By:  Rabbi Zvi Gluck

Over the last few weeks, as the remaining living hostages returned home after two unbearable years in captivity, something became clearer than ever before. Healing isn’t one emotion or one chapter. It’s a journey made up of contrasts – grief and gratitude, darkness and unexpected moments of light, pain and the quiet reappearance of joy.

Listening to the stories these hostages have begun sharing has shown us how much can coexist at once. We heard how Omer Shem Tov made Kiddush every Friday night from a single bottle of grape juice that somehow never ran out. How Yosef Chaim Ohana and others managed to say Selichos in Elul and fast on Yom Kippur. How Matan Angrest and Gali Berman spent their days reviewing Chumash until they knew it by heart. And when those hostages were finally reunited with their families, the relief was overwhelming – a moment touched by joy, even as the horror that preceded it still lingers.

That mix of truth and emotion is something we see every day at Amudim as well. When someone comes to us facing abuse, addiction, trauma, or a mental health crisis, the beginning is often filled with pain. But that’s never the whole story. Over time, new chapters begin to unfold – chapters where strength appears, where hope starts winning, where the possibility of joy becomes real again.

We see it in the father in recovery who tells his sponsor he spent two uninterrupted hours playing ball with his son, and didn’t once think about drinking.

We see it in the survivor who walks into our office after years of sorrow and, for the first time in a long time, laughs – really laughs – as their smile fills the room.

These moments don’t erase what came before. They honor it. They remind us that healing is not the absence of pain – it is the emergence of life on the other side of it. And they remind us of something profound: we’ve become a community that doesn’t only respond to crisis. We build towards hope. We create space for people to rediscover joy. We help rewrite endings.

This year’s Unite to Heal embraces that truth. It is informative, impactful, and yes – uplifting. It highlights the light that can break through even the hardest chapters, and celebrates the resilience of those who are still writing their own stories. Join the thousands of people who will be taking part in Unite to Heal on December 7th and 8th to support those whose stories are still being written, giving them the opportunity to really start living again, knowing that now more than ever, they are never alone, and that happy endings don’t just happen in storybooks.

Mark your calendar. Get ready to be moved, uplifted, and changed.
Unite to Heal – Amudim’s 36-hour global livestream
 December 7th-8th
https://api.jewishadgroup.com/C9jrgS

where the next chapter of healing begins.

Zvi Gluck is the CEO of Amudim, an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction within the Jewish community and has been heavily involved in crisis intervention and management for the past 24 years.