Peace in Israel/Palestine
During this time of crisis in Israel and Gaza, Reb Irwin will be curating resources here to help inform us, engage us, challenge us, and offer glimmers of hope. Check back here from time to time, as the content will change. Below you will find videos, articles and opinion pieces, media resources, organizations whose work is meaningful, Ner Shalom’s Ceasefire Statement, and even poetry, because art.
of Interest
Here are some pieces of writing that Reb Irwin has found meaningful or instructive to support us in our learning and thinking.
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Israelis, diaspora Jewry and friends of Israel everywhere need to understand that the way Israel is fighting the war in Gaza today is laying the groundwork for a fundamental recasting of how Israel and Jews will be seen the world over.
Click here to read this Op Ed by Thomas L. Friedman
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A Chanukah reflection by Joelle Novey on the importance of continuing to see and reject the violence done in Gaza in our collective Jewish name. A challenging and important read.
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A Tim Ferriss Show Podcast. What happens when Israelis and Palestinians drink ayahuasca together?
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The son of peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7, 2023 in her home at Kibbutz Be'eri, determines not to let her dream of peace die with her.
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A foul-mouthed, irreverent, and brilliant articulation of important things for people to remember in this conflict, and common-sense guidance for your words. By Mo Husseini.
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Americans for Peace Now (APN) Commentary by Naomi Paiss.
Naomi Paiss is serving as Interim Communications Director for APN. She retired in 2022 after more than 40 years running public affairs and communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the New Israel Fund, the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and other organizations.
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A New York Times expose on how extremist ideas at the fringe of Israeli society slowly became some of Israel’s core governing practices, particularly with respect to West Bank settlements. Read it here.
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How a music school in Berlin for Middle Eastern students has been navigating the Israel-Gaza war. Read it here.
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Our movement, Reconstructing Judaism, has signed-on to an open letter to the Biden Administration developed by the Progressive Israel Network (PIN), of which our organization is a founding member. The letter addresses the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and it is accompanied by an explanatory essay.
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Scholar Peter Beinart, in a much talked-about New York Times piece, explores the contradiction of Jewish liberalism in American politics and ongoing support for an increasingly rightwing Zionism in the State of Israel. This is a must-read.
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Ecclesiastes teaches that there’s a time to kill and a time to heal — we must give both priorities equal weight description. Click here to read the article.
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How useful is the model of colonialism in imagining a new future in Israel and Palestine? Click here to read the article.
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A New York Times article about the tensions in the West Bank in light of the war in Gaza. Click here to read the article.
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What would Heschel Do? Why I support a Cease Fire Between Israel and Hamas. Click here to read the blog by Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde.
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A reflection from local Israeli community member Sharon Siegler about being a progressive and worrying about one’s family in Israel. Read it here.
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A New York Times op ed by Peter Beinart. Read it here.
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A New York Times op ed by Palestinian member of Knesset, Ayman Odeh. Read it here.
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Ceasefire Now vs. Free the Hostages: Doing the Moral Calculus in Gaza. A blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen
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How this war conflicts with Jewish values. Read it here.
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An analysis early in the war by a scholar from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Read it here.
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Reb Irwin’s former colleague, Islamic law scholar Sumbul Ali-Karamali, writes about responds to rhetoric about jihad in relation to Hamas.
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Finding More Media
We generally have reasonable access to Israeli voices through the listserves many of us subscribe to as well as mainstream media. Here are some Palestinian journalists in Gaza, suggested by Hanan Huneidi, to enable us to hear Gazan voices directly. Their instagram handles:
@abodbt77, @mohammedawad89, @byPelestia, @WizardBisan1, @Motaz_Azaiza, @Ahmedeldin
For left-leaning Israeli news coverage, check out the Ha’aretz newspaper English edition. Reb Irwin also suggests checking out Israeli thinker @yuval_noah_harari
From Sonoma County Leadership
A statement regarding the war in Israel and Gaza. Click here.
On January 9th, the Cotati City Council considered and unanimously passed a resolution calling for a Cease Fire in Israel and Palestine. Read Reb Irwin’s testimony here and read Ner Shalom Board Member Kamala Brown’s testimony here.
Organizations to Consider
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Osama Iliwat and Rotem Levin have been criss-crossing the US (including a talk in Sebastopol) telling their personal stories as a Palestinian and a Jewish Israeli committed to changing the state of hate. Follow them on Instagram here.
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American Friends of the Parents Circle – Families Forum shares the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the American public in order to foster a peace and reconciliation process.
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Standing Together is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice.
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Following the Hamas attack on Israeli communities near the Gaza border and the ensuing war, the New Israel Fund (NIF) mobilized resources and staff around the world to meet the immense needs of the moment.
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Meta Peace Team is a group of individuals creating a nonviolent alternative to militarism through empowered peacemaking.
MPT pursues peace through active nonviolence with skills training, peace team placement, education, and networking.
We understand that the primary violence in our world is structural and embedded in systems of oppression and domination.
We seek a just world grounded in nonviolence and respect for the sacred interconnectedness of all life. -
World Central Kitchen serves the hungry around the world, with current operations responding to starvation conditions in Gaza. Read more here.
