By Michael Regenstreif
One of the obligations of the festival of Sukkot is to be happy and rejoice.
And Ottawa’s Jewish community – along with Israelis and Jewish communities around the world – did rejoice when Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit finally came home, October 18, the sixth day of Sukkot.
Gilad’s return came 1,941 days – almost five years and four months – after he was kidnapped from southern Israel by a squad of Palestinian terrorists on June 25, 2006 and taken to captivity in Gaza, a captivity that was more than cruel in its isolation.
Gilad was allowed no contact with the outside world. Hamas would not even allow the International Red Cross to see him. The most recent evidence that he was still alive – in fact, the only evidence in the long years of his captivity – came in a brief video shot more than two years ago.
Gilad became a national symbol in Israel. One of Noam and Aviva Schalit’s three children, almost every Israeli parent knew it could just as easily have been their son or daughter in his place. Israelis – joined by Jewish communities around the world – prayed and campaigned relentlessly for his freedom.
Israel paid a high price for Schalit’s freedom, releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, among them the perpetrators of some of the most heinous acts of terrorism, which was particularly difficult for the families of some of the victims of terrorism to accept. Some of them launched an unsuccessful bid to have Israel’s Supreme Court stop the prisoner exchange.
But the exchange had the overwhelming support of Israeli society – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Agreeing to the prisoner exchange with Hamas must have been a difficult decision for Netanyahu. In his 1995 book, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists, Netanyahu wrote, “Prisoner releases only embolden terrorists by giving them the feeling that even if they are caught, their punishment will be brief. Worse, by leading terrorists to think such demands are likely to be met, they encourage precisely the terrorist blackmail they are supposed to defuse.”
But prisoner exchanges with such a high price are not new to Israel. Since 1957, Israel has released 13,509 prisoners in exchange for just 16 Israeli soldiers. It is a demonstration of the importance that Israel – and successive Israeli governments of both the left and right – places on the lives of its soldiers.
And so, on Sukkot, we rejoiced and were happy in celebration of the freedom and homecoming of Gilad Schalit.
Remembering Deanna Silverman
It was with great sadness that we learned that Deanna Silverman, Kid Lit columnist in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin for more than 21 years, passed away on September 29, Rosh Hashanah, following several years of ill health. She died less than two months after her husband of 52 years, Saul Silverman, also a long-time Bulletin columnist, passed away.
Deanna was a passionate advocate for children’s literature – particularly Jewish children’s literature – and traced her passion to her early involvement in a Zionist drama group for children in her home city of Winnipeg. Her Kid Lit column first appeared in the October 6, 1989 edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and she rarely missed an issue. Generations of Jewish kids in Ottawa had their childhood enriched thanks to the hundreds of books Deanna reviewed and recommended over more than two decades.
In 2008, Deanna told me her health was problematic, that she was unsure how long she’d be able to keep Kid Lit going. But the column was important to her and she did keep it going for more than another two years. What turned out to be her final Kid Lit was published in our March 21 edition. Deanna missed our April issues, but told me she hoped to return soon. In May, though, she regretfully told me she was too ill to continue writing the column.
On behalf of everyone at the Bulletin, I send our sincere condolences to Deanna’s children and grandchildren.
