Statements

Reform Movement Statement on Israel’s Expansion of the War Against Hamas

Posted on August 8, 2025 by The CCAR

August 8, 2025

Before his death, Moses implored our people:
וּבָֽחַרְתָּ֙ בַּחַיִּ֔ים לְמַ֥עַן תִּֽחְיֶ֖ה אַתָּ֥ה וְזַרְעֶֽךָ׃
“Choose life, that you and your offspring may live.”
—Deuteronomy 30:19

Today, as the State of Israel is faced with difficult choices in its long and deadly war against Hamas, we implore Israel to choose life for our hostages, our soldiers, and innocent civilians in Gaza by ending—not extending—this war.

We are deeply distressed that Israel’s security cabinet approved Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to extend Israeli control over the Gaza Strip. As Jews who believe in an Israel that aspires to be both safe and ethical, we are galvanized by the position of a growing array of Israeli military, intelligence, and political leaders and experts, as well as the clear majority of Israeli public, who warn that the Israeli government’s plan to further occupy Gaza would be a military, political, and humanitarian calamity. In the past nearly two years, many thousands of people in Israel and Gaza have already been killed, maimed, and displaced. In Israel and the U.S., leading voices such as the Jerusalem Post’s editorial board and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who referred to a potential re-occupation as a “colossal mistake,” agree that an expanded occupation of Gaza is not in Israel’s long-term interests. Former Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer and Middle East analyst Aaron David Miller have referred to re-occupation as “a trap” for Israel. Just days ago, more than 500 prominent Israelis—former leaders of the Mossad, Shin Bet, police, IDF, and others—sent a letter calling for an end to the war, not its expansion. Reports indicate the head of the IDF, Eyal Zamir, threatened to resign over plans to re-occupy Gaza at one point. We do not take comfort in the fact that the plan approved last night is limited to action related to Gaza City with its significant population size and where hostages are believed to be held. We fear plans to occupy Gaza City are but the first step in the expansion so many have warned against.

Instead of striving to bring the war to an end and return our hostages home safely or for proper burial, the war’s expansion will likely be a death sentence for our hostages. It will likely cause more deaths and injury to our IDF soldiers, who are already struggling physically and mentally, and to civilians trapped in Gaza. It will likely mean more economic challenges and disunion within Israel, more division among world Jewry, and more isolation of Israel on the international stage. PM Netanyahu’s assurance that this is only a temporary measure is hard to believe, given the war’s continuation over the past 22 months and the quagmires of previous military occupations by Israel in south Lebanon, and by other nations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam—all of which began with similar assurances—which only resulted in increasingly deadly and deteriorating conditions years later. The Israeli government has yet to offer an exit strategy or plans for “the day after.”

Israel has become, and remains, a powerful nation thanks, in part, to the support of allies around the world. But the length and horrors of this war thus far means that military and other forms of support from longtime allies may be less forthcoming in the future. The current occupation of part of Gaza already risks Israel’s security and international reputation, and longtime allies of Israel are this morning reacting negatively to the cabinet’s approved plan.

There is no question that Hamas bears the responsibility for this war, for the conditions in Gaza right now, for failing to put down its arms, for its refusal to release the hostages, and for resisting improved conditions for its people. However, Israel has the ability and responsibility to prioritize its own people and values by recognizing that now is the time to end this war, bring the hostages home, and create a coalition of Arab nations with the U.S. and other allies to rebuild Gaza and shape a better tomorrow for all.

Union for Reform Judaism
Shelley Niceley Groff, North American Board Chair (she/her)
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President (he/him)

Central Conference of American Rabbis
Rabbi David A. Lyon, President (he/him)
Rabbi Hara Person, Chief Executive Officer (she/her)

American Conference of Cantors
Cantor Josh Breitzer, President (he/him)
Rachel Roth, Chief Operating Officer (she/ her)

CCAR statements are grounded in the history of CCAR resolutions and platforms. We strive to represent the overall voice of the CCAR leadership and the Reform rabbinate on critical issues of the day. The CCAR is a diverse community of rabbis, and we recognize the multiplicity of viewpoints that exist within our membership. We encourage those of differing perspectives to engage in respectful dialogue. It is our hope that these statements provide the Reform community with deeper understanding of important issues that impact our lives as Jews and as global citizens.

