Grieving with You

This week has been hard.

For me. For you. For a world divided, watching humans die and suffer without a quick answer for a way to make it stop.

As a Jew, a mom, and still the child who lost her parents tragically and without warning – hearing the horrific details of this massacre of innocent lives – I’ve been frozen and numb and without words since Saturday.

Yet, also as a Progressive Reform Jew, I’m part of a community that has a deep, spiritual connection to Israel and also fights for peace and empathy and justice for Jews and Palestinian people in this holy land and beyond.

In my opinion, the complexities of this moment make it exactly the wrong debate to have on social media. The nuance, the dualities I’m holding can not fit, nor do they belong on a meme. And so I won’t be engaging in that conversation on the socials.

But here in this community we’ve built, where I can take some time and space to say the hard things, even when we don’t agree on every point – it feels important to share where I’m at.

I don’t have any answers and I’m not an expert on this topic so I will never claim to be.

I do have the heaviest heart and grieve the losses with you.

I do wish I could hug those babies who lost their parents and say – you don’t deserve this. This is not your fault. You didn’t “have it coming.”

For those of you who feel more scared to walk through your lives as a Jew than you did last Friday, sadly, I share that fear with you.

And for those of you who are saying – I’m going to continue to live my life and not show them any fear – I want to continue to learn from you.

Thank you to the beautiful people in my life who are not Jewish and reached out to me this week to check in. I appreciated those notes and love and prayers more than you know.

I will continue to support you in your career journeys in this newsletter next week and do my own work and take my own action in this crisis more privately.

I encourage you to take your own time to share your words and your feelings. You are taking time to process and to do your best – in your own way.