8 | SEPTEMBER 21 • 2023 

PURELY COMMENTARY

column

Show Solidarity with American Reporter 
Evan Gershkovich, Jailed in Russia
J

ewish families are 
gathering together for 
the High Holidays, but 
in an otherwise flourishing 
community on the East 
Coast, one 
heartsick family 
of Jewish 
emigres from 
the Soviet 
Union will 
be missing 
their 31-year-
old son. Ella 
and Mikhail 
Gershkovich, separately fled 
the Soviet Union during a 
period of mass emigration 
in the wake of rumors that 
Jews were about to be exiled 
to Siberia, ending up in the 
United States in 1979 and 
eventually New York City. 
Their son, Wall Street Journal 
reporter Evan Gershkovich, 
was seized by the Russians 
in March, while he was on 
assignment in Yekaterinburg. 
Gershkovich had lived in 
Russia for six years prior 
to his arrest, at the time of 
which he was based at the 
Journal’s bureau in Moscow 
and covering the war in 
Ukraine. He was covering the 
Russian mercenary military 
organization Wagner when he 
was arrested.
He is now languishing 
in the notorious Lefortovo 
Prison, used to imprison 
political dissidents, including 
Soviet author Alexander 
Solzhenitsyn, author of The 
Gulag Achipelago. With 
Evan’s pretrial detention now 
scheduled for Nov. 30, it is 
critical that we demonstrate 
our solidarity with Evan as he 

endures these long months in 
custody.
Redeeming captives is 
an essential part of our 
obligations as Jews. In the 
Torah, when Lot is taken 
captive, Abraham mobilizes 
318 servants to rescue him. 
Our sages used this as the 
basis of a universal Jewish 
obligation to redeem Jews 
who are taken prisoner, 
exemplifying the paramount 
Jewish value of preserving life 
at all costs and elevating the 
responsibility that all Jews 
have for each other’s safety 
and wellbeing.
Throughout Jewish 
history, our community has 
undertaken extraordinary 
campaigns to redeem 
captives. In the 10th century, 
Jews in Spain, North Africa 
and Egypt all contributed 
sums for the liberation of 
four rabbinic scholars who 
were captured while sailing in 
Italian waters. The renowned 
12th-century Jewish 
philosopher Maimonides 
wrote open letters to the 
Jews of Egypt to urge them 
to redeem captives in the 

Land of Israel and elsewhere. 
Jewish communities in 
Constantinople, Salonika 
and Venice took up a 
collection to free 20,000 
Polish Jews during the 
time of the horrific 
Khmelnitsky massacres in 
the 17th century. And in the 
20th century, Jews around the 
world and the State of Israel 
joined together to redeem 
millions from behind the 
Iron Curtain.
We are fortunate that the 
United States government 
is working assiduously to 
ensure Evan’s release, along 
with that of former U.S, 
Marine Paul Whelan, who 
was accused — also without 
any evidence — of spying. 
Lynne M. Tracy, the U.S. 
Ambassador to Russia, 
has visited Evan three times 
in prison, most recently 
in mid-August, and has 
reported that he seems still 
to be in good health and 
remains strong.
Even as Evan’s case is not 
in the headlines every day, we 
have not forgotten him and 
we will stand behind him, no 

matter how long it takes until 
he is released. It is for this 
reason that we are inviting 
people of all faiths around the 
globe to send Evan a greeting 
with a wish for the Jewish 
New Year. We will deliver 
one collective letter to Evan 
combining these messages 
of hope. We will deliver the 
full messages in their entirety 
to Evan’s family to comfort 
them, in hopes that Evan 
will be able to read them all 
upon his return home. The 
more people of all ages who 
participate in this project, the 
louder our voice of love and 
support will be.
A traditional greeting 
during the High Holiday 
period is to wish one another 
to be “inscribed in the book 
of life” for the coming year. 
Let us all pray that Evan 
Gershkovich and all others 
in captivity be inscribed 
in the Book of Life for the 
coming year and let us also 
ensure that the Russian 
authorities know that 
securing Evan’s freedom is 
forefront in our minds, as is 
the manner in which Russia 
treats this case. 
Please visit https://tinyurl.
com/mrxh8tmh to write your 
High Holiday greeting to 
Evan. 

Eric D. Fingerhut is the president and 

CEO of The Jewish Federations of North 

America (JFNA). Prior to his appointment 

at JFNA, he served as the president and 

CEO of Hillel International from 2013-19. 

At Hillel, he led the organization’s Drive 

to Excellence, which resulted in doubling 

the number of students engaged by Hillel 

each year to over 130,000 and the total 

funds raised each year to nearly $200 

million. 

Eric 
Fingerhut
Times of 
Israel