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Joint Reform Movement Statement on West Bank Settler Violence

Posted on July 23, 2025 by The CCAR

July 23, 2025

Against the backdrop of so much anguish and crisis in Israel and Gaza, the mounting crisis of settler violence on the West Bank against Palestinian civilians is too often ignored. Albeit involving only a small number of settlers, the violence has intensified, as these settlers kill and injure Palestinians, steal their livestock, burn their olive trees, and destroy their property, terrorizing the Palestinian population in an attempt to clear Judea and Samaria for unfettered Jewish settlement. Since January of this year alone, some 404 incidents of settler violence have been documented, including a growing number of attacks on IDF soldiers and bases.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, Union for Reform Judaism, and the American Conference of Cantors deplore the growing incidents of unchecked violence inflicted on Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the Occupied West Bank.

Most recently, these incidents have attracted wider attention internationally and particularly in the United States, subsequent to a violent attack by settlers on IDF troops as well as on the murder of an American citizen, Saifullah Musallet, who was visiting relatives in the West Bank village of Sinjil. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has rightly demanded a full investigation.

A thorough investigation must be undertaken—not only of the murder of an American citizen, but also of the growing phenomenon of settler violence overall. Serious measures must be taken against these perpetrators. Too often, when Palestinians call the police and the army during an attack by settlers, both arrive too late to help the victims, if they arrive at all. Similarly, too often police or IDF soldiers are seen in videos or news reports standing by without acting to stop the violence. By contrast, when settlers call for help when Palestinians are simply protecting their own people and property, the army and police come quickly.

Given that the Israeli police force is controlled by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the civil administration of the West Bank is under the command of Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Department Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom support expansion of West Bank Jewish settlements, none of this comes as a surprise, but it cannot be condoned. This government seems to tolerate and even encourage violence against Palestinians. Frequently, after a Palestinian civilian is attacked or murdered, several Palestinians are arrested, for example for throwing stones in a futile attempt to chase violent Jewish settlers from the Palestinian community, but no arrest is made in the murder itself. Moreover, little to no effort is made to remove illegal settlement outposts from which so many of these attacks emanate. Instead, the Israeli government provides infrastructure and utilities to these illegal outposts.

Torah teaches, “There shall be one law for the citizens and for the stranger who dwells among you” (Exodus 12:49). Allowing terror to be perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank is both immoral as well as a חילול השם (chilul HaShem), desecration of the Divine Name.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the American Conference of Cantors join the demand for a full investigation of the murder of Saifullah Musallet, and call upon the Israeli government to expand that investigation to the examination of all West Bank settler violence and to impose criminal penalties on all who break the law—whatever their religion or nationality. Terrorism and violence cannot be tolerated by the government of Israel—not against Jews nor against Palestinians. Vigilante violence by West Bank settlers must end now.

Rabbi David A. Lyon, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

Shelley Niceley Groff, Chair
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President
Union for Reform Judaism

Cantor Josh Breitzer, President
Rachel Roth, Chief Operating Officer
American Conference of Cantors

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Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement on the Supreme Court Decision in United States v. Skrmetti

Posted on June 23, 2025 by The CCAR

June 23, 2025

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is appalled by the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Skrmetti, empowering state governments to risk the lives of transgender and nonbinary youth by prohibiting their parents and physicians from providing evidence-based gender-affirming medical care.

Puberty blockers and other gender-affirming hormone therapies, preceded and accompanied by psychotherapy, are proven safe and effective in the treatment of gender dysphoria.[i] Notably, transgender youth who receive gender-affirming care show improved mental health and lower risks of suicide than transgender and nonbinary youth from whom that care is withheld.[ii]

Reform rabbis stand opposed to the twin scourges of recent years: the Supreme Court’s increasing willingness to permit state governments to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship with respect to sexual and reproductive health care and the war on transgender and nonbinary Americans waged by powerful politicians.

