Dear friends,
Over the last month, it has not been so easy to be a Rabbi. These days, I field many phone calls daily.
Some congregants have called me about their children on college campuses where anti-Israel and antisemitic rallies are being held. Other congregants have called me to ask if they should take down their mezuzahs down on Halloween. Others have asked if they should change their last name on their Uber account. And others have called to just share their feelings about being Jewish in this day and age.
To begin, I want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen to us about the current climate and for understanding the necessity of your support for our children and their families. I also want to thank those of you who did release statements that condemned terrorism clearly following October 7th.
What happened on October 7th was not just another extension of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it was not simply another event in the long-standing middle east drama that we hear about in the news – what happened on October 7th, 2023 was a pogrom, a genocidal act as defined by the UN – it was a vicious attack that Jews have faced time and again throughout our history – whether by Crusaders who slaughtered Jews in the Rhine, or Cossacks who murdered and ravaged Jews in Kishinev, or Nazis who broke windows, burned Torah scrolls and killed Jews on Kristillnacht.
1400 murdered , raped, tortured – 242 kidnapped.
October 7th will be known for all of Jewish history as one of those familiar horrific days, days in which Jews targeted because they were Jews.
October 7th was not some justified violent reaction to Israeli policies – it was not Palestinian self-defense–it was terrorism – it was murder, torture, rape and kidnapping.
It was the worst violence Jews have been through since the Holocaust – all on one day –
And so yes, we were deeply troubled by the fact that after that attack, some of our most trusted institutions were silent while others equivocated the violence with the pending Israeli response.
We understand that many of you were afraid – that you didn’t want to say the wrong thing, that you worried about the diversity of your student populations, that you wanted to stay away from commenting on global events as is perhaps your practice.
But October 7th was different – this was a day in which members of your school districts were suddenly thrust into a new world. And yes, we needed you.
We needed you to make clear to the whole community that what happened had no justification – we needed you to make clear that it had no political defense – we needed you to give our community a small dose of moral clarity at a time in which the world around us seemed to be lost.
Yes, on Monday, October 9th when our kids came home to express confusion about the grief in their homes and the seeming ambivalence in their classrooms, when we felt as though there was no place in our schools for our grief and our anxiety, when we felt that we didn’t know whether our schools even condemned the violence, when we read some letters that made the case that Israel’s self-defense and Hamas’ terrorism were one and the same, yes, when that all happened, we felt abandoned.
Moral clarity is a necessity for our times – it is the lasting message of the Holocaust – when the world stood silent as millions were slaughtered before them.
Moral clarity is needed in our schools – they are the places that provide our children with the tools to access the world before them – the tools to bring into that world compassion and hope and kindness and tolerance and peace – the tools to ensure that generations in the future will call out violent hate wherever and whenever it exists.
October 7th was not a random foreign event that has nothing to do with our lives here in Rockland County. It was a day in which Jews around the world were reminded of all the trauma that has occurred throughout history—and it was a day in which we all felt very alone.
And so yes, the fact that there was silence and equivocation from some our schools made that day and the days afterwards ever more difficult.
As we open today’s meeting, we want to make sure you understand this fact – because in the days ahead, we need you to be able to help people define moral boundaries.
Thank you.
