In sanctuaries across the nation, in fact, across the globe, rabbis and cantors spent much of the recent High Holidays speaking about the rifts – the competing views – that exist within their congregations concerning Israel, Gaza, and the political divides in the United States.
Their messages were about listening to each other, managing anger, the struggles on determining which paths to pursue, and attempting to ease the acrimony, all while offering a particle of hope during these profoundly challenging times for the Jewish community.
Navigating fractures within the Jewish community is nothing new. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks noted, “Jews are a fractious, fissile people, always given to divisions and disunity.” He went on to say that Judaism is the “only religion, the only culture in the world whose cannons are anthologies of arguments.” If Jews argue, he pondered, “how, then, do we stay as one?” His response: “By the sheer force of the argument itself. We stay, we converse, we disagree, but we never split apart.” Rabbi Sacks suggested that “never leaving the table but engaged in the collaborative pursuit of truth is what holds the Jewish people together. Unity without uniformity.”
While Rabbi Sacks did not experience today’s tumultuous times, his message could serve as a model for traversing the current waves of discord – Jewish community survives with argument, or a gentler way to put it, discussion, debate.
Like the rabbis and leaders within the Jewish communities around the world, Jewish News is acutely aware of diverse opinions and factions within our readership. As the paper’s editor, I’ve received calls accusing the publication of being too conservative, as well as calls accusing the paper of being too liberal. The fact that both sides feel that the paper doesn’t necessarily coincide with their beliefs indicates to me that perhaps we’re doing something right.
Jewish News aims to alert our readers to the news of the Jewish world (of which currently there is an overwhelming amount to choose from), mainly via our news partner, JTA. We’re dedicated to providing the facts to our readers – whether or not they align with one’s particular view of the world. Sometimes, the facts are not pleasant. Still, there is the hope that printing accurate nonpartisan information might stimulate conversation and opportunities to even learn from one another or perhaps motivate readers into activism.
Never could I imagine that writing about Israel would be deemed political. But that’s where we are, and these are the crazy, and quite inflammatory times we are attempting to navigate without alienating any of our readers – all of whom we cherish.
As Rabbi Sacks suggested, we don’t have to be uniform to be united.
Thank you for reading.
Terri Denison
Editor