In the 2022 CCAR Statement on Laws that Endanger Transgender Youth, we recalled, “Our rabbinic tradition recognized a wide variety of genders.[iii] Reform rabbis take seriously the basic tenet of Torah, that all humanity is created בצלם אלהים (b’tzelem Elohim),“in God’s image,” (Genesis 1:27). …We likewise affirm that all human beings are created with gender identities, which for some people do not align with the sex assigned to them at birth.” [iv]

CCAR members and members of the communities we serve have children who receive gender-affirming medical care, and still more will require that treatment in the future. Many live in states that already have adopted prohibitions on gender-affirming care for minors like the Tennessee law that was upheld in Skrmetti. CCAR rabbis stand ready to support one another and members of the communities we serve. We are committed to determining how to help one another and our communities abide by the מצוה (mitzvah), “religious obligation,” ובחרת בחיים (uvacharta bachayim), “choose life,” (Deuteronomy 30:19), so that each of our transgender and nonbinary young people may reach adulthood, true to themselves, healthy, safe, and loved for who they are.

Rabbi David A. Lyon, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

[i] Heather Boerner, “What the Science on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids Really Shows,” Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/what-the-science-on-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-kids-really-shows/.

[ii] Diana M. Tordoff, et al, “Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35212746/.

[iii] See, for example, Mishnah Torah, Marriage, Chapter 2.

[iv] Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement on Laws that Endanger Transgender Youth, May 5, 2022, https://www.ccarnet.org/central-conference-of-american-rabbis-statement-on-laws-that-endanger-transgender-youth/.

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Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement of Support for the State and People of Israel

Posted on June 16, 2025 by The CCAR

June 16, 2025

In these days of hope mingled with worry, the Central Conference of American Rabbis reaffirms its support and concern for the State of Israel and its people.

The CCAR joins peace-loving people everywhere who advocate for Israel’s military and intelligence operation, which aims to destroy or thoroughly incapacitate the nuclear capability of the Iranian regime. This is a war of defense against a regime that has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated its intentions to destroy Israel and the Jewish people, in addition to other targets throughout the West. Iran has provided material support to terrorist groups—Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, among others—that have murdered, kidnapped, wounded, and attacked Israel and Israelis, before, on, and since October 7, 2023.

We urge Israel’s leadership to bring this war to a swift and successful conclusion with the fewest possible casualties among the impacted civilian populations. We send condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives in this war and pray for the healing of the injured.

CCAR members around the world cherish our family and friends, teachers and rabbinic colleagues, in Israel. Many are now either called up for service in the Israel Defense Force or are rushing to their safe rooms and shelters, terrified by fatal attacks in the center of the country. CCAR members’ hearts, minds, and prayers are with them constantly.

The CCAR extends its support to our MARAM colleagues, CCAR members in Israel, who continue to lead their communities through unprecedented challenges to Israel’s security and democracy, as well as to our IMPJ partners. To them we repeat the biblical blessing of Joshua, חזקו ואמצו, (chizku v’imtzu) “be strong and of good courage.”

Loved ones of CCAR members and members of our communities are in harm’s way in Israel today. We pray, ופרוס עליהם.ן סוכת שלומך (ufros aleihem.n sukkat shlomecha), “Spread over them the shelter of Your peace.”

Rabbi David A. Lyon, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

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Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement on Military Response to Protests

Posted on June 12, 2025 by The CCAR

June 12, 2025

The Central Conference of American Rabbis condemns the White House’s deployment of the United States Armed Forces to combat largely peaceful protests in Los Angeles. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” and “to petition the Government for redress of grievances”—that is, to the constitutional right of Americans to assemble and protest. Moreover, American law expressly forbids the deployment of our military “for the purpose of executing the laws, except … as expressly authorized by the Constitution or by an act of Congress.”^[1] No such military action has been authorized.

Demonstrators have gathered to protest workplace immigration enforcement on a scale unprecedented in American history. The CCAR has a long record of opposing “the punitive enforcement-only approach to illegal residents that would result in deportations without access to a fair process that considers the circumstances of the individual or that co-opts the use of local law enforcement to meet federal … obligations.” Moreover, the CCAR is committed “to advocacy for an immigration law that will not only improve border security and immigration law enforcement, but will also provide for guest workers and for a just and fair path to citizenship for those now in the country without legal documentation.”^[2]

Military action against protestors will serve only to enflame demonstrations in Los Angeles and wherever they may spread. Protestors, too, are responsible for keeping the peace. While violence has been minimal, graffiti and more serious vandalism have accompanied these protests. Reform rabbis call on demonstrators to remain peaceful and respectful of all persons and property.

