On January 9, 36 rabbis and rabbinical students from Rabbis for Ceasefire brought our prayers and outrage over Israel’s continued violence in Gaza to the United Nations headquarters in New York.
This is why the UN was created. In the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, the nations of the world came together to create a new institution that promised to “save future generations from the scourge of war” and “reaffirm their faith in fundamental human rights, in dignity and value of the human person.”
The UN was born with a bold and urgent mission: to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust will never be repeated in the world. But right now, we find ourselves in the midst of what experts widely believe is an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Our protest was a prayer service because our calls for a ceasefire are sacred to us. In Jewish tradition, saving a life is a central religious value. We are obligated to break the Sabbath if it means saving a single stranger. Prayer is an ancient language that Jews have used for thousands of years to express our fears, dreams, hopes and despair. These words that soothed and inspired our ancestors for millennia continue today as vehicles of our hopes, our righteous indignation and our conviction.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins in much the same way as the Torah. The preamble says: “Recognition of the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. » Likewise, the first chapter of the first book of the Torah affirms the dignity of each person created in the image of the Divine.
This idea of the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings underlies our call for a ceasefire. As we say in our mission statement: “Ceasefire means an end to the bombing. Ceasefire means no ground war. The ceasefire means that all Israeli hostages must be released now. The ceasefire signifies an immediate commitment by the international community to a just and lasting peace in Israel-Palestine. A ceasefire is the only way to prevent more death and destruction. »
I created Rabbis for Ceasefire because I believe that rabbis have a special responsibility to carry the torch of life-affirming Judaism. I became a rabbi to preserve Jewish tradition, so that generations of Jewish wisdom could continue to serve as a scaffold for a life of ethical rigor and spiritual depth. Even more so in times of crisis and trauma, rabbis are needed to ensure the transmission of a dignified Judaism to future generations.
Our urgent call for a ceasefire stems from our religious beliefs as rabbis. As rabbis, we have dedicated our lives to serving the Jewish people and ensuring the continuation of our traditions as a source of inspiration for the pursuit of justice, peace and life. This responsibility to safeguard the ethical core of Judaism has never been more urgent than today.
Israel and the United States continue to maintain that their actions are in the interests of the Jewish people. As rabbis who serve the spiritual and practical needs of the Jewish people, we know this could not be more wrong. More than 23,000 Palestinians being killed is not in the Jewish interest. Starving the Palestinians is not in the interests of the Jews. Denying the basic human rights of Palestinians is not in the interests of Jews. We know that what truly makes Jews safer is the solidarity and commitment of the international community.
The banners we displayed at UN headquarters read: “Biden: World Says Ceasefire” and “Biden: Stop Vetoing Peace” – a reminder that the United States and Israel are alone in rushing headlong into death and destruction instead of resorting to diplomacy.
In recent weeks, the administration of US President Joe Biden has sent huge sums of money and arms shipments without consulting the US Congress. Israel used this funding not for defense, but for slaughter.
The UN knows firsthand the cost of continuing this war. Workers from various UN agencies continue to operate on the ground in Gaza under extremely difficult conditions. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization are doing incredible work despite the challenges they face. To date, more than 140 UN workers have been killed in Gaza, the highest number of UN worker casualties in a single conflict in its 78-year history.
And there is no end in sight – unless the international community rejects American intransigence at the UN. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue for “several more months” but that the people of Gaza would not survive. Currently, all Gaza residents face starvation, with more than 90 percent reporting that they regularly go without food for an entire day.
Jews have ended every meal and prayer service with a call for shalom throughout history and around the world. This ancient commitment to peace continues through times of threat, persecution, isolation and danger. In this tradition, we have prayed for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in the empty chambers of the UN because we know that peace is the only way for all of us to survive. President Biden, we invite you to join us and stop vetoing peace.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.