A woman holds a cut-out picture of hostages Shiri Bibas, 32, with Kfir Bibas, 9 months old, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and then killed in Gaza, on the day of their funeral procession, at a public square dedicated to hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem

The bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two little boys, Ariel and Kfir, have been returned to Israel. Not their smiling faces, not their freed hands grasping their father’s, not a family reunited — but bodies. Their lives were stolen, and I can’t stop thinking about how the world let this happen.

I’m a Jewish high school student, applying to college soon. That should be the biggest thing on my mind — college essays, scholarships, and the SAT. But instead, I’m thinking about whether I’ll have to hide my Star of David in college, or sit in a classroom with students who celebrated the murder of Jews just like me.

Will I have a professor who tells me that my people deserved what happened on Oct. 7?

I don’t have the luxury of pretending this is just another news cycle. The Bibas family could have been my family. Shiri Bibas could have been my mother, clutching me and my brother while terrorists dragged us away. Ariel and Kfir Bibas could have been the next generation of Jewish students who would have sat in my seat, applying to college and hoping for a normal life. But they won’t — because they were murdered and the world watched it happen.

The deaths of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir are proof that the lives of Jewish innocents don’t matter to those who claim to care about human rights. To almost everyone in the world, we aren’t worth protecting.

For months, I’ve watched college campuses erupt in hate, while staff and administrators look the other way. Students at my dream schools — Harvard, UCLA, Yale — laughed as they tore down posters of kidnapped Jewish children. Universities refused to protect Jewish students, telling them to “stay home” if they feel unsafe.

Now, I’m supposed to apply to these schools, write essays about my dreams, and pretend that all of this didn’t happen. But how am I supposed to believe in higher education when I’ve watched it fail to stand against the most obvious evil of my lifetime? I cannot trust institutions that didn’t hesitate to speak out on every other human rights issue — like the war in Ukraine or Afghanistan — but suddenly can’t find the words when it’s Jews being slaughtered.

When the Bibas family was taken hostage, the world had a choice. They could have demanded their immediate release; instead, they hesitated. Politicians talked about “both sides” and “proportionality,” valuing public relations over the truth.

The world let time pass, and now, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir are gone forever. And I can only imagine: how much worse will it get?

Although the world failed the Bibas family, I refuse to accept that this is just the way things are. I will not be another Jew who is told to “stay home” instead of standing up. If no one else will say it, I will: The silence that killed the Bibas family is the same silence that puts Jewish students at risk right now. And we can’t let it be ignored.

Gregory Lyakhov is a high school student whose writing has been published by The New York Post and several Jewish news sites, he has also made appearances on Fox & Friends and Newsmax.