Dear Beloved Community,

We write to you with love and with heartbreak. We are mourning the death and violence happening in Israel and Gaza. We witnessed a massacre perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli citizens. And now, we are witnessing the catastrophic loss of Palestinian life as Israel counterattacks. We grieve for each person caught in the impossibility of this moment. We grieve for the people of Israel and for the people of Gaza. There can be no words of comfort; the devastation these actions tears at our moral fiber. We long for a way towards peace.

In moments of fear and pain, we turn to our tradition to guide us. Our JCA values remind us that Anachu Ma’amimin – it is our deepest ethical responsibility to repair a broken world and to work towards an interconnected future knowing that none of us are free until all of us are free.

While our organizing work is local, our relationships bind us to global events. Our hearts are with our mishpacha and chevre struggling for peace, safety, liberation, dignity, and justice in Gaza and Israel. We know that we are safest when we honor our shared humanity and build bridges of solidarity across histories, traditions, identities, and experiences, even and especially when it feels the most difficult. We share each other’s grief, rage, hurt, fear, and humanity, and we pledge to persist in our pursuit of racial and economic justice. We invite you to join us in that work.

In solidarity,

Beth Gendler, Executive Director
Liz Loeb, Board Chair

(republished with permission from the author)