Jews in the U.S. welcome the ceasefire in Gaza, but mourn lives upended by the war

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Sunday’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is prompting reflection among Jews in the U.S. Deena Prichep reports from Portland, Oregon, where rabbis and activists are weighing the war’s many costs.

DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: When the ceasefire was announced, Rabbi Benjamin Barnett felt relief and rage and heartbreak. And, like every Saturday for over a year, he recited a prayer.

BENJAMIN BARNETT: (Speaking Hebrew).

PRICHEP: It’s an old prayer for the release of captives, adapted to this moment.

BARNETT: Exercise compassion upon them, sparing them from further harm and returning them safe and whole to their families and communities.

PRICHEP: Barnett’s congregation, Havurah Shalom, includes Zionists and anti-Zionists. Barnett says these past 15 months have really stretched them. And they’ve stretched the traditional prayer, adding lines for the safety of the people of Gaza.

BARNETT: And may all the people of Israel and all the people of Palestine be protected under the wings of your endlessly loving presence. May all inhabitants of the land between the river and the sea know safety, freedom and dignity.

PRICHEP: In Portland’s downtown waterfront, another group has also been gathering for a weekly ritual – holding up pictures of Israeli hostages to the people walking by. Organizer Noga Vilan makes a point of saying that holding up pictures of Israelis doesn’t mean that they care less about Palestinians, but Vilan is from Israel, and for her, it’s personal.

NOGA VILAN: One of the girls, her name is Abigail. Her dad went to school with me. He was murdered.

PRICHEP: With the hostage deal, Vilan feels some tentative hope, but also grief.

VILAN: It is very sad that it’s the same deal that was on the table back in May of last year. So it’s just awful to think of all those lives that we lost, and – seriously – eight months that those people could have been home and the many Palestinian lives that could have been saved.

PRICHEP: And she worries that there’ll be another October 7 a few months or years down the road.

VILAN: That’s the biggest fear, I guess, that this war is not really ending, that we are not breaking this hate cycle. We’re just doing a ceasefire.

NATHAN DIAMENT: It’s not as though part of the terms of this agreement is Hamas saying, oh, we now recognize Israel as a wonderful neighbor, and we just want to live in peace and security in our own little space.

PRICHEP: Nathan Diament directs public policy for the Orthodox Union. Unlike the other major denominations, their statement on the ceasefire says, quote, “there should still be hell to pay,” and it does not mention the war’s impact on the people of Gaza. Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal heads the organization representing conservative congregations, which put out a very different statement. But he says while Judaism believes all life is sacred, there’s been so much trauma.

JACOB BLUMENTHAL: The question is, where’s our emotional capacity to empathize with the other when you’re feeling your own pain? So I don’t have any judgment for people who are along that spectrum.

PRICHEP: That’s the question of this time, says Rabbi Rick Jacobs, who heads the Union for Reform Judaism.

RICK JACOBS: There are chambers of your heart. There’s not one chamber. And our tradition commands us to not only care about our own family – and the hostages from Israel are our family – but it also commands us to care for the rest of God’s family.

PRICHEP: Jacobs acknowledges that this commandment has been a hard one over these past 15 months. In Portland, Oregon, Rabbi Benjamin Barnett has felt that difficulty. His congregation has lost members over it on both sides of the aisle. But he says faith and practice can create a space for that.

BARNETT: One of the things that ritual does is it links us both with each other in this moment, it links us with our ancestors, and I think it reminds us who we really want to be.

PRICHEP: Barnett says even in moments of deep hurt and celebration and uncertainty, all of which people are feeling right now, it can be clarifying to connect with something larger – connect with your heart.

BARNETT: It can’t just be about what we’re resisting. I think it has to be about what is the kind of life that we want to be living? What do we want to be cultivating here? What do we want to be passing down to our children?

PRICHEP: In Portland, both Benjamin Barnett and Noga Vilan plan to keep up their weekly practice of offering prayer and holding signs, and both are looking forward to the day when there’s no more need.

For NPR News, I’m Deena Prichep, in Portland, Oregon.

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