[The following statement was released on June 13, 2024; passed by the Congregation Ner Shalom Board, with the support of the membership.]

Ner Shalom Statement
Calling for Immediate Bilateral Ceasefire,
Return of Hostages, and Provision of Food, Water, and Other Humanitarian Aid to the People of Gaza

Congregation Ner Shalom is a progressive Jewish community in Northern California. We are affiliated with Reconstructing Judaism and our ritual practice is inspired by Jewish Renewal, however we do not speak for either movement. 

We issue this statement in response to our deep and abiding pain over the unfolding of events in Israel and Gaza over the last 8 months.

In our congregation of 160 households, many of us have long and deep relationships with Israel. Some of us were born or raised there; some have beloved family members there. For some of us Israel was key in our formation as Jews. Some of us are survivors of the Holocaust or descended from survivors. Some of us lost family members in Israel on October 7th. Some of us have lost family, friends, or colleagues in Gaza in the 8 months since.

Over these 8 months of conflict, at least 35,000 people have died in Gaza. Approximately 8,000 of those identified were children. Meanwhile, Israeli hostages are still being held, despite the exorbitant toll exacted from Palestinian civilians in Gaza. And conditions for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories have worsened immeasurably.

We are guided by our tradition to value life above all. Talmud teaches us that every life lost is considered as if it were a world destroyed (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 4:1). Torah teaches us not to stand idly by while our neighbor bleeds (Leviticus 19:16). And we are guided by Talmud’s injunction to speak up even when members of our family are doing wrong, lest their guilt be our guilt as well (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 54b). 

And so we raise our voices to call a halt to the bloodshed. We share a deep desire for Jewish safety in this world, but the death toll in Gaza has not achieved it. Instead it has further endangered Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. The death toll in Gaza has not brought back the hostages, but it has caused unspeakable suffering, undermined Israel’s moral standing, and wounded the collective Jewish soul. 

Our hearts are broken by the events of October 7th. However, even those events do not justify the magnitude of the response that has followed and that continues. We believe there is no military goal that merits starving a civilian population. We cannot bear such actions to be carried out in our name or in the name of Jewish survival. 

We call upon the government of Israel and the leadership of Hamas to effect an immediate and permanent bilateral ceasefire. We demand the return of the hostages. We demand the provision of food, water, and humanitarian aid of every sort to the people of Gaza. We demand this as Jews and as human beings.

In our community we have a range of views about what a peaceful future might look like. We have a range of views about what a future of reconciliation and healing of trauma could look like. But we are clear that all futures worth having pass through the portal of immediate and permanent ceasefire. There can be no reconciliation while civilians are being killed.

We do not want to look back and think we did not stand up for peace when we had the opportunity. Enough, we say. Enough. This must stop. We cannot bear this. Enough.

Congregation Ner Shalom
Cotati, California
June 13, 2024