In my office there is a count-up timer. As I look at it right now, it reads 459 days, 12 hours and 34 minutes. I can’t wait to throw that counter out, but until then it continues to add time. I began this article on the eve of Hanukkah, hoping that I would never publish it and knowing deep down that I would probably need to. Needless to say, there was no Hanukkah miracle this year.

As disturbing as it is to admit, despite their personal sorrow and professional dedication, many Jewish educators are avoiding educating about the fate of our hostages. Admittedly, it is exhausting and depressing to be in a constant state of compassion fatigue; and even with periodic signs of life, it’s just too sad to continually talk about the fate of the hostages, especially with young people. For many of us, accepting the fact that there are still hostages in Gaza has become, unacceptably, normal. 

Yet even as many of us struggle with a desire to move on in life, that hesitancy and reluctance to educate about this human devastation must end now.

I am not minimizing the work and prayers of educators who have committed so much of their souls to redeeming the captives, but several recent interactions with Jewish educators from around the world, including some in Israel, compelled me to consider why many are struggling with this educational campaign specifically now. As someone whose personal and professional Jewish journeys were emboldened by the movements to free Soviet and Ethiopian Jewry, I know full well, largely through hindsight and reflection, the significance of being a Jewish educator at a critical moment in time for the Jewish people.

Of course and unfortunately, Jewish educators know how to teach about sad things. We teach about the Holocaust and commemorate Tisha B’Av. But these are historical events, and it is difficult to know exactly how to teach about significant events when living through history. Here’s why:

• Jewish educators are often hard-wired optimists. The stories of our hostages are sad and, as we know, they don’t always end well.

• Jewish educators teach their learners to pray, but they are being confronted with the reality that not all prayers are answered.

• Jewish educators like to present a world in which good will always prevail over evil, and yet we know that sometimes evil wins.

• Jewish educators often prefer to remain politically neutral, and unfortunately, for a range of reasons, this cause has become a partisan issue for some.

• Jewish educators impact the head (cognitive), heart (affect) and behaviors (hands) of their learners; but when it comes to the hostages, it isn’t always clear what actions we should be guiding our learners and their families towards.

• Jewish educators have at times struggled to differentiate their work from Israel advocacy. Right now, advocacy might be what is needed from Jews of all ages to help bring an end to the hostage situation.

• Jewish educators are exhausted and struggling to maintain their own positive spirits after 450-plus days of suffering, and continually discussing these tragedies drains them further.

• While the value of the life of one hostage is no more or no less than any other, we must recognize the specific pain of the deaths of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Omer Neutra on the collective Jewish psyche — two hostages that so many Jews outside of Israel could relate to most.

• Jewish educators prefer planning their lessons in advance, and they are reluctant to create lesson plans about freeing the hostages because they hope those who remain captive will be freed imminently.

Of course, the general caveats in education apply here — lesson content and discussions should be age-appropriate, emotionally sensitive and developed with thoughtfulness and intentionality — but even though and perhaps because it is still so difficult, Jewish educators must recommit to not resting until all of the hostages are returned.

As Jewish educators, we must continue to understand the tremendous significance placed on pidyon shvuyim (redeeming the captives) in Judaism. We must study and analyze the Jewish sources that speak to this issue and wrestle with some moral dilemmas that our sources raise. While the texts are complex and certainly don’t speak with one voice, the interlocutors of these debates understood the connectedness of the entire Jewish people and, thus, our responsibility to one another. We must also understand that learning these texts must be a foundation for action, as it is written in the Babylonian Talmud (Berachot 5b): “A prisoner cannot free himself from prison [but depends on others to release him from his shackles].”

We must also impart to our young people that the healing of the Jewish nation can only begin to take place when the Jewish people are whole once more.

We must continue to wear yellow ribbons and “Bring Them Home” dog tags. At all of our events, we must continue to have an empty yellow chair and conclude by singing “Acheinu.” We must continue to hear the voices of the hostage families and raise our own voices to all politicians. Eventually, we will stop counting the days since Oct. 7, but until then, we must continue to count every single day. Educators can transmit information, teach texts, raise complex questions, look at historical events from multiple perspectives and much more; but sometimes educators must simply teach through example and model certain moral imperatives of maintaining the constant awareness and presence of those in captivity.

As Jewish educators, we must continue to stress that the freedom of the hostages is a human issue and not just a Jewish issue (we can also remind learners that several of the captives are themselves not Jewish). We must also impart to our children that they are not just living through historic times, but that they are a part of creating the memory of this time for generations to come. Everyone Counts is a growing collection of values-based educational resources, produced by M² and Kol HaOt and supported by The Jewish Education Project, designed to support sustained awareness and collective action to free the hostages. It features content from educators and experts across a diverse range of affiliations and denominations.

When the history of Oct. 7 is written, educators will not be judged by the events of that horrific day and its aftermath. We will be judged on how we responded.

David Bryfman is the CEO of The Jewish Education Project.