<div dir="ltr">Thank you David for the article by the Rabbi, in such obvious contrast to the editorial in the Catholic Register that Jean just made available. How to get empathy, understanding, and hope out there. I know one of the Christian (community) Peacekeeping Team teachings was you must try and see the humanity in the other person. So needed.<div>Peace, Dwyer</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Oct 9, 2024 at 2:57 PM David Walsh via Sundaycommunity <<a href="mailto:sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca">sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-8171272676316268151">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Century Schoolbook",serif"><a href="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" target="_blank">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</a>
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<b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:rgb(156,102,0);letter-spacing:-0.2pt">Opinion | </span></b><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black;letter-spacing:-0.2pt">I’m a rabbi
heartbroken over October 7 and the violence in Palestine. Here’s what I wish each side understood about the other<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:rgb(248,248,248)"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:0.3pt">Updated Oct. 8, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:rgb(248,248,248)"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">A protest at BAYT synagogue in York Region.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:rgb(248,248,248)"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">R.J. Johnston Toronto Star</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:0.3pt">By Denise Handlarski, Contributor<br>
</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:rgb(104,104,104)">Denise Handlarski is the rabbi of Secular Synagogue and teaches at Trent University.<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);letter-spacing:0.3pt"> </span></b><span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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 <i>Nakba</i> and decades of occupation.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:13.5pt;background:rgb(248,248,248)"><span style="font-size:9pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. <a href="https://www.thestar.com/site/static-pages/glossary.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,110,210);text-decoration:none">More
details</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(5,99,193)">I'm a rabbi heartbroken over October 7 and the violence in ...</span></u><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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Star</span></u><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(5,99,193)"><a href="https://www.thestar.com" target="_blank">https://www.thestar.com</a> › Opinion › Contributors</span></u><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(77,81,86)">Contributor. </span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(95,99,104)">Denise</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(77,81,86)"> Handlarski
is the </span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(95,99,104)">rabbi</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(77,81,86)"> of Secular Synagogue and teaches at Trent University</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(77,81,86)">.
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</div></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly With Your God</div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:13pt"> - Micah 6:8</span></div></div></div>