not have died as the symbols they are," Zamir said. "I will not forget, and I will not forgive, and maybe God and his omnipotence can, but I and my despair cannot, and I will brace myself for days like today, fortified by the love and strength of my people. And the people of Israel and all the earth shall know no peace until they are all home."
In an interview after the service, Zamir said that she finds some solace in her community.
" It's a big pillar of what Judaism is all about and coming together and mourning together collectively. There are certain prayers in Judaism that you can't even say unless 10 people are present because we understand the value of coming together and feeling together," Zamir told the Voice.
That was the purpose of this event.
"When things like this happen, we don't want people to think that they're alone and what they're feeling and have to feel everything in isolation," Zamir said.
As the service ended, the 30 attendees held a moment of silence around orange balloons, which organizers said represented the Bibas boys, whose red hair appeared bright orange in the sunlight. Attendees sang a traditional Jewish prayer for peace -- "Oseh Shalom," which translates to "the One who makes Peace" -- and some held one another, and wept.
"Today has been a harsh reminder that too many beautiful worlds have been destroyed. Our world is shattered. It will never be the same. There's no making sense of the horror and degradation our people have experienced. There's only the heartache, anger, and our love that refuses to fade," Zietman said. "The weight of it may be unbearable today, yet we carry it, because to set it down would be to forget. We won't forget."