Williams students today are more aware of geopolitics than I was during my college years here as a religion major and graduate in the Class of 1996. Although we had email, we did not have today’s internet. Today we watch global news unfold in real-time, which is amazing (but lately, heartbreaking). However, today’s internet also facilitates polarization through social media bubbles and siloed news consumption in which we’re rarely exposed to alternate views.
Last week, a group of activists composed of College students and Town residents brought a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza before the Select Board. The resolution raised a lot of feelings for many Jews in the Town, some of whom asked me to speak at the Select Board meeting to express their range of views.
Within the northern Berkshire Jewish community, people hold almost every view about Israel and Palestine. Some think that Israel’s response to Hamas began as a just war. Some think it still is. Some think Israel has no choice but to bombard Gaza in order to destroy the network of underground tunnels that is allegedly used to move fighters, weapons, and supplies, including ammunition for continuing rocket attacks from Gaza. Some think what’s happening in Gaza is indefensible. Some advocate for Palestinian liberation. Some want an immediate ceasefire. Some want the release of hostages and a bilateral ceasefire.
As a Rabbi, I hear from people with all of these views, but they don’t often hear each other. Living in disconnected silos isn’t good for building community, and it increases the odds that we won’t understand each other. The following are some of the fears and yearnings that have been brought to me.
When a resolution singularly condemns Israel without mention of other nations, many Jews feel unfairly singled out. “No other nation is held to this standard,” is a frequent refrain. Many Jews fear that animus toward Israel inevitably sparks animus toward us. That sentiment dovetails with rising fears of antisemitism and a lack of safety brought about by the recent increase of antisemitic incidents. My synagogue alone has received two bomb threats since Oct. 7.
Many Jews, including myself, carry generational trauma from centuries of persecution. My grandparents barely escaped the Holocaust — but despite that, two-thirds of young Americans don’t know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and one-fifth of young Americans think that the Holocaust is a myth. Some are now also calling the Oct. 7 attacks a false flag. Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack awakened trauma, and when trauma is activated, the horrors of the past feel like they are happening now. For all of these reasons, many of us found most of the “Whereas…” section of last week’s Ceasefire Resolution — the framing that blames Israel without mentioning Hamas, the allegations that Israel is engaging in collective punishment, and the reference to genocide — to be unacceptably biased.
Many Jews abhor the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, and many also fear it isn’t making Israel any safer (ostensibly its goal; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the goals of the attacks are the safe return of Israeli hostages and the destruction of Hamas in order to keep Israel safe). Some criticize the Netanyahu administration for what we see as terrible choices but don’t want to align with those who ignore Jewish suffering. Some want a ceasefire. Some are Zionists who want a negotiated ceasefire and aren’t sure anti-Zionist ceasefire supporters would accept Zionists joining them. Some are asking: How can I love Israel so much and be so angry with it at the same time?
Some Jews have asked me whether I think the Town should adopt a different resolution, such as the one in Cambridge, Mass., calling for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, which I think is significantly more evenhanded. I have mixed feelings about town resolutions on geopolitics, here or anywhere. A resolution in a town like ours won’t change national policy in a meaningful way but can cause local harm. The Select Board was not elected on the basis of global policy expertise. That said, I know that resolutions are a popular tool and understand the desire to call for a better world.
Before writing any kind of resolution that aims to speak for the whole Town, I think we need to listen to one another. One of the difficulties in doing so is that we’re often operating with different facts. Not because of disinformation, though there’s plenty of that, but because news from Al Jazeera will be different from news from Ha’aretz, which is different from your Tumblr feed. It can be painful to hear someone who views the conflict through a different lens and is getting their information from a different set of sources, but it’s valuable to learn how to hold multiple truths.
As a Rabbi, I’m committed to the proposition that all of the Jews who live here belong in Jewish community, no matter what path forward we think is the best way to reach a just and lasting peace. This goal requires us to look for places where we can make common cause instead of focusing on the places where we can’t. It’s not always easy, but I think it’s vital. I also think it’s vital for Jews who live in the Town to be in conversation with our non-Jewish neighbors, because we are all part of the fabric of the Town.
What could emerge from widespread mutual listening? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. If this issue matters to you, sit down with someone who feels differently about it. No matter what your post-college life holds, this kind of deep listening might be the most useful skill you can pick up during your years at the College. As the generation that’s going to inherit today’s geopolitical messes, it’s a skill you’re going to need.
If there is to be a resolution here, it should empathize with human suffering on both sides, scrupulously avoid bias, insist on the release of all hostages, call for humanitarian and other forms of aid for all traumatized communities, and demand an end to conflict through a negotiated and just peace that recognizes the rights and human dignity of all parties.
A resolution that more of the Town could agree on may not accomplish everything that any one person wants, but crafting one would help us know each other. Maybe we’d find unexpected common ground. Meanwhile, working toward a compromise resolution that could work for more constituencies would be a valuable process. It would also reflect an important spiritual message: Community becomes stronger when we hear each other.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat ’96 serves Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, Mass.
