(RNS) — America’s largest Jewish denomination issued a statement Tuesday (Jan. 30) calling the Israel-Hamas war “just” but reiterating its support for a two-state solution to the conflict.
The statement, signed by more than a dozen U.S. and Canadian leaders in the Reform movement, is an attempt to thread the needle at a time of spiraling conflict in the Middle East, conveying resolute support for Israel while offering a critique of some Israeli proposals for the war’s aftermath.
Last week, in the midst of renewed international calls to revive a two-state solution, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected an independent Palestinian state. On Sunday in East Jerusalem, thousands of people, including several ministers of Netanyahu’s government, called for Jews to resettle in the Gaza Strip. (Israel withdrew its troops from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and forced Jewish settlers there to evacuate their homes.)
The Reform movement statement opposed both Netanyahu’s stance and the new move to establish an Israeli presence in Gaza. It was issued by the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents almost 850 synagogues, as well as the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents 2,000 Reform rabbis. About 37% of American Jews identify as Reform, according to Pew.
“ … Ongoing West Bank occupation without a willingness to seek its end through a peaceful resolution of the conflict will condemn future generations to endless strife,” the statement read. “Reestablishing settlements in Gaza will have a similarly detrimental impact. Denying the Palestinians’ right to self-determination is an impediment to peace.”
But the organizations maintained support for Israel’s ongoing retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, saying that “Israel’s goal of eradicating Hamas’s military capabilities is just given Hamas’s ongoing commitment to Israel’s destruction.”
Palestinians inspect the damage of buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Abdul Qader Sabbah, File)
The war on Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and has destroyed vast swaths of the enclave and displaced nearly 85% of its residents. Last week, the International Court of Justice meeting in The Hague issued a provisional order to Israel to take action to prevent genocidal violence by its armed forces; “prevent and punish” the incitement to genocide; and ensure that humanitarian aid to Gaza is increased.
Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, told Religion News Service that the statement comes at an “inflection point” in the war, when a lot of people are wondering what the next steps are.
“Obviously, we support Israel and we support the just war that they undertook,” Jacobs said.
But he also said: “There have been recent reflections on the scope of the war; how long and what are its legitimate aims. We wanted to make sure that these kinds of things were also a part of the discourse.”
Jacobs’ views on the war do not represent all Reform rabbis. Several dozen rabbis have signed statements calling for a cease-fire in the war, creating tensions within the movement, which is broadly liberal.
“Most of my colleagues that I have spoken to are absolutely horrified about the violence that is taking place in our name and are absolutely opposed and want to stop immediately,” said Reuben Zellman, a Reform rabbi in San Francisco.
Zellman and others have signed cease-fire petitions and joined Rabbis for Ceasefire, a new group of people across the U.S. Jewish spectrum opposed to the war.
Last month, some 1,200 Reform Jews signed a letter calling for a ceasefire. Another letter signed by some 30 children and grandchildren of Reform rabbis expressed “horror at the URJ’s failure to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Rabbi Drorah Setel, who leads Temple Emanu-El in Rochester, New York, a Reform synagogue, is among those rabbis who have called for a cease-fire.
“This is not just a political crisis, it’s a moral crisis for the Jewish community,” Setel said. “And we can’t say that we uphold these values of ‘b’tzelem Elohim’ (that humans are created in the image of God) when it’s easy, if we don’t do it when it’s hard. Jewish tradition judges us, not by what we think, but by what we do.”
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