Torah commands, צדק צדק תרדף, (Tzedek, tzedek tirdof), “Justice, justice shall you pursue.”^[3] The repetition of the word צדק indicates that justice, the execution of law, must be carried out by just means. Deploying the military to quell protest is not a just method of enforcing immigration law.

The CCAR commends its members in Los Angeles who have raised their voices against both the large-scale workplace immigration enforcement and the deployment of military forces to quell demonstrations. The CCAR pledges support to its members and the communities they serve at this time of crisis.

Reform rabbis call on President Trump to withdraw troops from the streets of Los Angeles and to work with state and local governments to restore calm and peace in one of America’s great cities. We renew our demand that Congress take up comprehensive immigration reform, securing America’s borders while according dignity to every person residing within them.

Rabbi David A. Lyon, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. ↑
CCAR Resolution on Immigration Reform, June 2006, https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-resolutions/immigration-reform/. ↑
Deuteronomy 16:20. ↑

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CCAR Joins Jewish Organizational Coalition in a New Statement Rejecting False Choice Between Jewish Safety and Democracy

Posted on April 15, 2025 by The CCAR

April 15, 2025

The CCAR joined a coalition along with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism, National Council of Jewish Women, American Conference of Cantors, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Rabbinical Assembly, Reconstructing Judaism, and Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association to release the following statement.

The rule of law, freedom of inquiry, access to vibrant places of higher education, and strong democratic norms and institutions have allowed American Jewry to thrive for hundreds of years.

There should be no doubt that antisemitism is rising—visible, chilling, and increasingly normalized in our public discourse, politics, and institutions. It requires urgent and consistent action by our nation’s political, academic, religious, and civic leaders. At the same time, we firmly reject the false choice between confronting antisemitism and upholding democracy. Our safety as Jews has always been tied to the rule of law, to the safety of others, to the strength of civil society, and to the protection of rights and liberties for all.

At this moment, Jews are being targeted and held collectively accountable for the actions of a foreign government. Jews are being pushed out of certain movements, classrooms, and communities for expressing a connection to their heritage or to the Jewish homeland. And, horrifically, some voices in the public square are justifying or celebrating the murder of Jews. Dangerous antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories that over the past decade have already fueled a cycle of hate crimes and violence—including the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history in Pittsburgh—have been mainstreamed by too many political leaders, civil society influencers, social media platforms, and others.

In recent weeks, escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding. Students have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally-protected speech. Universities have an obligation to protect Jewish students, and the federal government has an important role to play in that effort; however, sweeping draconian funding cuts will weaken the free academic inquiry that strengthens democracy and society, rather than productively counter antisemitism on campus.

These actions do not make Jews—or any community—safer. Rather, they only make us less safe.

We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of antisemitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about antisemitism to undermine democratic norms and rights, including the rule of law, the right of due process, and/or the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful protest.

It is both possible and necessary to fight antisemitism—on campus, in our communities, and across the country—without abandoning the democratic values that have allowed Jews, and so many other vulnerable minorities, to thrive.

We appreciate the civil society, academic, and local, state, and national leaders who are committed to seriously and thoughtfully addressing the threat of antisemitism. We remain committed to working alongside university leadership and public officials at every level to ensure policies and practices that protect the Jewish community as well as other marginalized communities and uphold for all people the principles of justice, fairness, and equal protection under the law. That is the only path to true safety.

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Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement of Concern for Vulnerable Colleagues, Our Families, and the Communities We Serve

Posted on April 8, 2025 by The CCAR

April 8, 2025

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is deeply concerned about the welfare of its members, its members’ families, and members of the communities we serve whose lives, health, homes, and livelihoods have been placed at risk by executive orders and proclamations issued by the current administration since it took office in January, 2025.

