The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of hostages has been celebrated across the world and locally.
“This moment is filled with a lot of emotional complexity,” said Anni Katz with the Jewish Federation of Lane County. “There’s extreme amounts of joy with the 20 living hostages coming out Sunday night/ Monday morning.”
But she said there’s also uncertainty as they await Hamas’s release of the remaining bodies of Israelis who were either killed in captivity or on Oct. 7, 2023.
Katz described a sense of relief combined with the exhaustion of the past two years of conflict.
“And I think there’s a lot of trepidation about, will the ceasefire hold? How will it go? How will this continue?” she said.
Katz said she is concerned about antisemitism at home.
At their annual Jewish Federation of Lane County celebration earlier this week, Katz told KLCC, a group of about a dozen masked pro-Palestinian protesters stood outside screaming vitriol at attendees, including children.