{"id":103518,"date":"2025-07-30T01:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T01:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103518\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T01:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T01:19:11","slug":"as-images-from-gaza-spread-us-rabbis-wrestle-with-wars-morality-from-the-pulpit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103518\/","title":{"rendered":"As images from Gaza spread, US rabbis wrestle with war\u2019s morality from the pulpit"},"content":{"rendered":"

JTA \u2014 As images of malnourished children in Gaza continue to circulate and the international outcry grows louder, a number of American rabbis used their pulpits this past Shabbat to speak up about the humanitarian crisis, some with sorrow, others with moral urgency, and many with a sense that silence was no longer tenable.<\/p>\n

The sermons came amid growing pressure on Jewish institutions to reckon with the consequences for Palestinian civilians of Israel\u2019s war against Hamas as it nears the end of its second year. In recent days, more than 1,000 rabbis from around the world and across denominations signed an open letter<\/a> demanding that Israel \u201cstop using starvation as a weapon of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Union for Reform Judaism issued a public statement<\/a> saying, \u201cThe situation is dire, and it is deadly,\u201d and that Israel bears part of the blame even if Hamas is the primary cause. \u201cThe primary moral response must begin with anguished hearts in the face of such a large-scale human tragedy,\u201d the statement said. In the Conservative movement, meanwhile, the Rabbinical Assembly cited Jewish values <\/a>in calling on the Israeli government to alleviate the suffering in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Despite these public declarations, in many congregations, the topic of Israel and Gaza remains complicated, given the unresolved trauma of the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities and the 50 hostages that remain in the hands of Gazan terror groups. Some rabbis have struggled with whether, and how, to speak publicly. Others have doubled down on the pulpit\u2019s role as a space for moral wrestling and prophetic critique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the Judaism we want our 12-year-olds to inherit,\u201d said Rabbi Sarah Reines in her Friday night sermon at Temple Emanu El, the Reform congregation in Manhattan, referring to the Torah\u2019s account of a divinely sanctioned war in which Moses commands the killing of Midianite men, women, and children.<\/p>\n

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Reines did not explicitly mention the situation in Gaza, but she unmistakably wrestled with the moral toll of war. Drawing from the week\u2019s Torah portion, Reines used the imagery of the war against the Midianites\u00a0to examine the ethical conduct of war through the lens of Jewish tradition. Citing Maimonides, she emphasized restraint, civilian protection, and the imperative to free captives, calling them \u201cwartime priorities\u201d rooted in Jewish values. \u201cAre we protecting life,\u201d she asked, \u201cor are we hardening ourselves to it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Reines was one of several rabbis who framed the current moment as a test of Jewish ethics, not only in terms of Israel\u2019s actions, but in how Jews worldwide choose to bear witness. In Gloucester, Massachusetts, Rabbi Naomi Gurt Lind grappled with the Torah\u2019s command to \u201cdispossess\u201d the land\u2019s inhabitants, a concept she called morally troubling in light of the ongoing war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustrative: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a memorial service for former US Sen. Joseph Lieberman, July 24, 2024, at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

A newly ordained rabbi serving Temple Ahavat Achim, a Conservative synagogue, she reflected on the Hebrew root \u201cyarash,\u201d which is linked to both \u201cdispossess\u201d and \u201cinherit,\u201d and explored how Jewish and Palestinian experiences of displacement echo each other. Identifying as \u201ca Zionist through and through,\u201d Gurt Lind affirmed both peoples\u2019 connection to the land, saying she condemns Hamas\u2019s actions as well as starvation as a tactic of war.<\/p>\n

Not all rabbis spoke from the same ideological place, but a common thread was their effort to assert Jewish moral vocabulary in a moment of despair.<\/p>\n

At SAJ, a Reconstructionist synagogue on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side, Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann delivered a sermon that she acknowledged might alienate some people when she posted it to Facebook the next day. \u201cI stand here broken-hearted before you,\u201d she said. \u201cBroken-hearted by what I am witnessing \u2026 and deeply troubled by the responses I am seeing from the broader Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herrmann, a self-described progressive Zionist, organized her sermon around three common Jewish responses to the aid crisis: denial (\u201cThey are making it up\u201d), deflection (\u201cIt\u2019s Hamas\u2019s fault\u201d), and moral relativism (\u201cThis is just what happens in war\u201d). She challenged each in turn, rooting her critique in teshuvah, the Jewish practice of repentance.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Palestinians receive meals from volunteers in Gaza City, on July 28, 2025. (Ali Hassan\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael may not be responsible for the entire systemic problem,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it is responsible for its part in the tragedy that is unfolding.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, Rabbi Neil Amswych of Temple Beth Shalom delivered an introspective and agonized message, one that wrestled not only with Israel\u2019s actions but with the very role of the rabbi as public moral voice. \u201cWhy do some people need me to say what they\u2019re thinking about Israel?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhy can\u2019t they do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Amswych ultimately decided to sign the recent rabbinic letter urging Israel to change course, but only after what he described as a painful internal journey. He rejected performative politics and the culture of \u201cblack-and-white\u201d statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery public statement lacking nuance that I make brings some people who agree with it closer to the Temple, and simultaneously pushes some people who disagree further away,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a cost to every public black-and-white statement in a community that is trying to be truly diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in sermons that didn\u2019t deal with Gaza at all, the heaviness of the moment was salient.<\/p>\n

In Los Angeles, Rabbi Hannah Jensen, who helps lead the progressive congregation Ikar, invoked the traditional Three Weeks of mourning on the Jewish calendar \u2014 and reimagined them as an extended period of civic grief for her city. Referencing the devastating wildfires in January and the mass ICE raids of recent weeks, she drew a direct parallel to ancient laments for Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\u201cLonely sits the city once great with people,\u201d she quoted from the Book of Lamentations. \u201cThe imagery feels so palpable in the city right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustrative: Jewish men pray at the Western Wall on the eve of Tisha B\u2019Av in the Old City of Jerusalem, on July 29, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

While Jensen\u2019s sermon focused on displacement and trauma in Los Angeles, it pointed to a universal imperative in the face of crisis. \u201cOur grief cannot be the whole story,\u201d she said. \u201cIt must move us to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Action, too, was a central theme in the sermon delivered by Rabbi Adam Louis-Klein at Kehillat Beth Israel, a Conservative congregation in Ottawa. He placed the war and its global fallout within the longer arc of Jewish history, drawing connections from the Hebron massacre of 1929 to contemporary campus antisemitism and media bias.<\/p>\n

Without directly addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he said the current wave of criticism against Israel should be understood as a product of how antisemitism distorts the truth. He called on Jews to move beyond fighting antisemitism, arguing that only by engaging with Jewish knowledge and identity, can Jews assert themselves in the world, and escape what he characterized as the trap of perpetual defensiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not survivalists,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not fighting just to persist. Our survival today is now bound to the survival of truth itself \u2014 in a world where it is once again under siege.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JTA \u2014 As images of malnourished children in Gaza continue to circulate and the international outcry grows louder,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":103519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-103518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114939557603629655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}