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Lamed Vovnik 36's avatar

I pray and fast for Hamas to ‘take

the deal.’ That they care not for how many Gazans die for their obsessive vision of ridding the world of Jews (not just the Israeli kind), may be an obstruction. Still, their stealing the best food and permitting only Hamas to shelter underground, suggests that they do care to live and the ‘martyrdom’ of others is good enough for them. Perhaps they could go to Qatar. Qatar would deserve this. As to rabbis and Jews fasting only for Gaza, a shanda, a shame,

a betrayal. In my town some months ago, a JVP group did Kaddish for only Gazans in front of a Jewish institution. They asked the director to join them, who responded that she would if there was Kaddish said also for Israelis murdered. JVP (the J should not stand for Jewish and the P not stand for Peace) said ‘No.’ Kaddish for Gazans only. I have to ask WHY NOT for murdered Israelis, too. Who are they trying to be ‘in’ with? As JVP is willing to organize and demonstrate alongside WOL - Within Our Lifetime - despite their mission of VIOLENT ERADICATION

of Israel and Israelis (real humans, not just an academic abstraction called Israel), tells me that JVP is,

as my Shoah refugee parents would say, ‘sonem Yisroel,’ ‘enemies of Israel’ as the sum of the Jewish people. Jewish Currents, under its rabidly anti-Israel editorship, tells me only how frightened these Jews are to lose their place in progressive spaces. These so-called progressive spaces have diminished themselves by cheering on Hamas who murder Palestinian gay people and torture/execute independent women and Gazan peaceniks. Every cheer, Hamas flag and green headband goes right to their testosterone, causing the war’s duration to be ever longer. Hamas does not care how many die! Hamas, like NYT headlines, needs Gazan death to sell themselves. I have written the NYT a thousand times begging them to do a series on the dozens of on-the-ground peace groups from Israel to Palestine to Jordan and Egypt. These go largely unrecognized and underfunded. They need a megaphone like the NYT, MSM generally. Something to give hope for peace from those most suffering from endless war. That anti-Israelists see peace groups as a crime of ‘normalization’ is NOT NORMAL. From October 8 on, the globally planned day right after the massacre and well before Israeli military action, should clue us in on how ignorant it is for rabbis and litmus test ‘good Jews’ to not give a damn about half the world’s Jews. Western progressives abandoned Israeli (and Iranian) progressives decades ago. There’s a century long history to this phenomenon, the roots of which are as illiberal as they get - a blend of Islamic Jihad and Stalinism. And ‘progressives’ don’t know or don’t care to know. I pray and fast for Israel, Gaza, the U.S., Iran, Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, and all the world - HaShem’s creation. Adonai Achad. ALL of us. What a wasted opportunity on the part of these half blind rabbis and ‘good Jews.’

Shanah Tovah

shalom / salaam

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Amy's avatar
Oct 3Edited

I agree with what you say.

The reason Heschel and King were such brilliant friends was because they understood the oppressed wasn't the other . The oppressed was them. We are born with astonishing differences but we each carry possibilities and traumas both, and when we see people as "other" then people become labels and not faceted beings. We also miss out on all the dazzling possibilities that come with difference.

The result is dehumanization. Unfortunately as Heschel has said, "the demons are dropping" so clergy have never been more important to the need for stepping up.

Thank you for stepping up and insisting we all must step up in a way of balance.

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