Our Talmudic sages taught that the needs of one’s own community take precedence over the needs of those who are more distant.[i] We therefore begin by addressing needs in our own community. Awareness of risk to members of our own communities enhances our consciousness of and sensitivity to similar concerns throughout American society.

Some CCAR members and their immediate family members are foreign citizens who are living, working, and going to school in the United States, legally. In addition, the communities we serve include immigrants and refugees who possess a wide variety of legal statuses, including some whose immigration status is undocumented. All of these CCAR members and members of our communities are living in fear. Rabbis are often outspoken about a variety of issues, not always in ways that align with the current government or any that came before it. When immigrants who are in the United States legally are detained and threatened with deportation because of unpopular public advocacy, even advocacy we abhor,[ii] we fear for the rights of our immigrant colleagues. Can they continue exercising the American right of free speech without risking deportation, separation from their families, and loss of livelihood? The communities we serve may also include immigrants who have committed minor infractions that make them vulnerable to deportation, even if the offense is not punishable by incarceration. We are concerned for them all—and for millions more like them, beyond our immediate sphere.

Some CCAR members are transgender or nonbinary. Still more are parents of transgender and nonbinary children. The communities we serve embrace transgender and nonbinary people of all ages, including children who are receiving life-saving, gender affirming medical care under the care of their physicians and their parents. President Trump has erased the identities of transgender and nonbinary Americans, deriding those identities as results of a supposedly radical, dangerous, and false ideology rather than as expression of who they know themselves and their children to be. He has sanctioned discrimination and persecution of transgender and nonbinary Americans.[iii] Now, in his Proclamation of Child Abuse Prevention Month,[iv] President Trump has labeled gender affirming care as child abuse. With this proclamation, the President of the United States has threatened the removal of children from the parents who love them and parents from the children upon whom they lavish their loving care. His words may even be understood to threaten the prosecution and incarceration of parents and healthcare professionals who are providing that lifesaving care to children entrusted to their care.

Some CCAR members, members of their families, and the communities we serve are Jews of Color. From his first day in office President Trump has indiscriminately ended Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts within, and well beyond, the United States government.[v] In the span of these three months, the horrific experience of Black Americans from the time their ancestors were first brought to these shores is being denied or minimized, and fewer People of Color are being represented in the leadership fabric of American life. Jews of Color legitimately fear resurging segregation and discrimination. Moreover, as with all People of Color in the United States, Jews of Color are increasingly suspected of being immigrants and refugees, potentially subject to deportation.

While few CCAR members are federal civil servants, some have spouses or other family members who are. So, too, are a significant number of members of the communities we serve, heavily concentrated in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area but spread across the nation. The lives of federal civil servants and their families have been cast into chaos, with more than a quarter million having lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2025,[vi] and many more legitimately fearing that they could be next. People of Color, including Jews of Color in our communities, are disproportionately affected by these draconian and often arbitrary reductions in the federal workforce, having long been overrepresented among federal civil servants, because they have faced less workplace racial discrimination in government than in the private sector.[vii]

Some CCAR members are disabled, are immunocompromised, are gay men or lesbians, and/or are members of other vulnerable minorities who have reason to feel threatened by actions that President Trump and his administration have taken or have suggested are forthcoming. Members of Reform rabbis’ families and the communities we serve, which includes Jews and people with other identities, are equally vulnerable. Our history has taught us that whenever vulnerable minorities are attacked, Jews will ultimately be vulnerable because we are Jewish.

Attacking members of vulnerable minority communities betrays the promise of America. As President and Chief Executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, we call upon President Trump and his administration to stop harming our colleagues, members of their families, and members of the communities we serve, among all Americans whose identities make them vulnerable. In the meantime, Reform rabbis urgently call upon Congress and our courts to uphold American values, respect each unique American identity, and protect all law-abiding citizens of this great nation, especially those who are most vulnerable.

Rabbi David A. Lyon, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

[i] Bava M’tzia 71a.

[ii] Reform Movement Statement on Importance of Law and Due Process, March 12, 2025, https://urj.org/press-room/reform-movement-statement-importance-rule-law-and-due-process.

[iii] President Donald J. Trump, Defending Women [sic] from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth [sic] to the Federal Government, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/.

