Your Brother's Blood is Crying Out . . .

"Your brother's blood is crying out to Me." Gen. 4:10

Our hearts ache over the turmoil in Israel. The world seems very dark when a 13-year old from East Jerusalem attacks and stabs another 13-year old simply because the other was an Israeli Jew. Or when a Palestinian man attacks and stabs a 70-year old woman on the street in front of Jerusalem’s central bus station because she is an Israeli Jew. Or when one Israeli Jew attacks and stabs another Israeli Jew because the first man mistook the second for an Arab. Or, when some Israeli Jews gather and chant “death to Arabs.”

The world is dark when innocents -- elders and children alike -- are targeted for no reason other than that they carry the name Jew or Israeli or Arab.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel at this time of distress and violent conflict.  What is happening there prompts a range of emotions from sadness to anger, from fear to frustration, from concern to despair. We gathered the JCHS students and professional community today to remind them that many have lived in Israel or know people who live there. Some regularly check the news for updates on Israel and some of us are not aware of the latest news from there.  

Within the diverse social, religious, and political fabric of JCHS, our school community is united toward the values of klal yisrael -- awareness of and concern for the safety and welfare of all Jewish people -- and kvod habrit -- the dignity of each individual.

We reminded students that in our learning environment there is no room for statements that are racist or that grossly generalize about others whether Palestinian or Arab, Israeli or Jew. It is our hope that JCHS students will grow through their learning to contribute to ridding the world of violence and vengeance.  

Today’s assembly at JCHS concluded with a Junior student reading something written this week by a teacher of her's last year in Israel, Alexandra Benjamin. We thought it especially important to share Alexandra’s words because she powerfully captures the tensions between danger and security, darkness and light, as well as the complexity of what is being experienced by Israelis in recent days. Benjamin writes:

Five changes I have made to my behaviour in recent days

1. I no longer text or play candy crush as I walk. I want to stay alert and aware of my surroundings.

2. When I wait at a bus stop I stand behind the shelter, not under it.

3. When I walk down the sidewalk I try and walk on the side of the oncoming traffic - the better to see cars coming towards me.

4. When I leave my home in the morning I make sure I haven't left anything embarrassing out - just in case I don't come back and someone else has to enter my apartment.

5. I don't wear high-heels. Just in case I need to run.

Five changes I refuse to make to my behaviour.

1. I won't stop going out. I will go to work, go to the gym, go to the shuk, go to restaurants. This is my life and my city and I won't have it stolen from me.

2. I won't look at every Arab like s/he is a terrorist. I won't allow myself to get sucked into racist fear-mongering.

3. I won't lose perspective. I will remember that terrorism is about inciting terror out of proportion to the danger. This is still the city where I can (and do) walk safely through my neighbourhood alone in the middle of the night.

4. I won't panic. Even when I hear several sirens in a row, or when I see security forces blocking off the street. (not every 'suspicious object' is a bomb.)

5. I won't stop being grateful for the amazing miracle that is Israel and for the incredible things that make our society one I am so proud of.

In my heart, I call to mind the traditional language from the morning liturgy:

Acheinu kol beit Yisrael, ha’ne’tunim b’tzarah - As for our siblings from the whole house of Israel who are in distress or captivity, whether on sea or land, may the All-Present have compassion on them and lead them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, and from oppression to freedom -- now, swiftly and soon.

Sampling of Additional Resources

• Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writing in memory Eitam & Naama Henkin killed earlier this month:  “The great choice faced by humanity in every age is between the will to power and the will to life.”

• Elhanan Miller’s analysis of recent violence: “Palestinian incitement or deeper malaise? Depends which Israeli official you ask. While Prime Minister Netanyahu has pinned the current round of violence on hateful rhetoric, Israel’s security establishment paints a more complex picture.”

• Knesset Member Dov Lipman’s op/ed about combatting terrorists without stabbing ourselves in the back:  “Despite the tension we feel these days and the absolute need to kill the terrorists while they try to kill us, there is no way to reconcile chants of “Death to Arabs.”

• Rabbi Donniel Hartman blog post “My Gun and I”:  “We Israelis must take responsibility for our moral failures and do everything in our power to rectify them; however, the responsibility for terrorism lies within the terrorist and the society which glorifies it. As long as they do, I need my gun.”

• News report about child terrorist Abbas claimed was ‘executed’ is in stable condition.

• Avi Issacharoff’s analysis of recent violence: “The terror war from East Jerusalem: In the flammable Arab neighborhoods, the purported threat to al-Aqsa lit the flames; it’s hard to say what can douse them. Closures and curfews won’t”

• Gaza cleric calls on Palestinians to stab Jews, ‘cut them into body parts.’ Full translation of Sheikh Muhammad Sallah from MEMRI.org found here.