Response to Jeffrey Herbst Piece on URJ: This is Not the Time for Jew Vs. Jew

Well, that really didn’t take long.

Amidst the greatest crisis Israel and the Jewish people have known in more than two generations, Jeffrey Herbst’s piece, URJ’s Call for a “Humanitarian Pause”, is more interested in sowing division than offering an “argument for the sake of heaven”. As the leader of the Reform movement in North America, recognizing our community is deep pain, I know that his efforts will accomplish nothing more than to further exacerbate divisions and tensions within the Los Angeles and broader Jewish communities.

At this terrible moment, the American Jewish community is overwhelmingly coming together to support Israel and one another in the face of war abroad and record levels of antisemitism at home. Los Angeles has seen too many of those horrific antisemitic attacks in recent weeks. Our responsibility is to stop this dangerous trend, even as we refute those within and beyond our communities who falsely accuse Israel of committing genocide (and are astonishingly silent about Hamas’ decades-old public call for genocide), rebut those who erroneously consider Israel a settler colonialist enterprise, and reject those who think murdered Israeli babies deserved their fate.  As we do this, we must firmly denounce American Jews who, though united in supporting Israel’s just war, choose to launch spineless attacks on one another.

The author’s attempts to twist meaning and paint a false picture of the Reform movement’s unyielding commitment to Israel and the security of all her people is reprehensible. He also grossly mischaracterizes the profound difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire. The pause called for by our organization will allow food, water, medicine, and other humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza – and as our statement noted, should only occur if Hamas does not divert these vital humanitarian resources. This is precisely what President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken, firm in their support of Israel, have advocated. Likewise, the Reform movement joins them in a belief that a ceasefire at this moment would be a tragic mistake and a strategic advantage to Hamas in its quest to eliminate the Jewish state.

I would also question those who, like the author, maintain there is no difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire. Can they explain why Israel’s adversaries in this war opposed the U.S.-drafted UN resolution calling for a humanitarian pause? And why those same countries drafted a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire that both the U.S. and the U.K. vetoed? Apparently, these folks know something that every major government in the world is unaware of. It is unfortunate that Prof. Herbst has fueled his position by misrepresenting the Reform movement on this critical issue.

While we maintain the view that a humanitarian pause by Israel is morally and tactically warranted, we respect that others may hold their own views. But can we at least agree that all Jews who stand with Israel in its right to safety, security, and self-determination, alongside a Palestinian people who must be afforded those same rights via a negotiated solution, should refrain from publicly attacking each other and weakening the Jewish community when its heart is already breaking? Public smears do not serve our shared goal of helping Israel secure itself and return the hostages to their loved ones.

It is also wrong that Prof. Herbst chooses to proffer his argument by ludicrously suggesting that the URJ’s commitment to securing release of the 240 hostages is somehow evidence of lack of care for the plight of every Israeli who has been touched and terrorized by Hamas. Will the Israeli people ever be whole while these beloved members of our global Jewish family are held in the tunnels deep below Gaza? No one should attempt to downplay the suffering of the hostages or their families.

We face daily assaults across North America on college campuses, in the corridors of power and in the media, against which we must stay united and focused. As this war continues, the climate of opinion will shift further and further from Israel. Our shared challenge is to lovingly engage one another as we continue to make the case for Israel’s existential war not against the Palestinian people, but Hamas.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs is the President of the Union for Reform Judaism