My week began listening to a former hostage who’d been held captive by Hamas for 738 days.

He shared his harrowing story: how in Gaza’s underground tunnels, he was starved of food and sunlight for more than two years. Attempting to escape, he dug for weeks through sandbags and a collapsed tunnel, reaching the open air and catching sight of the stars…only to be recaptured and beaten, tied to a chair for a week.

The speaker was Avinatan Or, standing on Sunday before thousands in Washington, D.C., at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, one of the largest annual gatherings of Jewish communal leaders and organizations. He was joined on stage by his partner, Noa Argamani — who'd been taken to Gaza on the back of a motorcycle and was rescued by IDF soldiers after 245 days in captivity — and Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who, like Avinatan, were released a little over a month ago.

As the former hostages shared their stories, they also expressed deep gratitude to the American Jewish community that fought so tirelessly on their behalf: organizing rallies, funding the Hostage Forum, amplifying families’ voices, offering resources and hope, refusing to let their names be forgotten.

Avinatan then spoke extraordinary words I'll long remember:

"Because I survived, I carry a responsibility — a responsibility to talk about patience, about humanity, and about complexity. A responsibility to know good from evil, right from wrong, and to have moral clarity. A responsibility to remind us that division destroys us, and we must find what brings us together, not what rips us apart...when we are united, we are unbreakable.”

Remarkably, just a month home after an almost unimaginable horror, Avinatan carried himself with a composure and clarity that put humanity and unity into perspective for all of us.

When he finished, more than 2,000 people rose in a collective exhale. This is the scene we hoped, fought, and prayed to see for over two years. 

From that high, the week took a heavy turn. Right here in New York on Wednesday, protesters shouted, “Globalize the Intifada” and “Death to the IDF” outside Park East Synagogue, while inside Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that’s received UJA funding, held an event for those interested in making aliyah to Israel. We and our Jewish security arm at CSI have been in close contact with the NYPD, who are taking the incident very seriously.

Most of New York’s senior-most officials strongly condemned the incident. However, a spokesperson for Mayor-elect Mamdani, while criticizing the protest, also very disturbingly said that Nefesh B’Nefesh was promoting activities that violate international law, a categorically false accusation.

All this comes on the heels of another highly troubling incident at a CUNY interfaith event last week, where an imam urged Muslim students to walk out because a “Zionist” was present. He was referring to the head of the Baruch College Hillel, a UJA partner.

We must, and will, hold all elected officials to account. And we must, and will, also continue to stand with our ever more important Hillels, synagogues, and all places where we live as proud, visible, unapologetic Jewish New Yorkers.

Which brings me to my Shabbat dinner plans this evening.

Tonight, I plan to join more than 3,000 people in the heart of New York City for the Big Shabbat, a dinner hosted by The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, and funded by UJA, that (we hope!) will break the Guinness World Record.

More than 3,000 people of every denomination, every background. More than 3,000 people choosing to sit at tables together, to welcome Shabbat — to show the world that we will not make ourselves smaller.

As Avinatan shared, even in captivity, he made the decision not to allow others to determine his destiny.

That is our reminder too: We will never be defined by others. We have the power of choice, and we have the power to shape our own Jewish destiny.

Next week, we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving and, despite all the challenges, we have so many reasons to be grateful. For the miraculous return of the hostages. For the gift of freedom, never to be taken for granted. For the current ceasefire, which please God will continue. For the IDF, who fought valiantly and at a heavy cost for the security of the Jewish state. For the possibility of an Israel rebuilt stronger, and for greater stability and prosperity in the region. For the food that sustains us, and the generosity that allows us to feed those in need. For a record-breaking Big Shabbat and the gift of Shabbat itself. For the surging interest in Jewish life, with a yearning for connection and a pride unlike we’ve seen before. For our vibrant New York Jewish community, in all its wonderful diversity.

And for the resilience of the Jewish people, and the collective strength that has carried us through history, urging us to keep digging, like Avinatan, until we see the stars.

Shabbat shalom and happy early Thanksgiving,