Holding Hope Together
CINCINNATI — On Sunday night, the Mayerson JCC was full — packed to the walls. Jews of every stripe showed up: grandparents, college students, young parents juggling toddlers. Some smiled. Others worried as news broke about two Israeli soldiers killed that day. Everyone knew this wasn’t just another community program.
It’s been more than two years since October 7. Two years of holding our breath. Two years of explaining — to friends, to coworkers, to strangers online — that the slaughter of Jews isn’t “complicated.” So when the Jewish Federation announced “Holding Hope Together as the Hostages Return,” people came. Because we needed to be in a room with other Jews who get it.
Federation CEO Danielle Minson started the night with a warning that two years ago would’ve sounded strange: this was a private event, and anyone disrupting it would be escorted out. Now it’s just reality. We don’t hold events anymore without wondering who’s waiting outside with a sign.
Minson introduced community leaders — Karen Brownlee, Mark Jeffries — and then a lineup of rabbis representing every corner of Jewish life: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Humanistic. They prayed together for the hostages, for the soldiers, for peace.
Then came a moment that said more than any speech. Rabbi Sammy Kanter invited attendees to drop into bins the items they’d carried through this war — yellow ribbon pins, “Bring Them Home” bracelets, necklaces. Not to throw them away, but to mark this time. The JCC will collect and display them as part of our story — a reminder of how Jews everywhere kept faith alive while the world looked away.
The program lasted just over an hour. No one clapped when it ended. There was no reason to. Instead, people sat quietly, holding the kind of silence that comes after you’ve spent too long being loud just to be heard.
Outside, the night was cool. The news would keep coming, as it always does. But for one night, Cincinnati’s Jews did what Jews have done for thousands of years: we showed up, we prayed, and we refused to be broken.
