Pikuach Nefesh
We are obligated to act to save lives.
We understand that every life is a universe, including Israeli and Palestinian lives.
We affirm life. We believe Judaism teaches us to choose life and Torah affirms life.
B’tselem Elohim
We Honor the Sanctity of Life
All life is sacred. This is true of Jewish and Israeli life no more or less than Palestinian life. However, we live in a world in which Palestinian lives are not treated as sacred. We cannot ignore the imbalance in lives lost in numbers and in the attention paid to those lives – hundreds of Israeli lives lost on October 7 and the tens of thousands of Palestinian lives lost before and since. We grieve every human life lost and shattered. This power dynamic prevents the space needed to grieve any life. All life is sacred. And we must continue to insist on it.
We enact the value of the sanctity of all life by working toward sovereignty for Palestinians and all Indigenous people, by fighting antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and anti-Black racism and by practicing racial justice, queer/trans/gender justice, disability justice, economic justice, and transformative justice. We work toward collective safety and liberation as part of a multi-racial, multifaith, intergenerational, multi-ability, queer affirming movement and community.
Teshuva
Accountability to those closest to the current pain
We hold that communities that are most directly impacted by systems of oppression and closest to the pain are experts on those conditions and the solutions. Palestinians set the political horizons for their own liberation. Therefore we consult with Palestinian partners, both in Palestine and in exile, on their diverse perspectives on our work. We act with an obligation to Palestinians to organize as many Jews as possible to support freedom and life for Palestinians.
We also understand that policies of Jewish ethnonationalism, and unquestioning US support for it – while privileging Jewish Israelis – does not ultimately provide them true safety or freedom. We understand the fate of Israelis in the land to be bound up with that of Palestinians, and that Israelis have an essential role to play in the political transformation of their society. We aim to stay resonant and in mutual, respectful, trustworthy relationship with our Palestinian and multifaith partners, and take action in accountability and solidarity with values-aligned Palestinians and Israelis.
Eilu v’eilu
Holding Contradiction
The living divine speaks in many voices. We understand that fighting for Palestinian freedom has real material risks for Jews and Israelis, and we know that fighting for Palestinian freedom is the only viable path to freedom and safety for Israelis. We take responsibility to hold contradictions for the sake of collective liberation.
L’dor v’dor
Caretaking of Jewish People & Jewish Tradition
To be a rabbi one needs to love Judaism and love Jews. To be a Jew means loving all people, including Palestinians. We manifest that love through solidarity. Rabbis for Ceasefire and the Jewish Left coalitions we are a part of are motivated by love. We embody our love of Jewish people through our work to safeguard an ethical and compelling Judaism, and through fighting for Palestinian freedom.
We are indebted to our ancestors who maintained Jewish tradition for centuries, often when doing so meant putting their lives at risk. We want Jewish tradition to endure as a source of meaning, ethics, connection, and joy. We feel a sense of obligation to steward Judaism as a force of liberation. R4C understands that Judaism is not the same as Zionism or the State of Israel and we challenge their conflation. Resisting this conflation is strategically important to undermine the ways Judaism is used to justify Israel’s actions and is communally, individually, and morally important for Judaism’s future.
Adonai Echad
Shared safety and collective liberation
Since before the founding of the State of Israel, there have been rabbis who opposed the displacement and oppression of Palestinians. Many of them explicitly did so solely out of care for Jewish lives, Jewish tradition, and the spiritual and ethical core of the Jewish collective. In current times we do the same, and we add to that our deep and equal care for Palestinian lives and cultural and religious traditions and freedom. We add the understanding that none of us are safe and free until all of us are safe and free.
Emunah
Capacity of People to Change
We honor where people are currently- what their experiences have been and how that has impacted them to think and feel how they do – and we encourage people to always be evolving. Rabbis support Jews to be our best selves by digging deep about our values and grounding in a compelling vision of the future to move toward together. We have faith that people change and evolve their thinking and commitments if they have the room, support, and encouragement to do so.
One of the greatest signs of love is having the respect for someone or a group of people to hold them accountable to be the most courageous, self-actualized, and loving versions of themselves. That is what we’re doing as we support R4C members to invite Jewish people to organize in solidarity with Palestinians. R4C will support our members to support their community members to be with what-is, the external conditions and the feelings that come up inside of them; to connect to their deepest longings and visions for their lives and communities; to share ourselves with one another, and through revealing our own journeys offering new possibilities and new hope, and inviting people to come with us toward them.