Photo: “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ethan Roberts Photography

January 15, 2025

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), Minneapolis Jewish Federation, and St. Paul Jewish Federation released the following joint statement:

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), Minneapolis Jewish Federation, and St. Paul Jewish Federation welcome deal to release many of the hostages cruelly held in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists for over 467 Days.

Agreement also opens a path to secure the release of all the hostages, but entails considerable risk for Israel’s short and long-term security

As Jews it is our religious duty to bring about the release of captives unjustly held. Maimonides, who is universally regarded as one of Judaism’s most influential sages, instructed that there is no greater mitzvah than redeeming captives, pidyon shvuyim, as captivity is viewed as even worse than starvation and death.

Unfortunately, the high price which we place upon human life makes us vulnerable to extortion by our enemies. Our traditions warn that in pursuit of redeeming our captives, we must be careful not to pay such a disproportionate price that it would incentivize future kidnapping.

Guided by our Jewish values we welcome today’s announcement that a three-phased hostage deal has been agreed to between Israel and Hamas. During the first part of the ceasefire deal, thirty-three hostages will be released. Israel believes that most of these thirty-three are alive. Others were murdered in captivity. It is expected that this initial group will include five young female IDF soldiers, each of whom would be released in exchange for fifty Palestinian security prisoners, including thirty convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences for murder. 

The remaining female hostages, hostages who are critically ill, and hostages over the age of fifty will be released in the first phase. It is expected that Ariel Bibas, age five, and Kfir Bibas, nearly two, along with their mother Shiri, will be released during the first phase though it is not known if they are still alive. After sixteen days Israel and Hamas will begin negotiations to secure the release of the remaining hostages, living and dead.

As has been the case since even before Israel declared its independence in 1948, Israelis continue to “extend [their] hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land.” It is our collective hope that the suffering of the Israeli and Palestinian people will soon be alleviated, and that Gaza will be reconstructed, freed from the Hamas terrorist regime which has wasted billions of dollars of international aid and brought nothing but misery for the people of Gaza.

While our hearts are full of joy with the prospect that many of the hostages who have been held in the cruelest imaginable captivity, including torture, sexual violence, and starvation, will soon be released, we are also fully aware of the terrible, disproportionate price that Israel is paying to bring them home.

According to media reports, Israel is prepared to release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners, including hundreds of convicted terrorists with blood on their hands. Israel has also agreed to pull back from territory that will make it easier for Hamas to reorganize itself to attack Israel again, as its leaders have vowed to do. Even with the precautions embedded within this deal, we know this agreement comes with considerable risk for Israel’s short and long-term security.

We are also painfully aware that even after the hostages are returned to their families and those who were murdered by Hamas are properly buried there can be no seamless return to normalcy. No reset to the world which existed prior to October 7. The journey ahead for all the victims of Hamas and its allies will be long and the individual and national trauma will likely affect generations to come.

This is a conflict that Israelis did not initiate and did not want. The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 were not the first.  For decades, Hamas and its allies have pursued the eliminationist delusion that with enough violence, boycott, divestment, or sanctions, they will make Israel disappear. The genocidal call to free Palestine “from the River to the Sea” has been tolerated and even celebrated from the streets of Gaza to our campuses and city halls here in Minnesota.

Our Jewish values teach us to embrace hope and to work towards a better future, for our community and for the world around us. Due to the astounding bravery and heroism of the IDF and the support of the US and other allies, the Hamas terror army in Gaza has been largely crushed; Hezbollah’s power in Lebanon severely degraded; the murderous Assad regime in Syria has fallen; and Iran, the primary engine of terror and instability, has been fundamentally weakened.  

Within Israel we have seen remarkable sacrifice and service amongst Israel’s non-Jewish minority, particularly in the Druze and Bedouin communities. 

Here in Minnesota our own Jewish community continues to be resilient at a time of unprecedented antisemitism. The bonds between Israel and our Jewish community in the Diaspora are the strongest they’ve been in decades.

We thank the negotiators from Israel’s government and security services, the Biden Administration, and the incoming Trump Administration for their tireless efforts to secure the release of the hostages. All of them have fulfilled the mitzvah of pidyon shvuyim.