We are heartbroken and horrified by the murder and kidnapping of innocent civilians committed by Hamas in Israel. The scale of violence is hard to fathom, it tests the limits of our comprehension. In less than one week, more than 1,000 people murdered, hundreds kidnapped, thousands injured and countless more terrorized. This was a terrorist massacre of civilians in Israel and a direct attack on Jewish people everywhere. All instances of terrorism are intolerable and have no place in a just world. These violent attacks resulted in immense suffering for Israelis and Palestinians alike and we condemn this brutality without equivocation. We grieve alongside the families who lost loved ones, their homes, and their communities. We stand by and in support of our colleagues and others in the global Jewish community, and we reaffirm our commitment to helping to build a future where all people recognize and revere our shared humanity. 

We find hope in the words of Rabbi Sharon Brous, “What I am asking is for us to dare to hold the humanity, the heartache, and the need for security of the Jewish people while also holding the humanity, the dignity, the need for justice of the Palestinian people. For too long, these two have been set up as a false binary. In fact, the only liberation will be a shared liberation. The only justice is a justice for all.”