I have been following some of the interviews with the freed Israeli hostages, young men who spent two years in Hamas captivity, enduring physical, sexual, and psychological torture. And I am using the word torture intentionally, because what they endured—simply because they are Jews—was not just abuse; it was torture.

Hamas tried very hard to take everything from them, to destroy them. And they did take much. But they could not take the most important thing: their humanity and their identity.

Rom Braslavski, one of the released hostages, said something that has stayed with me ever since:

“Hamas took everything I was. They broke my body and my mind. But one thing they couldn’t take from me: my identity as a Jew. I was born a Jew, and I will die a Jew.”

Rom was beaten every single day and starved. Hamas terrorists told him that if he converted to Islam, he would receive better treatment and food. He refused and chose to remain faithful to Judaism. What a profound sense of identity. What courage.

Another released Israeli hostage, Avinatan Or, said something similar after surviving two years of captivity in Gaza:

“Everything can be taken from you—your freedom, your name, your time, your body. But nobody can take your mind and your humanity.”

Humanity means our capacity for compassion, empathy, moral awareness, and the ability to recognize the dignity of others. I’ve been reflecting on this and asking myself whether we in the West still have such a strong identity to hold on to—even in captivity and under torture. An identity strong enough to give us the strength to refuse to convert to another religion, even if it meant continued torture or even death. Strong enough to refuse food after months of starvation, simply to remain faithful to our beliefs, values, and sense of self—the things that shape our identity.

Because an identity that erases humanity—one that destroys the ability to recognize the dignity of others simply because they are different—is not truly an identity to me. It is a twisted ideology whose sole aim is destruction.

We live in the West, mostly in stable democracies, and we also live in globalized societies that claim to be tolerant of everything. But in doing so, they often lose their own identity. Today we can choose and redefine our identities however we like, and they will likely be accepted. I even see people changing their identity based on their mood. And our moral awareness is shaped more by our TikTok algorithms than by the reality the world is facing. The online hate we see every day shows us how quickly our “standards of humanity”—our ability to recognize the dignity of others—are eroding. It is becoming easier to cancel and to kill than to be tolerant in real life—outside your algorithms—because that is real work and just to remind you the real life 😉

I’ve been asking myself what the foundation of my own identity truly is. What would nourish my mind and spirit in the face of extreme adversity? What would preserve my humanity deep within my heart? Wich of my values would shield me from hate? Which part of my identity would remain non-negotiable, even with a gun pointed at me?

As I reflected on this, I realized that if I were stripped of everything, the only thing that would carry me—the one thing no one can take away—is my faith. It is Jesus. His love, forgiveness, humility, grace, and sacrifice. His life and love sustain the humanity alive in my heart. He is what remains for me: Jesus.

What part of your Identity will keep you alive in such a situation? If not in Body than in spirit?

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:20