Jews around the world are preparing for the coming High Holy Days, from the traditionally joyful New Year celebrations of Rosh Hashanah and the more solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. This sacred period is marked by deep introspection: taking stock of our actions throughout the past year and committing ourselves to do better in the year ahead.
Notably, the High Holiday liturgy is written in the plural “we,” a reminder that though we act as individuals, we are inextricably bound together as one Jewish people. The deep bonds between Jews worldwide are why, here in North America, we so viscerally felt the tremendous pain of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
In its efforts to win this war, Israel is losing the larger battle.
They are why we see our own lives as bound up with the fate of the hostages languishing in Gaza and with the pain of their families. And it is this commitment to make the New Year better than the last that compels the Reform Jewish movement that I help lead in North America, and so many others in Israel and beyond, to raise our voices against the Israeli government’s plans to further expand the war.
The tragedy of Oct. 7 will live in the collective Jewish memory alongside horrors such as the destruction of the ancient Temples and the Holocaust. Hamas bears responsibility for this war, having mercilessly attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Through torture, murder, rape and kidnapping, Hamas sought to destroy Israel and eliminate the prospects for a peaceful future between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as between Israel and other regional Arab states.
But in its efforts to win this war, Israel is losing the larger battle. The Netanyahu government’s defense of Israel began justly, but it has become a quagmire.
Nearly two years of war has not brought about the return of the remaining hostages, and the daily violence of war continues to take the lives of innocent Gazans and has brought widespread hunger into Gaza. The Netanyahu government has also shared no clear plan for the day after hostilities end. And the war is increasingly used by extremist members of the government as a pretext for their long-held desires to rebuild settlements in Gaza.
Our concerns about the war’s expansion and the hunger gripping Gaza echo those of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have taken to the streets, week after week, urging the Israeli government to choose a different path. They amplify the voices of the hostage families who beseech the government to bring their loved ones home. And they reflect the views of respected Israeli military, security and political leaders who have warned that expansion of the war will prove to be a military, political and humanitarian disaster.
Last week, an Israel Defense Forces attack on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital resulted in the deaths of 20 Palestinians, including journalists and medical providers. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mishap” that it “deeply regrets.” Such deaths of innocents will inevitably continue as the war expands.
Here in North America, the war is having direct repercussions, as well. It is causing painful divisions within families and within synagogues, and it has severely tested the nearly 80 years of bipartisan American political support that has helped Israel defend itself from hostile neighbors. All this comes at a time when North American Jews are experiencing a deadly spike in antisemitism.
Our concerns about the war’s expansion and the hunger gripping Gaza echo those of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have taken to the streets, week after week, urging the Israeli government to choose a different path.
Attending a Jewish event should never come at the risk of a person’s life, or any violence. Yet today, Jews around the world are increasingly targeted. When Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were murdered as they walked out of a gathering on humanitarian diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa, held at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, their assailant shouted, “Free Palestine.” Weeks later, in Boulder, Colorado, an attacker hurled incendiary devices at peaceful marchers demanding the release of hostages in Gaza — injuring 12, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, one of whom has since died. Again, the attacker shouted, “Free Palestine.”
These assaults reveal a dangerous trend: antisemitic violence cloaked in the language of liberation. Murdering Jews is not resistance; it is terrorism. Such violence does nothing to advance Palestinian freedom — it only deepens fear, hatred and despair. Those of us committed to a free Palestine — a Palestine free from Hamas’ tyranny and exploitation and free from the burdens of Israeli occupation — must insist that this struggle cannot and will not be waged through the targeting of Jews. Ensuring Jewish safety must go hand in hand with bold political leadership that can deliver a future in which Palestinians and Israelis both live with dignity, freedom and peace. On the cusp of a new Jewish year — the second in which Israelis taken on Oct. 7 languish in captivity — it is time to end this nightmare. The hostages must come home, humanitarian aid must flow into Gaza in amounts sufficient to meet the need, and planning must begin for “the day after.” Only then can we truly begin to hope for the words expressed in the traditional High Holiday greeting: A Good and Sweet New Year.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs
Rabbi Rick Jacobs is president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the most powerful force in North American Jewish life. The URJ leads the largest and most diverse Jewish movement in North America, reaching more than 2 million people through 825 congregations, 14 overnight camps, the Reform teen youth Movement NFTY and the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C. For more than 150 years, the URJ has been at the forefront in promoting an open, progressive Judaism. 