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Center for Jewish Nonviolence brings Jewish activists from around the world to Israel/Palestine to join in Palestinian-led nonviolent civil resistance to occupation, apartheid, and displacement.
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The Middle East Children’s Alliance is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. MECA supports dozens of community projects for Palestinian children and refugees from Syria.
Amidst the ongoing attack on Gaza, MECA team and partners are providing emergency assistance to families who have fled their homes to seek shelter with relatives as well as procuring emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics.
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A Land for All. Imagining a democratic co-existence of Israel and Palestine sharing one land.
Writing From Reb Irwin
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Tugging on some of the threads of the current tangle: Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, Trauma and . . . Peace. No policy to propose, but principles to take seriously. Yom Kippur – October 11, 2024.
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In this moment of crisis, we need to let things arise and evaporate, leaving us unburdened enough to do the work of peace. Dew season can model a way. Click here.
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There is a dark side to Purim – Jewish self-defense gone out of control. How do we keep from becoming Amalek in responding to those we've labeled Amalek? What if Amalek is not outside us but in us? What do we need to do to begin to wipe it out beyond memory? Click here.
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A vision isn't moot just because there isn’t currently the will and skill to carry it off. There will be. Read it here.
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How is it that we can listen to a voice in our ear, directing us on paths that we know will lead to disaster, and still not question? Two weeks in Israel: war, rain, sorrow, and a GPS disaster. Read it here.
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The war in Israel and Gaza has, I notice, offered to Supporters of Israel and Supporters of Palestine proof of what they already believed. And our city councils have become the proxy battleground. Righteousness is easy. Blame is easy. But empathy is hard and will break us open. If we can't manage some empathy here, what hope is there for reconciliation in the land we all love? This is a Come-to-Pharaoh Moment. Read it here.
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Nations have a life of their own, behaving in ways few individuals would. Maybe remembering the angel of the collective can bring out our best. Read it here.
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Today is ten years since my mother’s death, and the haunting is sweet. She is gathered into me like Jacob was gathered into his people. The ancestors are in us. We are ancestors too. What traits and traumas, what hope or despair, openness of heart or resilience of spirit, will be gathered from us into those who come after?
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The truth is I no longer even know what I’m crying about. At this point, I seem just to be yielding to the big blur of suffering. Read it here.
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I am walking around afraid. Not always afraid of something specific. My body is fueled by adrenaline and programmed by the epigenetics of generations of ancestors whose fear responses enabled their survival and mine. My soul has fluttered right out of my body. Is there any solid place where it can land? Read it here.
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What is the fear and the attraction of sitting inside our pain and sorrow?
Poetry
Taking Sides, by Rabbi Irwin Keller
This Night of Truce, by Rabbi Irwin Keller
Three Poems from Sally Churgel
Shalom/Salaam by Laura Blatt
Summons, by Aurora Levins Morales
Call on the Wise, by Abby Lynn Bogomolny
MUSIC
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A hauntingly beautiful midievel style lament for Kibbutz Be’eri.
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A chant from Rabbi Shefa Gold, performed by Chantleader Atzilah Solot, to help protect us as we do the important work of the time.
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Reb Irwin’s Shalom Chant, written on October 8, 2023.
Podcasts
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A clarifying and important conversation about Israel’s complex relationship with American Jews and Jewish values. This is a must-listen for all of us who feel conflicted by our loyalty to the Jewish state and our desire for a just world. Find it here.
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In this Tim Ferriss podcast we learn what happens when Israelis and Palestinians drink ayahuasca together.
Videos of Interest
Holding on to Hope
Click to watch a panel discussion (January 4, 2024) held by Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, featuring the work of three courageous and dedicated activists for co-existence and shared society in Israel/Palestine.
Arabs and Jews Choosing a Shared Future
A conversation in partnership with New Israel Fund, with Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green—co-directors of Standing Together (Omdim Beyachad-Naqif Ma’an).
A Time for Tea
Rabbi Irwin Keller and Reb Mia Zimman share a cup of tea with their friend Hanan Huneidi, and hear how she, as a Palestinian American, is affected by the current conflict. Joining in conversation is Sam Tuttleman. In this teatime conversation they share perspectives about the current conflict, the challenge of this divisive climate, and the core of our shared humanity. (Nov. 2023)
Crisis and Opportunity in Israel Now (Nov. 2023)
Rabbi Maurice Harris, Israel Affairs Specialist at Reconstructing Judaism, shares an analysis of the current state of affairs in Israel and Palestine in light of the terrible recent events and the ongoing unfolding situation. There are multiple possible trajectories for the next few years in the region, some of them bleak, some of them middling, and some of them actually hopeful. Click here to watch.
Israel and Palestine: How Did We Get Here And Where Could We Go From Here? (Jan. 2022)
Rabbi Maurice Harris, Israel Affairs Specialist for Reconstructing Judaism, uses a dual-narrative approach to teach the history of the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic, looking at the ways both peoples remember the past and give meaning to their current struggles. Click here to watch.