About a month ago, my inbox included a request that I add my name to a letter titled, “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis.”
The request indicated that 50 Orthodox rabbis had signed the letter. I am an Orthodox rabbi. Eventually, 80 rabbis signed it.
I read the letter and could not in good conscience sign it. Typically, I let these things go. If I responded to every request sent my way, I’d never get anything else done. But this time I took a few moments on the spot and replied why I could not sign this letter. I could have elaborated if I had had the time.
The letter and the opposition to the letter — there were many who criticized it — caused something of a stir. Both the original letter, my response and other responses hit social media.
There was debate. That was good.
There was a certain degree of ad hominem attacks against the originator of the letter, Rabbi Yosef Blau, the longtime mashgiach (spiritual supervisor) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University. That was not good. It is the issues that are important. Rabbi Blau is a friend, and friends need to speak civilly across political divides.
I received quite a few emails thanking me for my statement of refusal to sign Rabbi Blau’s letter, some from people I knew, some from people I don’t know. No doubt, the signers of the letter received their own expressions of support.
I reproduce here the letter I was asked to sign. I reproduce it in full. Then I reproduce my response, why I could not sign the letter. Finally, I add additional comments.
Readers can draw their own conclusions.
The Original Letter — An Orthodox Rabbinical Statement on Gaza
The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is one of the most severe in recent history. While it began with the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 — a brutal act that justifiably demanded a strong military response — this does not absolve Israel’s government from sharing the responsibility for the profound suffering of Gaza’s civilian population.
Hamas’ actions have repeatedly shown a cynical disregard for the lives of the people it claims to represent, using civilians as human shields and rejecting ceasefire proposals. However, Israel’s prolonged military campaign, now approaching two years, has devastated Gaza. Over 70% of the territory’s infrastructure — including hospitals, schools, and homes — lies in ruins. Millions of civilians, including countless women and children, have been displaced multiple times. The significant death toll has risen to so many thousands losses of human lives. Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid, at times completely halting the entry of food and medical supplies, has pushed much of the population to the brink of famine.
There have been months when humanitarian convoys were blocked on the mistaken premise that increased suffering would bring about Hamas’ surrender. Instead, the result has been the deepening of despair. The justified anger toward Hamas has dangerously expanded into blanket suspicion of the entire population of Gaza — children included — tarnished as future terrorists. Meanwhile, in Yehuda and Shomron [the West Bank], extremist settler violence has resulted in the murder of civilians and has forced Palestinian villagers from their homes, further destabilizing the region.
Amid this devastation, the absence of a clear post-war vision from Prime Minister Netanyahu has allowed the most extreme voices in the Israeli government — including ministers from the religious Zionist community — to fill the vacuum with disturbing proposals. These include the forced “voluntary” exile of Palestinians from Gaza and the sacrifice of remaining Israeli hostages in the pursuit of an elusive “total victory.”
This moment demands a different voice — one grounded in our deepest Jewish values and informed by our traumatic history of being victims of persecution.
Orthodox Jewry, as some of Israel’s most devoted supporters, bears a unique moral responsibility. We must affirm that Judaism’s vision of justice and compassion extends to all human beings. Our tradition teaches that every person is created b’tzelem Elokim—in the Divine image. We are the spiritual descendants of Avraham, chosen to walk in the path of Hashem, “to do righteousness and justice” (Bereshit 18:19). Allowing an entire people to starve stands in stark contrast to this teaching. The Israeli government has a responsibility to provide food and medical care for millions of civilians — men, women and children in Gaza.
As we reflect on Tisha B’Av, the words of our prophets ring with renewed urgency. The Haftorah of Shabbat Chazon reminds us: “Zion shall be redeemed through justice, and those who return to her through righteousness” (Yeshayahu 1:27). And on the morning of Tisha B’Av, the voice of Yirmiyahu [Jeremiah] echoes through our prayers: “Let not the wise glory in their wisdom…but in this: that they understand and know Me, that I am the L-rd who practices kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth — for in these I delight” (Yirmiyahu 9:23).
These are not just poetic phrases. They are the foundations of our ethical obligation — to demand policies that uphold human dignity, to provide humanitarian aid wherever possible, and to speak out when our government’s actions contradict the Torah’s moral imperatives, no matter how painful this may be to accept.
The future of Israel depends not only on its military strength, but on its moral clarity. Let us be resounding voices for justice, righteousness, and peace for all people — even and especially in the hardest of times.
