Dated November 15, 2023
Dear Friends,
I hope you are all as well as can be at this difficult time. I am writing to you with an update about our work in regard to the situation in Israel.
As I write this, I am packing my suitcase and getting ready to fly to Israel tomorrow. We are taking a small leadership group to make a pastoral visit to our Israeli colleagues and the communities they serve. All our colleagues in Israel are working under incredibly difficult circumstances and are doing a remarkable job serving a traumatized population. They are there for their communities right now in incredible ways, helping people deal with grief, loss, fear, and anger. We are traveling there to offer them support and to let them know that all of us here are holding them in our hearts—they are not alone. We will also be visiting some of the families of hostages and displaced families from the south. I know that the Israel we will see will be very different from the Israel we are familiar with.
At the start of this terrible situation, I shared with you some of what we were doing to support rabbis in this difficult time. As you know, supporting rabbis is our core mission, and we have been working hard to fulfill this mission under these new circumstances.
That work has continued as we have supported rabbis in many ways, including:
- Staying in ongoing touch with MARAM, the Israeli Reform rabbinic association
- Arranging for crisis counseling with trained specialists for our Israeli colleagues
- Creating a way for our North American rabbis to financially support our Israeli colleagues
- Sending emergency funds to select rabbis in Israel whose regular employment has been interrupted by the war
- Supporting our North American colleagues serving on college campuses, including this statement.
- Adding many new educational webinars, ritual opportunities, facilitated conversations, and support groups for colleagues related to the situation in Israel
- Sharing Israel-focused resources for rabbis to use in services and programs
- Creating a solidarity trip for colleagues to visit Israel as a group in January, 2024
And these are just highlights; there is so much more. This work of supporting our colleagues around the world will continue as the situation in Israel continues to evolve.
I know that the trip I am embarking on tomorrow will be difficult in many ways, and will also teach me a great deal that will inform our decisions about what else we will do as next steps. I look forward to sharing reflections about this trip with you when I return.
Until then, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving, and send prayers for more peaceful days ahead.
Be well,
Hara