[iv] President Donald J. Trump, Proclamation of National Child Abuse Awareness Month, April 3, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/national-child-abuse-prevention-month-2025/#:~:text=We%20affirm%20that%20every%20perpetrator,Liberty%20generations%20into%20the%20future.

[v]President Donald J. Trump, Ending Radical [sic] and Wasteful [sic] Government DEI Programs And Preferencing, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/.

[vi] Andy Medici, “How many federal employees have lost their jobs so far in 2025?”, Houston Business Journal and KHOU-11 Houston, April 3, 2025, https://www.khou.com/article/money/business/houston-business-journal/2025-federal-government-job-cut-total/285-55fcc5ed-8279-46dd-b569-ceadde0cbae8.

[vii] Terry Collins and Philip M. Bailey, “Federal jobs were seen as a gateway to the middle class for Black America, then came DOGE,” USA Today, March 24, 2025, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/24/defund-black-federal-jobs-trump-musk-doge/81751847007/.

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Reform Movement Statement on the Election of Donald J. Trump and An Open Letter to President Trump

Posted on November 6, 2024 by The CCAR

November 6, 2024

Donald J. Trump has been elected as the 47th President of the United States. We hope and pray that he will be a president for all Americans, advancing the principles of democracy, justice, and commitment to rule of law that have been sources of strength for our nation throughout its history.

We stand ready to join with the new Administration and Congress on any efforts to protect “the orphan, the widow, and the stranger.” We will be allies to any serious effort to combat antisemitism. We will champion a strong U.S.-Israel relationship that fosters democracy and security for the Jewish state while upholding the rights and well-being of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

At the same time, we will adamantly oppose any further efforts to eviscerate reproductive rights. We will resist any attempt to target the safety and rights of the LGBTQ+ community. We will defend the security of immigrants and the right to claim asylum. We will reject initiatives that have the effect of harming communities of Color. We will counter any steps that undermine the health of our air, water, and land.

We are also deeply concerned by statements President Trump has made about the weaponization of political power against individuals – including political opponents – and institutions that are core to our democracy, such as the press. And above all, we urge an end to the repeated demeaning of women, the use of hateful language against those who hold different views, and the persistent coarsening of our political culture.

Americans across the political spectrum must stand firm against such attacks. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, will have a unique responsibility to ensure that the principle of equal justice is upheld. To that end, we will speak forcefully against any judicial nominee whose record suggests they are prepared to abandon constitutional norms.

We are proud that, through the Reform Movement’s non-partisan Every Voice, Every Vote campaign, our activists contacted 750,000 voters in a campaign rooted in the knowledge that we create a safe future for ourselves and for all people by working together to strengthen our democracy.

Published by the Religious Action Center on behalf of the Reform Movement.

Open Letter to President Trump

Add your name to this open letter to President Trump, spotlighting key policy issues of concern and praying that in his next term, he will advance the principles of justice and commitment to rule of law that have been sources of strength for our nation.

Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement On the Anniversary of the Hamas Massacre of October 7, 2023

Posted on October 7, 2024 by The CCAR

October 7, 2024

The Central Conference of American Rabbis marks the first anniversary of Hamas’s barbaric October 7 massacre. On that bitter day, Hamas murdered twelve hundred Israelis and foreign nationals living among them, and took hundreds more into brutal captivity. The year that has passed since last October 7 has been one of grief and resolve. We have experienced fear for the well-being of our people in Israel and horror at the growing antisemitism in North America and around the world.

Throughout the last year, we have also been inspired by the Israeli spirit, as untold thousands of ordinary citizens responded to their country’s needs. Israelis have served in the Israel Defense Forces during this time of war, while their loved ones worried and persevered at home. They have mobilized to meet the needs of over one hundred thousand of their fellow citizens who are displaced from their homes. They have volunteered in fields and hothouses to ensure Israel’s food security at a time when many agricultural workers became suddenly unavailable. They took to the streets and raised their voices in support of a deal liberating the hostages.

