Response to Rabbi Lynn Greenhough’s op-ed in the Times Colonist on January 4th, 2024 and her actions at the Motorcade for Palestine on New Year’s Eve

Shalom Aleichem,

Palestinians and their allies in Victoria have come together every week to peacefully demand that Canada do better. The purpose of the procession on New Year's Eve was to draw attention to Canada’s role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians; to demand a permanent, legally binding ceasefire; and to work towards the right to return, lasting peace, and Palestinian liberation.

December 31st also marked 86 days of Israel's bombing of Gaza. Over 22,000 people, 8,800 of whom are children, have been killed and over 57,000 have been injured. During this time, many of us Jews have marched alongside Palestinian community members as an act of solidarity. We have witnessed their grief, just as we know they would do for us.

Rabbi Lynn’s actions on December 31st were harmful to both communities. She intentionally antagonized Palestinian people, attempting to get in front of moving vehicles while holding the Sefer Torah. The removal of a Sefer Torah from the ark to put it in harm’s way is unacceptable. As Jews, we hold the Sefer Torah with exceptional reverence. Using one of Kolot Mayim’s sacred texts as a semiotic weapon to entrap the Palestinians in their peaceful procession is unacceptable. Through her actions, she endangered herself, others, and the Sefer Torah.

To assert that pro-Palestinian activism is antisemitic sows division within our communities and paints all Jews with one sweeping brush. There is a common Jewish adage, “two Jews, three opinions.” We know that each of us is unique– Jews have come to Canada from every continent, in every decade, and exist across the political spectrum. To assert that all Jews feel unsafe at pro-Palestinian processions is narrow-sighted, as is the assumption that all Jews should inherently be pro-Israel. It should be no surprise that there are Jewish people who march and organize alongside Palestinians and Arabs– these are relationships that save lives and honour our communities.

As Jews, we are guided by the practice of Tikkun Olam, or to “repair the world.” We are called to shape the world to be better than when we came into it. To do this, we must participate in the greatest good and work together to do the same. Violence towards others and isolation within the Jewish community does not achieve this goal. Islamophobia and orientalism, especially the conflation of Palestinians and Arabs with terrorists, is unacceptable. It does irreparable harm to our communities and our chance of lasting peace. This conflation of support for a free Palestine– a desire which we also strive for as Jews– with terrorism points towards the orientalism and racism that pervades Zionist spaces and the work needed to repair the world.

 We must ask what it means to have Judaism locked in the hands of autocrats and how that implicates us all in their violence and fundamentalism. The violence perpetrated by Israel and by certain Jewish community leaders in our name puts us all, Jew and Arab, in greater peril.

Rabbi Lynn is responsible for continuing the Israeli project of painting our Magen David as a symbol of violence and for using our Torah as an oppressive cudgel. The spiritual and real harm this poses cannot be overstated. Our sacred text was put in harm's way for a stunt, and the cross-cultural dialogue that we are engaged in was jeopardized. Antisemitism is real and prevalent, and using Judaism as a weapon only stokes these vitriolic ideologies.

Everyone ought to understand the grief and anger of our Palestinian family and be willing to witness, absorb, and reflect on what they are going through. How dare we support doing to others what has been done to us? There is nothing less Jewish than genocide, yet Rabbi Lynn has shown she is comfortable with exactly that. We hope that Rabbi Lynn and her associates will reflect on why they felt they needed to interrupt a peaceful demonstration, and how endangering a Sefer Torah for this cause does not align with any notion of Jewish morality. This antagonistic intervention extinguishes hope of there being a better world in our future.

Signed,

The Tzedek Collective

@thetzedekcollective on Instagram