(RNS) — President Donald Trump’s announcement larger than a week within the past that he wanted the US to take over the Gaza Strip and pressure its Palestinian residents to neighboring countries within the starting save stupefied many American Jewish groups and leaders into silence.
But slowly, they are initiating to weigh in.
In a elephantine-web page advert in The Original York Times Thursday (Feb. 13), some 350 rabbis and a host of Jewish celebrities condemned the opinion. The advert read: “Trump has called for the elimination of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people issue NO to ethnic cleaning!”
Over the direction of the week, the 2 greatest American Jewish denominations, the Reform and Conservative movements, additionally issued statements objecting to Trump’s opinion. The Rabbinical Assembly, representing the Conservative stream, said the opinion used to be “anathema to Jewish values and world human rights law.” The Union for Reform Judaism said emptying Gaza used to be “neither an acceptable strategic nor supreme action.”
Unruffled, establishment American Jewish organizations include issued neutral non-statements. And plenty of of the large Jewish institutions, which generally provide unqualified give a boost to for Israel, include been mum.
Palestinians return to northern Gaza, amid destroyed structures, following Israel’s decision to enable thousands of them to return for the first time because the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The American Jewish Committee, a staunch supporter of Israel, issued a press unlock announcing the president’s opinion raises “a wealth of questions.” In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Jason Isaacson, AJC’s chief policy adviser, called the opinion “a dramatic out-of-the-field strive to shake up the regional dynamic.”
RELATED: Establishment US Jewish organizations mum on Trump’s Gaza opinion
The Anti-Defamation League said on X that “US involvement — in coordination with Israel and regional companions — will be well-known for lengthy timeframe rebuilding and governance of Gaza. Nonetheless, any opinion must take under consideration Israel’s security wants and the effectively-being of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
The Conference of Presidents of Significant American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Federations of North The United States and AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying crew, haven’t publicly responded to the Gaza proposal.
“It feels love we’re if truth be told in a disaster of leadership for the time being,” said Rabbi Toba Spitzer, of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, a Reconstructionist Jewish congregation in West Newton, Massachusetts. “That’s why in a terribly short length of time, with out a fashion of outreach, this advert is getting people signing on. There’s if truth be told a vacuum.”
A elephantine-web page advert within the Original York Times on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, says “Trump has called for the elimination of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people issue NO to ethnic cleaning!” (Photo by X/@JFREJNYC)
Spitzer used to be among the many a total bunch of rabbis — representing most Jewish denominations — who signed The Original York Times advert.
Actors, directors and writers, alongside with Joaquin Phoenix and his siblings Summer and Rain, Ilana Glazer, Eric André, Morgan Spector and Tony Kushner additionally signed the advert, as did journalists Peter Beinart and Naomi Klein.
The advert used to be funded by modern donors who are section of the “In Our Establish Campaign,” a crew of Jewish philanthropists who perceive to elevate $10 million for organizations that “give a boost to Palestinian-led efforts to make security, dignity and self-resolution in Palestine,” in step with its web recount.
J Street, the liberal advocacy crew that promotes a “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy” stance, used to be one among the first to condemn the Gaza opinion closing week, announcing on social media that Trump’s proposal used to be “totally unacceptable.”
On the Jewish superb, the Zionist Group of The United States described the opinion as “shiny and plucky,” praising its mastermind as “the Winston Churchill of our time.” Many main Israeli politicians additionally welcomed Trump’s opinion.
Within the center, mainstream Jewish leaders, comparable to a Conservative rabbi, are discovering the opinion distasteful.
“When it involves ethnic cleaning, Jews are extremely nonetheless. They tried to ethnic cleanse us masses of times,” said Rabbi Stephen Grundfast, rabbi emeritus of Beth El Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Akron, Ohio, who signed the advert. “Even supposing Hamas is negative and disgusting, on the same time, it’s unfriendly to exclaim a total those who or no longer it’s well-known to stream away.”
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