A few weeks after October 7, 2023, the Rabbinical Assembly brought a small group of rabbis to Israel to lend support and to learn firsthand what was happening so we could share it with our communities.
Among our most powerful experiences was a visit with members of our Masorti [Conservative] community in Omer, outside Beersheba.
The community members were devastated by the murders and felt that only a miracle kept the terrorists farther west, sparing them a similar fate. The sense of trauma and vulnerability was palpable. Our group members were also traumatized by the destruction we had witnessed during our visit to the Gaza envelope earlier in the day – the destroyed and burnt homes, the smell of death still in the air, the stories of heroism, suffering, and martyrdom still ringing in our ears.
There was deep connection and empathy in the room, but also a gap in experience. Our group would soon return to the (relative) safety of North America; our friends in Omer would remain, facing uncertainty and vulnerability. None of us could truly imagine that the war would continue for another year, that over 100 hostages would remain in darkness and suffering, that tens of thousands would remain displaced from the North and South, and that rockets and missiles would rain down daily from every direction.
In the ensuing months, our movement made extraordinary efforts to close that gap and support one another. Our rabbis and congregants have family members as lone soldiers in the IDF, and we see aliyah growing from our communities. In Israel, our movement has been a daily presence in Hostages Square while supporting soldiers and their families, evacuees, and the spiritual needs of communities in the Gaza envelope and beyond. Our communities outside of Israel have fought antisemitism, become activists for the release of the hostages, sent hundreds of thousands to rallies in Washington and other cities, provided hundreds of millions of dollars of financial support, and reached out to countless family members and friends.
And while many colleagues and communities have visited since that first small delegation, over 230 colleagues from around the world recently spent four days together in Jerusalem for our annual Rabbinical Assembly convention.
As we gathered, we asked two big questions:
How can we support one another in this moment, nurturing strength and resilience in the face of the continued pain, uncertainty, and vulnerability that all of us are experiencing, in Israel and around the world?
And how can we help to shape a strong, democratic, pluralist, and vibrant Israel for the future?
Through prayer, study, conversation, and quiet presence, we explored and narrowed the gap in experience between those living in Israel and those from abroad. I know from experience this past year that sometimes just being together – knowing we are not alone – inspires resilience and strength. In smaller groups, our rabbis fanned out around the country, visiting our Masorti communities, consulting with thought leaders, hiking, creating art and music, and exploring models of pastoral care. We prayed at the egalitarian section of the Western Wall, met new olim at Nefesh B’Nefesh, and studied Torah. Meanwhile, in our plenaries, we considered our movement’s unique position and voice in this moment, as well as what comes next for Zionism, for Israel, for Israelis, and for the relationship between those living within and outside of the Jewish state.
We are a movement that strives to hold values and ideas that are in tension with one another: tradition and modernity.
Universalism and particularism. Study, prayer, and action. In fact, we find energy, meaning, and inspiration through a search for balance, integration, and nuance.
In a world of increasing radicalization and polarization, what does it mean to explore and even champion the space between the extremes? What does it mean to live a life of “both/and” rather than “either/or”?
Together we envision an Israel that embraces Jewish tradition and democracy. A state that supports a wide variety of Jewish (and non-Jewish) religious expression. A Zionism that affirms Jewish life inside and outside the Land of Israel, and that settles the Land of Israel while respecting all those who live in it. A politics that rejects an ethos of divide and conquer and embraces a culture of dialogue and compromise.
As we move toward Hanukkah, we are reminded of the significance of transferring a flame from the shamash “helper candle” to each candle on the hanukkiah. The flame of the shamash is not diminished, even as we create more light each night as the number of candles grows.
Our goal during our time together in Jerusalem was to strengthen one another’s neshama (soul) – to be a shamash to one another, offering energy, support, care, and wisdom to strengthen one another. And in turn, as rabbis, to give us the energy to continue to offer that same care, love, and leadership to each member of our communities in Israel and around the world, enabling the Jewish people to be an or la’goyim – a light to one another and to the rest of the world. Hag urim same’ach!■
Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal serves as CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, two of the leading organizations of the Conservative/Masorti Movement. Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, he served for over 20 years as founding rabbi of Shaare Torah congregation in Gaithersburg, Maryland.