Why am I a Rabbi for Ceasefire?

The mishnah teaches that God suffers when a murderer is executed and, the mishnah continues, God suffers all the more so when innocent people are killed. God must be in amazing pain right now. The demand for a ceasefire is a demand to stop the killing of innocents. It is a demand to stop the killing of children. It is a demand to return the 240 hostages. 1400 Israelis and over 12,000 Palestinians have been killed in this war. Isn’t that enough? 

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen

I am a Rabbi for Ceasefire because I do not believe that bombing Gaza and killing 10,000+ Palestinians will eradicate Hamas, do anything to soothe the souls of Israeli survivors and family members of October 7th’s brutality, bring home the hostages, or lead to any new path to justice and freedom for all in that fractured land.  I am a Rabbi for Ceasefire because I cannot abide thousands of Palestinians murdered in my name, and because after 9/11 I stood up to speak against the US going into Afghanistan by way of revenge and eradication of the enemy. 

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann

I was raised in a Jewish tradition that taught me that fighting for justice for all people is the pinnacle of Torah. This is what our ancestors have learned from histories of expulsion, displacement, oppression, and genocide – a spiritual tradition of interdependence, a sacred understanding that all life is precious, and that none of us are free until all of us are free.

Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg

As a human rights activist, I believe that the protection of civilians is paramount. Under international law, no party to a conflict is absolved from the responsibility to avoid targeting or indiscriminately striking civilians. I mourn the civilians who have been killed, both Israelis and Palestinians, and am horrified that the Israeli hostages have not been released, and at the catastrophic and heartbreaking death toll of civilians in Gaza. I have joined my colleagues in the call for a ceasefire to prevent the harming of more innocents.

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Executive Vice President, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is challenging us with the greatest moral reckoning of our lifetime. As a rabbi, a Jew and a person of conscience, I cannot stay silent. For the sake of the people of Gaza, for the hostages, for our very humanity, it is my moral obligation to cry out: “Ceasefire Now!”

Rabbi Brant Rosen

I’m a rabbi4ceasefire because ceasefire is a way to get all hostages and prisoners returned without any more civilian casualties. Because life is sacred from the river to the sea. Because my daughter’s school teaches her to be an upstander and imperfect models are needed. Because the thousands of Jews who say not in our name need rabbis. Because the hundred of rabbis who say ceasefire now need each other.

Rabbi David Basior

I support Rabbis for Ceasefire because I desperately want a world where Jewish and Palestinian children are all treasured for who they are, reflections of the Divine.  I also dream of a world where my own children and grandchildren will be nurtured by and inherit a Judaism that chooses life for all children and justice and peace for all people.  So may it be God’s will!  So may it be our will!

Rabbi Brian Walt

I am a rabbi for ceasefire because we are taught that just as one Mitzvah leads to another, one transgression also leads to another (Pirkei Avot). Violence only leads to more violence, and we must disrupt this ongoing cycle of oppression and occupation — there is no pathway to peace that is initiated by continued bombing.

Rabbi Lex Rofeberg

I’m a Rabbi 4 ceasefire because, well, how could I not be in this moment? My tradition, my ancestors, my community, and my moral grounding compel me to fight for the life and dignity of every single human being. 

Rabbi Lonnie Kleinman

No amount of death and destruction will assure Israel’s security, only peace can do that. Two Peoples need to coexist, even thrive, on the land. 

Rabbi Michal Woll

As someone who desperately loves Israelis and Palestinians, there is nothing more I want to see in this moment than an end to violence.

Student Rabbi Ilana Sumka

I am for ceasefire because I believe in the holiness of every human soul and cannot stand by while thousands of lives are destroyed. This destruction goes against every holy value that my Judaism has instilled in me.

Student Rabbi Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth

I am a student rabbi for ceasefire because Judaism has taught me that every life is precious and protecting life is our sacred duty; this is the Judaism I am proud to teach my children. My family didn’t fight fascism and racism so a nation state could commit genocide in our name.

Student Rabbi Louisa Solomon

Violence only begets more violence. Only justice and acknowledgement of the dignity and rights of all the inhabitants of the land is the pathway to peace,

Rabbi Meryl Crean

I am a Jew and an American. As a Jew, I stand for justice and for the sacredness of all life. As an American, it is my obligation to demand that the United States government stop supporting the killing of the Palestinian people by funding Israel’s military with no strings attached. 

