Perry World House hosted a talk featuring the father of a former Israeli hostage to discuss his international advocacy for the release of Israeli hostages.
The Nov. 18 event was co-organized by the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and Perry World House. During the discussion, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Eastern European Jewish history professor and former Katz Center fellow Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui was held hostage by Hamas for almost 500 days, spoke about his two-year effort advocating for the release of the hostages.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Dekel-Chen’s hometown of Nir Oz was attacked by Hamas.
“I just happened to be a scholar of certain things who found himself involuntarily thrust into a situation that could never have been expected,” Dekel-Chen said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Nonetheless [I] tried to use what I knew to accomplish certain things … in a very volatile situation that certainly was a life and death situation for our hostages.”
During the lecture, Dekel-Chen traced his experience over the past two years navigating both the Biden and Trump administrations as well as key Jewish organizations and nonprofits in order to make hostage release a top priority in the conflict.
He highlighted the lessons he learned through his advocacy, such as the importance of not letting “failures derail the campaign.”
“I personally failed to move three of the five major Jewish organizations in the United States to issue a public statement – a clear public statement that prioritized in terms of Jewish tradition, Jewish ethics prioritize passage return over any other goal,” Dekel-Chen said.
During the Q&A portion of the event, an audience member raised the question of what students could do in class to advocate for equal representation of Israeli and Palestinian histories to professors. In response, Dekel-Chen advised students to make a case that is supported by facts, not solely by political orientation.
“I would like to believe that at least your professor will really think about it,” he said. “But going at it with a megaphone is not the way to do it, and going at it with a serious brief would be the way to do it. Because what's real is real.”
Katz Center director Steven Weitzman stated that it was a “rare opportunity” to learn from someone with the experiences that Dekel-Chen has.
“He was thrust into this world of being an individual who had to suddenly operate in his international diplomatic arena and try to be an effective advocate for his own family and for the family members of others,” Weitzman said.
Dekel-Chen also discussed the importance of approaching transnational advocacy with respect and empathy. He stressed the importance of gaining a broad understanding of the environment in which the the target community exists.
“That means understanding and respecting the other side, the counterargument to whatever it is that we’re advocating for, and not just [being] myopic in our understanding of what the landscape is for our target community,” he said to the DP.
