December 18th, 2024

This week, I don’t have to look very far or very deeply into Parashat Vayeshev to see a connection that I feel called to share. Suffice it to say that the feud between Joseph and his brothers had catastrophic consequences. In the Torah, the tragedy of Jacob’s sons eventually saves the family decades down the road, but that is because the Torah is full of miracles - we don’t often experience such felicitous results in our own lives. 
In our lives, to repair such a broken situation, we would need to do the work ourselves. And there is some serious work to do. 

This past Thursday evening, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation hosted Alon-Lee Green and Rula Daood, co-directors of Standing Together. Standing Together is an Israeli non-profit organization seeking to bring together Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel to mobilize for peace, equality, and social justice. Members of Standing together take action in many ways, from leading public protests calling for a ceasefire and hostage deal to creating opportunities for young people from neighboring Jewish and Palestinian towns to get to know each other through the things they have in common. They do this, as they say on their website, because they believe in a future of “peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for everyone in this land, and true social, economic, and environmental justice.” 

Their work since the attacks of October 7 and the ensuing war has changed in some significant ways. Their staff and volunteers are all committed to working toward finding a different way of approaching the problem of achieving safety and peace for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. And as you might imagine, some aspects of their work in this area are seen as controversial in some parts of the Jewish community. 

Shortly before last week’s event, the Jewish co-director of Standing Together, Alon-Lee Green, in a video posted on X, referred to the ongoing killing of people in Gaza as ethnic cleansing. 

Not surprisingly, this got a lot of attention. 

Green is not alone in referring to Israel’s actions in Gaza as war crimes. The widely publicized ruling by the International Criminal Court in November issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity. More recently, Moshe Ya’alon, who served as Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 Gaza war, also labeled the IDF’s current conduct in Gaza as ethnic cleansing.

In response to Green’s posted remarks, some local organizations withdrew their co-sponsorship of the event. Other local organizations privately contacted Baltimore Hebrew, asking them to cancel the event altogether. I take no issue with these actions, regardless of my personal opinion. 
It is worth noting that this event was one of the few local events focused on Israel since October 7 that has presented a progressive standpoint on the current war, that explicitly made room both for expressions of pain for the ongoing plight of the hostages and horror at the massive loss of life in Gaza, that has acknowledged the need for a safe and secure Israel and the unthinkable road ahead to create a way forward for the Palestinians. 

However, once it became clear that Baltimore Hebrew planned to continue with the event, the situation changed. And this I take serious issue with.

As Baltimore Hebrew shared publicly, here’s what happened: 

“Some in the Baltimore Jewish community who disagree with Standing Together’s tactics lobbied an effort to shut down the program by bombarding us with vitriol. To date, 20 BHC staff members, most of whom had no direct involvement with the program, have received more than 5,000 emails, voicemails, and social media comments filled with insults and attacks. The venom on display in no way matched the hopeful messages of the speakers.
This hostility was not an effort to protect Jews or Israel. It was a campaign to shut down discussion and discourse.”


Having read some of the social media posts insulting and attacking Baltimore Hebrew, I must comment that I was honestly shocked by how quickly fellow Jews jumped to launch ad hominem attacks against Baltimore Hebrew’s clergy, staff, and congregants. Their hatred was immediate and public, taking a moment of deep disagreement and turning it into a power play.


As a community, we’ve been working on how to have difficult conversations, and we will continue to do so. Last Thursday’s event - which many of our members attended - was an opportunity to engage in just that. As the Baltimore Hebrew posting continued:


“Hosting Omdim B’Yachad/Standing Together is just another example of how we at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation wrestle with ideas while supporting Israel, along with her neighbors. People of good faith who sincerely want peace are NOT the enemy. Being able to listen, learn, and discuss is how we stand in the strength of our identity and values.”

The lesson from Parashat Vayeshev is clear: the existence of enmity and mistrust between members of the same family, when left to fester, is devastating. While I was deeply saddened to see how some people responded to their disagreement with Standing Together, I want to echo Baltimore Hebrew’s response and lend my support in this direction. Making space for ideas that may challenge us; hearing stories that are different from our own, that may be new to us; replacing binary thinking with listening and openhearted dialogue - these are the way forward. I stand with Baltimore Hebrew on this journey and I’d love for you to stand with me.

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