While we hold on to these moments of hope and resolve, we also grieve that Israelis—Jews, Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, and others in their midst—have endured repeated bombardments from a horrifying array of terrorist forces, all backed, led, and supplied by Iran. Israelis have hurried to their safe rooms and bomb shelters as sirens blared and rockets, drones, and missiles streaked overhead. These weapons of war have been fired by Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Iranian regime itself. Meanwhile, much of the world has vilified Israel.

And we grieve as well the loss of thousands of innocent people caught in the crossfire, who despite all efforts, perished in the horrible consequences of a war Israel did not choose, in battles we wish Israel did not have to wage.

Reform rabbis worldwide stand in awe of our Israeli colleagues, CCAR rabbis who are also members of MARAM, the Council of Israeli Reform Rabbis. They have been on the front lines—some of them literally, serving in the reserves or sending their children to serve; all of them, caring for their communities and their nation. MARAM members, some of them displaced from their homes and all grieving unspeakable personal losses, have traveled the length and breadth of Israel to provide spiritual comfort, raise their prophetic voices, and sustain hope.

Throughout the diaspora, CCAR rabbis have led their communities through the challenges of confronting Israel’s existential crisis with sensitivity and compassion. We have raised our voices in diverse ways. We have faced antisemitism, and we have combated it. We have provided sorely needed Israel education, within and beyond Jewish communities. We have sought to provide the words, in poetry and prose, in worship, and in countless hours of counseling, to help ease the spiritual wounds our people have suffered. Some of us serve on college and university campuses, providing a haven and solace to Jewish students, faculty, and staff under siege. Many CCAR rabbis have traveled to Israel during this difficult year—demonstrating solidarity, learning with and supporting our Israeli colleagues, bearing witness to the horror, and providing valuable volunteer service.

In the days leading up to this tragic anniversary, as we prepared to observe Rosh HaShanah, our people in Israel suffered unprecedented ballistic missile attacks from Iran. We sadly acknowledge that this time of war and terror will extend well into the new year. The Central Conference of America Rabbis will continue to be here, standing by the people of Israel at the most difficult of times, even as we yearn to celebrate together in better days to come.

Rabbi Erica Asch, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

Central Conference of American Rabbis Statement Condemning Donald Trump’s Dangerous Antisemitic Campaign Rhetoric

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Tamar Anitai

September 23, 2024

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is grateful that both major candidates in the 2024 United States Presidential Election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump—together with their running mates—have taken strong stances in response to antisemitism. Antisemitism is a significant and growing problem in the United States, finding a welcome home at both the extreme right and left of the political spectrum.

At the same time, the Central Conference of American Rabbis strongly condemn Former President Trump’s repeated claims that Jewish Americans who vote for Vice President Harris would do so only because they suffer from mental illness and that American Jews would be to blame if Former President Trump did not prevail.[i]

The former claim fails to recognize that Jewish Americans, like all voters, have a variety of issues, both domestic and internal, which inform whom they will support this election. We also denounce the claim that Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff is not a good Jew.[ii] Jews practice Judaism in a variety of ways and it is not the role of our leaders to judge and disparage how people practice their religion.

We are most troubled by the inflammatory claim that American Jews will be at fault if Former President Trump does not win the election. Falsely claiming that Jews, who represent less than 3% of Americans, will single handedly determine the winner of the election plays into age-old antisemitic lies about Jewish power. Former President Trump’s rhetoric relies on what Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt has called the “antisemitic conspiracy myth” that Jews enjoy disproportionate power and exercise outsized control in and beyond America.[iii] This dangerous rhetoric seeks to target the Jewish community at a time of heightened antisemitism. It is part of a disturbing pattern of Former President Trump attacking those who disagree with him.

It should go without saying that American Jews, no matter which party they support, are loyal Americans. While we condemn these baseless attacks, we also encourage all Jews to vote in the upcoming election and to support non-partisan get out the vote efforts. Our democracy depends on the participation of all citizens of our country.

Rabbi Erica Asch, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

[i] https://www.axios.com/2024/09/20/trump-jewish-voters-antisemitism-election.

[ii] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-claims-harris-whos-married-to-a-jewish-man-doesnt-like-jewish-people.

[iii] https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-us-special-envoy-monitor-and-combat-antisemitism-deborah-lipstadt.