To our fellow Jews,
Today, we are in mourning. We have been in mourning every day for the past year, as each day has brought news of incalculable loss and suffering. Israel’s occupation and escalation of violence in Gaza has been ongoing for years, but this past year has seen an unprecedented wave of destruction, cruelty and killing. Today we mark the first yahrtzeit, the one-year anniversary, of this gruesome genocide by asking our community to work for justice.
One year ago, around 1,200 people were killed in Hamas-led attacks and another 250 Israelis were taken captive. Since that day, we have borne witness to an unyielding assault on a captive civilian population in Gaza, the illegal detention and torture of political prisoners held by Israel, increased pogroms and attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, and a campaign of intense bombing and terror attacks in Lebanon. Israel’s ultra-right-wing government has orchestrated a murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing, conducting a rampant genocide in full view of the whole world. In Gaza, over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, with thousands more assumed dead, killed indirectly or lost in the rubble of destroyed buildings.
It is difficult to fully comprehend the totality of this rampant destruction, and the intensity of the loss.
The majority of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and it is estimated to take until at least 2040 to rebuild the vital infrastructure that has been lost during this ceaseless bombardment. Last month, the Gaza Health Ministry released a list of 34,444 names of people killed up to August 31. Of the list, 11,355 were children. 710 were under a single year of age – they were born into and killed by Israel’s genocide.
We grieve for the twin infants killed by an Israeli strike, alongside their mother and grandmother, whose death certificates were issued less than an hour after their birth. We grieve Vivian Silver, a Canadian-Israeli peace activist murdered in the Hamas attacks on October 7th. We grieve Hind Rajab, the six-year-old girl who survived hours trapped in a car among the bodies of her murdered family members, killed by an Israeli tank. We grieve Ziad Mohammad al-Dalou, a Palestinian doctor abducted by the Israeli army from al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, who died while in illegal captivity. We grieve Alon Shamriz, Samer Talalka, and Yotan Haim, three young men, taken hostage on October 7th and killed by Israeli soldiers when found shirtless and holding a white flag during the military invasion of Gaza. We grieve Tawfiq Ahmad Younes Qandil, an 80-year-old man shot by the Israeli army outside of his home in the West Bank during a military incursion in Jenin. It would take countless pages, hundreds of hours, just to name every person killed in this past year.
Our Jewish traditions teach us that to end a single life is to destroy an entire world. How many lifetimes will it take to mourn every world destroyed by Israel’s unyielding assault?
At this time of year, as we enter the High Holidays, we as Jews are called to do teshuvah; to account for our wrongdoings of the past year and to make repair. Literally translated as return, teshuvah asks of every Jew, how can you account for the year you have lived, and how can you make right for the year to come?
What does teshuvah mean this year?
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “We must continue to remind ourselves that in a free society all are involved in what some are doing. Some are guilty, all are responsible.”
We know the guilty. We have watched our government refuse to impose a meaningful arms embargo or sanctions on Israel. We have heard pro-Israel lobby groups foment unconditional support for the Israeli army and attack anyone who speaks out against their ceaseless bloodshed. We have seen registered charities falsely claim to represent the entire Jewish community while funnelling money to Israeli militia groups and illegal settlers. We have watched as peaceful demonstrators are attacked by police for protesting against genocide. We have heard members of Israeli and Canadian civil society applaud Israel for its bombardment of the region.
And yet, we are all responsible. It is our responsibility to be outraged by Israel’s bloodshed, war crimes, land theft, and mass displacement. We are outraged by those who claim to represent our communities but who use their platforms to spew anti-Palestinian racism and glorify violence. It is our responsibility to demand our government stop supporting Israel’s unconscionable actions, and take real measures to end the killing.
This must be what our teshuvah means. To face the responsibility we all share, not just as Jews, but as members of a society complicit in genocide.
And so, to our fellow Jews, we ask, will you join us this year in teshuvah?
Will you join us in a return to Jewish ethics? Will you join us in the pursuit of justice?
Our ethics must be grounded in the truth that every life is sacred, and that all people have the right to live in peace and dignity, to equality and freedom. To fight for this equality is to uphold the most foundational Jewish value, to ensure that every life is respected and protected.
We know that Israel’s war efforts will only bring about more death and rampant destruction, as Netanyahu’s government has started a new frontier of terror in Lebanon. Violence will never stop violence. Only justice can bring about peace for all people in the region, and finally end this terrible brutality.
As we enter 5785, with grief and determination, we make teshuvah by re-committing ourselves to the work of justice. We stand with an open invitation for all people of conscience to join us in this work.
Signed,
The United Jewish People’s Order