Dear Am HaYam family,

I returned home last Sunday from a family simcha, and was under the weather. I am still recovering, but wanted to send you another note before Shabbat (It is Thursday, 10/19).

I understand the Israel Solidarity Gathering that was hosted at Temple Beth Torah, and which CAH was a sponsor and participant, was a great success. I have not had a chance to see the video, but once I get a little better, I look forward to it. So sorry I could not be there in person. When I initiated and helped plan this important event, I did not want it to wait any longer than necessary. I was there in spirit!

First, I appreciate your understanding of postponing the beginning of our weekly Israel gathering by Zoom with our partners, Temple Beth Torah and Congregation Beth Shalom. I take responsibility for this but decided I could not push myself when self-care was called for. At this point, we will probably begin those gatherings in November. Stay tuned!

CASUALTIES

As I write this, there have been over 1,400 Israelis killed and 3,800 injured. In Gaza, over 3,400 have been killed and over 12,000 injured. Some 32 Americans have been killed with 11 still unaccounted for. Over 200 hostages are still believed to be alive. [We know some have been murdered.]

U.S. SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

President Biden has exceeded everyone’s expectations. His years of experience and his disposition to sober assessment have helped him rise above expectations. He is the first American President to visit Israel during a war. This alone is a strong message of support. He met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other officials to affirm overwhelming U.S. support; yet he also spoke of Palestinian human rights and legitimate concerns more forthrightly than other U.S. leaders. Arab leaders canceled their scheduled meetings after the hospital in Gaza was bombed, apparently by a rocket misfired by an Islamic militant group in Gaza. That rocket was intended for Israel.

President Biden is trying to thread a centrist needle, and we will hear discontent from both sides. That is often the result of being well-balanced. For example, he continues to strongly reaffirm our country’s historic relationship with Israel while offering humanitarian assistance to Palestinian citizens in Gaza.

President Biden has rightly named Hamas as a bad actor who does not represent Palestinian interests. His top diplomat at the U.N. has vetoed Russia’s resolution for humanitarian aid precisely because it did not recognize Israel’s right to defend itself or call out Hamas for its terrorism and atrocities.

• ADL’s tweet in support of the Biden Administration’s support of Israel

ON OUR HOME FRONT

• Jonathan Greenblatt on the rise in antisemitic incidents since the conflict began
• Support for Hamas terrorism at rallies in the U.S.
• Jews in Philadelphia showing support for Israel were vandalized
• Six-year old Palestinian-American boy in Illinois murdered by family’s landlord

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• ADL debunks myths and false narratives about the conflict
• Hate that drove the Hamas attacks
• List of antisemitic incidents globally since war broke out
• The conflict as a whole is complicated to understand; the attacks on October 7 are not
• A family worries about their daughter taken as hostage
• Weddings during wartime in Israel
• Conservative Movement’s Israel Resources page

WHAT WE CAN DO: ADDITIONAL PLACES TO CONSIDER DONATIONS

1) The Times of Israel has a list that complements what I have previously sent. It focuses on hospitals, volunteer needs and services, helping soldiers, mental health resources, and communities hit hardest.

2) HIAS has a special emergency fund to help people affected with basic supplies, some cash-based assistance, mental health and psychosocial support, and support for Israeli efforts providing shelter and medical services.

WHAT WE CAN DO: PETITIONS

Sign if you agree!

• ADL petition to President Biden for emergency funding synagogues, et al, for security through the National Security Grant Program
• ADL petition asking the U.S. Senate to confirm Jack Lew as ambassador to Israel
• ADL petition calling for responsible journalistic coverage on the conflict

WHAT WE CAN DO: PRAY

• Prayer by Hannah Ellenson
• RA-USCJ Psalms and Prayers in support of Israel

VIDEO/MUSIC

Finally, I want to leave you with two pieces of music.

Here is a version of the Prayer for the State of Israel, found in our Sim Shalom prayer book on p. 149. Here it features celebrated Cantor Azi Schwartz from Park Avenue Synagogue, our sister congregation in New York city.

Aḥeinu (“Brothers and Sisters”) is a prayer in the weekday Torah service (held on Monday and Thursday) that holds the personal and collective anguish of this moment: those of us in immediate peril, those of us who are wounded, those of us clinging to phones waiting to hear from beloved soldiers, those of us desperate for news of someone missing or in captivity, those of us in mourning, those of us huddling in shelters, and all of us sharing in this pain. It reads:

 For all our family of the House of Israel, fellow Jews who face anguish and captivity, whether on sea or on land: May the Divine have compassion upon them, and bring them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, from subjugation to redemption, now, speedily, soon, and let us say: Amen.

Here is a link to the version that Cantor Daniel Mutlu so sensitively performed this past Shabbat at Central Synagogue (Reform) in New York city.

Let’s continue to pray for an end to hostilities, to the return of the hostages, to the dismantling of Hamas and all terrorist groups and networks, and to the beginnings of real dialogue that will lead, alevai, to a true and lasting peace. Amen.

Shalom al Yisrael.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Sacks