My response — Why I didn’t sign this letter
I wrote and published some two months ago that Israel should take its wins in Gaza and withdraw from Gaza, and then attack Hamas as it attacks Hezbollah; and I wrote and published that it’s well overdue for Netanyahu to establish a commission of inquiry into all of the military and political failures that led to Oct. 7. I do not support the voluntary relocation of Gazans.
However, I cannot sign this statement because it is deficient in facts, in nuance and in context. I cite a few examples:
The number of Gazan casualties is unverified, and one should not even implicitly extend the slightest credibility to Hamas, from which most of these casualty figures derive.
You refer to “allowing an entire people to starve.” There is food available in the markets of some of Gaza. “Entire population” is an exaggeration that affirms the animus of Israel’s enemies. The statement lacks factual nuance.
It is correct that Israel’s premise that withholding aid would pressure Hamas into surrender was mistaken. But this is hindsight. The statement shows no evidence of the difficulty facing decision makers in Israel in dealing with an unrestrainedly cruel enemy. Again, absence of nuance.
The statement mentions human shields, and the devastation of Gaza’s hospitals, schools and homes, but the statement does not identify the link between the two. Because Hamas uses human shields, there was no way for Israel to attack Hamas’ battalions and soldiers other than where they were: in hospitals, schools and homes. The absence of this linkage in the statement exempts Hamas from the moral onus of imposing this horror, and does not acknowledge that a Hamas leader (I believe it was Sinwar) have (sic) called Gazan casualties “necessary sacrifices.” Our own moral obligations arise in a context. The statement lacks context.
The statement refers to “the most extreme voices in the . . . the religious Zionist community.” They don’t represent me. But a statement of conscience should itself not be extremist. Your statement, selective in its presentation of the hunger problem and lacking in nuance and context, strikes me as extremist.
I am also troubled by the statement’s lack of reference to the ultimate sacrifices so many Israeli soldiers and civilians have made; to the rending of so many Israeli families forever; to the hostages and cruelties they are subjected to (above and beyond the inherent cruelty in their kidnapping); and to prayer to the G-d of Israel.
Fallout from the original letter and the response to it
Since the original letter was published, I learned that others, who did sign, also found the letter deficient, but signed “because a statement had to be made.”
In dealing with matters of life and death, it is not enough to “make a statement.” Any statement must be carefully calibrated. It must reflect the full range of the facts on the ground, not just some; and it must grapple with the full range of the moral questions the war raises, not just some. It must take into account the agonizing quandaries imposed on, not chosen by, Israel and the Jewish people since Oct. 7, 2023.
A month ago, had I responded to the letter more fully, not just on a busy morning facing newspaper deadlines, I would have added:
• The statement is inherently contradictory. It refers to Israel “allowing an entire people to starve,” and it also says, “The Israeli government has a responsibility to provide food and medical care for millions of civilians — men, women and children in Gaza, to provide humanitarian aid wherever possible” (my italics).
Israel is now, and was a month ago, providing food and medical care wherever possible. Neither in principle nor in practice was Israel “allowing an entire people to starve.” Israel was providing tens of millions of meals. Insufficient? Perhaps. But Israel’s response was and is a remarkable achievement and moral commitment in a war zone populated by a particularly cruel and immoral enemy that, among its other sins, steals food intended for the population.
• I abhor settler violence. Here, too, context is absent from the letter. The vast majority of settlers are peaceful. They, like all Jews, are indigenous to the Land of Israel; and they, like all Jews living on the land, are obligated to, and in practice do, acknowledge those non-Jews living in their midst who are peaceful. But the letter’s exclusive reference to West Bank settlers is “extremist settler violence.” This reinforces the demonization of all Jewish settlers worldwide, contributing to an abysmal lack of moral clarity on the Jewish people’s right to the land and its obligations thereon.
• The statement says that “we [Orthodox rabbis] “must affirm that Judaism’s vision of justice and compassion extends to all human beings” because “Orthodox Jewry, as some of Israel’s most devoted supporters, bears a unique moral responsibility.” Really? I have yet to meet my first non-Orthodox Jew who does not affirm that Judaism’s vision of justice and compassion extends to all human beings. In this respect, Orthodoxy Jewry does not bear a unique moral responsibility.
The letter concludes, “The future of Israel depends not only on its military strength, but on its moral clarity.” This is true. Which is why I did not sign this letter — it is deficient in moral clarity.
© IJN 2025
