[Sundaycommunity] FW: Rabbi Denise Handlarski - Toronto Star - excellent article

[Paul M]

Thanks for posting David. We need more voices of reason.

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On Wed, Oct 9, 2024 at 2:57 PM David Walsh via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

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>    - copied below.
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> https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/im-a-rabbi-heartbroken-over-october-7-and-the-violence-in-palestine-heres-what-i/article_9be6869a-826b-11ef-961a-27bdb57a0a6b.html
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> *Opinion | **I’m a rabbi heartbroken over October 7 and the violence in
> Palestine. Here’s what I wish each side understood about the other*
>
> Updated Oct. 8, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.
>
> Save
> <https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/im-a-rabbi-heartbroken-over-october-7-and-the-violence-in-palestine-heres-what-i/article_9be6869a-826b-11ef-961a-27bdb57a0a6b.html>
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> Top of Form
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> [image: protest-york.JPG]
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> A protest at BAYT synagogue in York Region.
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> R.J. Johnston Toronto Star
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> *By Denise Handlarski, Contributor **Denise Handlarski is the rabbi of
> Secular Synagogue and teaches at Trent University.*
>
>  The ongoing events in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and the entire region have
> consumed so many of us this past year. They have left me feeling torn and
> isolated. I am a rabbi, a proud member of the Jewish community, and a
> member of what in recent months has been called the “lonely Jewish left.” I
> often find myself stuck between an increasingly right-wing Jewish community
> and leftist political and activist circles that feel increasingly
> antagonistic towards Jews.
>
> It has been heartbreaking to witness the catastrophic loss of life on and
> since October 7th. What has also been heartbreaking has been the
> weaponization of grief and trauma. My fellow Jews cry “never again” while
> allowing tens of thousands of their neighbours to be killed in the name of
> their safety. Pro-Palestinian supporters similarly dehumanize Jews and
> Israelis, celebrating their deaths as meaningful “resistance” in payback
> for the *Nakba* and decades of occupation.
>
> The word often used for this conflict is “intractable.” It is that way
> because of the inability for each side to empathize with and humanize the
> other. While operating from their own intergenerational trauma, each side
> justifies the unjustifiable. Every time human life is devalued in this way,
> it makes possible a greater escalation of violence. October 7th is a
> terrible anniversary of a horrific day of violence, and also an occasion to
> focus on the ongoing horrific violence that has escalated ever since. There
> are some things I wish those who call themselves Zionists and those who
> call themselves anti-Zionists would understand about the other side.
>
> Each claims Indigeneity and ancestral connection to the land, while
> eliding similar claims from the other. Each celebrates “wins” against the
> other side that include unimaginable civilian casualties, including sexual
> violence and the deaths of children — even when those events will certainly
> engender more violence. Each believes that the entire territory belongs to
> their side and refuses to acknowledge the ongoing cost of the pursuit of
> that goal.
>
> There are seven million Jews and seven million Palestinians living in
> Israel and the Palestinian territories. Both have ancestral and sacred
> connections to the territory. A starting point must be that no one is going
> anywhere. It is easy to be in our outrage and grief here, away from the
> region, fanning the flames of an ideological war. But the hostage families,
> Gazan citizens, people in the West Bank, the Jews evacuated from the border
> with Lebanon, those under siege in Lebanon – most of these people simply
> want all of this violence to stop.
>
> Jewish and Palestinian security and freedom are intertwined. Whether the
> eventual resolution lies in a two-state solution, a one-state solution, or
> a confederation of some kind, there will be no liberation or, in
> Netanyahu’s framing, “total victory” that comes from the dehumanization of
> the other.
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> I don’t say this to create a false equivalence between the power, death
> toll, or any other facet of this situation. Rather, it’s that the pain of a
> parent who lost a child on October 7th, and the pain of a parent who lost a
> child to an Israeli air strike, are exactly the same. That pain cannot be
> captured or healed by slogans, posturing, self-righteousness, or quippy
> take-downs. And the more we refuse to see the pain of the other, the more
> that pain gets weaponized into violence.
>
> If we are going to take a side, let’s be on the side of peace and mutual
> security. The true tragedy of this past year has been that there is no
> community better suited to understanding the Jewish histories of exile,
> oppression, and trauma than Palestinians, and vice versa. We are
> neighbours, we are siblings. We need to find a way to live beside each
> other both in Israel/Palestine and in the diaspora — and that starts with
> seeing the humanity in one another, acknowledging the intergenerational
> trauma both groups carry, and deciding to create a shared future where
> Palestinians and Jews can flourish.
>
> Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments
> of facts, data and events. More details
> <https://www.thestar.com/site/static-pages/glossary.html>
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> *I'm a rabbi heartbroken over October 7 and the violence in ...*
>
> *Toronto Star*
>
> *https://www.thestar.com <https://www.thestar.com> › Opinion ›
> Contributors*
>
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> *Contributor. **Denise** Handlarski is the **rabbi** of Secular Synagogue
> and teaches at Trent University*.
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