Rabbi Linda Holtzman

I believe that more violence will not stem violence, nor quell hatred, nor change minds, nor soften or heal hearts, or ultimately resolve this seemingly intractable situation. I have no answers, only the conviction that there must be another way, and that until the on-the-ground killing stops, there’s no chance of finding it.

Rabbi Diane Elliot

I am a rabbi for ceasefire because of my deeply held Jewish ethical belief in the value of human life, and pikuach nefesh. And in addition to thousands of Palestinian civilians whose lives are at stake, I also do not want to kill the over 200 hostages from Israel who are in Gaza. 

Rabbi Fern Feldman

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is a grave and immoral violation of human rights. Only a political solution will lead to a peaceful and just coexistence for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman

I have joined Rabbi for Ceasefire to help save the lives of hostages, refugees, all children and children’s children. Ceasefire prepares the ground for a lifelong process of healing and justice in Israel/Palestine.

Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips

I am a rabbi for ceasefire because I honor my family’s history in the Shoah by living out my belief in the inherent sanctity of all human life—that each of us is created b’tzlem elohim, in the divine image, and that to save one life is to save the world. I am a rabbi for ceasefire because of my love for the Jewish people, my deep care for our safety and security, and because I know in my bones that violence will only beget more violence; that collective punishment and the mass destruction of Palestinian lives will not ensure anyone’s safety.

Rabbi Margot Meitner

The Torah commands, “You shall not stand by the blood of your neighbor.” As Jews, we must reject any justification for the military targeting of hospitals and the killing of children. 

Student Rabbi Daniel Delgado

I am a rabbinic student for ceasefire because Jewish tradition mandates that we consider the generational impacts of our actions. In addition to the immediate trauma and loss, every bomb dropped and human life destroyed plants seeds of discord for future generations. Let us instead plant a seed a peace, the beginning of teshuvah and tikkun, by ceasing fire immediately.

Student Rabbi Jake Ehrlich

Because I believe it is a moral imperative for all people, including the Jewish people, to maximize the dignity and preservation of life, even when–especially when–we feel our own lives and dignity threatened. To paraphrase David Brooks: This is about who we are becoming in corrosive times.

Rabbi Asher Sofman

Continued fighting will claim more innocent lives and I am deeply opposed to this.

Rabbi Michael Ramberg

I am a Rabbi for Ceasefire, because the civilian death toll in Gaza is unacceptable. Only a political solution will end the suffering for good.

Rabbi Robin Poldosky

When the Torah says, “You shall not murder”, “You shall not steal”, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your brother”, it’s a commandment for me.  I am called upon to stand up and take action to end Israel’s mass murder of innocent civilians and ongoing theft of their homes and land.

Rabbi David Mivasair

I am for a cease fire because it isn’t right to kill civilians on the chance you might take out a member of Hamas.  Life is sacred.

Rabbi Aaron Rosenberg

I believe that a collective Ashkenazi Jewish trauma and grief has been long left undealt with and unprocessed; the result of dodging our own grief-work has been heaving it onto the Palestinian people to deal with.  We, American Jewry, have been supporting this current Israeli war-fixated government since I was in the 6th grade. This has been true long before this moment and is especially true in this moment.   A ceasefire is the only way to begin to get at the work of shleimus/wholeness-building and we American Jews are 100% responsible in choosing whether we let collective and individual trauma win or choosing a different derekh/a different way than what we’ve clung to since long before I was born.

Reb Simcha Halpert-Hanson

My Jewish upbringing and my rabbinical training have taught me that every life is sacred, and that saving a life is of utmost importance. The laws of the rodef teach that to kill in so-called self defense when any other action may work to save, is still murder. We must cease the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian lives if we claim to live by Jewish values. 

Rabbi Elizabeth Goldstein

I am a Rabbi for Ceasefire because every human life is sacred, and because I believe that the safety and freedom of Israelis is bound up with the safety and freedom of Palestinians.

Rabbi Benjamin Barnett

I cannot imagine where we would be if our ancestors hadn’t imagined that another world was possible. I am a rabbi for ceasefire because I have to believe there is another way for us all to be free and sovereign and well and whole. 

Rabbi Bec Richman

I am a Rabbi for Ceasefire because the bombing of Gaza is a human rights emergency. All life is precious and the escalation of violence and destruction is intolerable. I pray a ceasefire movement will stop the widespread killing and destruction.

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield