‘Bitter Grief, Fear, Anger’

Editor’s Note: In the immediate days after the Hamas assault on Israel, the Independent reached out to leaders of the Jewish community. These are their responses.

Arthur Gross-Schaefer

Rabbi at Community Shul of Montecito and Santa Barbara and Professor at Loyola Marymount University

In this difficult time, let us not lose our humanity. My prayer is that we all remember that we are commanded to love our neighbors. I love Israel and all of its people — the Jews, the Muslims, the Christians. And I do view the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank as my neighbors as well. I believe in the Israeli Declaration of Independence, based on our American Declaration of Independence. It declared in 1948: The State of Israel … will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice, and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or gender; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education, and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions.

And yet, today my heart is broken, and it is hard to put into words my thoughts and feelings as I encounter in so many of the stories I have read, the viciousness, ruthlessness, and cruelty perpetrated by Hamas. There are many of us in the Jewish world who have advocated for peace with our neighbors for many years. There are Palestinian friends and partner organizations that we have learned from and with whom we have worked. We will continue to want for our neighbors what we want for ourselves — safety, dignity, civility, and peace.

‘Today my heart is broken.’

And yet, Hamas does not want any of this, neither for Israel nor for Palestinians. Its fighters brutally killed and kidnapped indiscriminately — babies, children, elderly, disabled, teens, women, Jews, Arabs, Bedouins. Who are these people with no humanity? I hear words suggesting a moral equivalence between what Israel has done and the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Hamas. As a professor of law and ethics, this type of reasoning is flawed because it distorts the issues. Even during war, there are limits or red lines that civilized people honor and do their best to adhere to, even in the most difficult of circumstances. These are issues Israel will face as it tries to find and free those kidnapped and attempt to prevent Hamas from continuing their actions. At this point, we need to stand up and say that what Hamas did and continues to do has crossed those red lines.

I pray that we are as careful as possible to protect our neighbors in Gaza.

I pray for all of us a world of civility, understanding, and peace.

Dan Meisel

Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League for Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties

We all need to be clear that Hamas is an extremist group advocating violence and the destruction of Israel. Their stated goal is the elimination of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state governed by Islamic law, and their primary mechanisms are violence and sowing hate. They do not recognize previously negotiated Israeli-Palestinian agreements. 

‘While we mourn for all innocent victims of this war, there is no equivalence between the actions of Hamas and those of Israel.’

While we mourn for all innocent victims of this war, there is no equivalence between the actions of Hamas and those of Israel. The brutality of Hamas’s conduct should more than shock our conscience. It should clarify the horrible and inhumane consequences of unchecked and state-sponsored hate. It should heighten our entire community’s awareness about the vulnerability of Israel and Jewish communities worldwide, who often experience dramatic increases in antisemitism when tensions rise in the Middle East. It should also prompt us to reject and work against hate and bigotry in every form and with every opportunity.

Stephen Cohen

Rabbi at Congregation B’nai B’rith

My community and I are gripped right now by intense emotions. Bitter grief. Fear. Anger. Even hatred. We are filled with loathing at the scenes of jubilation in so many streets of the world celebrating the slaughter of our innocents. We are terrified for the over 100 hostages whose lives are in mortal danger. We are stunned by the massive failure of Israel’s military intelligence to anticipate the surprise attack and equally devastated by the failure of Israel’s army to stop it once it began. Most of all, we are in deep, deep mourning for so many dead.

 ‘Most of all, we are in deep, deep mourning for so many dead.’

At the very same time, we feel many other things as well. We feel grateful to President Biden for his unmistakably heartfelt speech on Tuesday, and for the calls and emails of love and support from all of our friends. We feel proud of the awesome outpouring of love and support that Israelis are showing each other right now. And we are filled with horror and grief at the untold suffering of thousands and thousands of innocent Palestinians.

It sometimes feels like our human hearts are too small to hold all of these conflicting emotions at once. But we are trying.