Rabbi Paul Moses Strasko - Facebook Statement 9 Oct 2023

“I have remained silent the last few days for three reasons. The first is inability to speak, the second, that others have spoken so much more eloquently than I could hope, and the third, that I imagine that I would begin losing friends when I began to speak. This feels especially so as I have over my time as a congregational rabbi deliberately remained politically neutral as much as possible from the pulpit in acknowledgment that every congregation has many pathways to the divine, and my disagreement with a congregant should never serve as a stumbling stone for an expression of their truths. My feed, for the most part, has reflected this deliberate moderate stance. The moment of pivot was a simple post from the World Jewish Congress Instagram account, that “(m)ore Jews were killed during Saturday’s assault than in any single day since the end of the Holocaust.”

I have not known what to say as I spent far too much time watching videos that should never be seen (and by most non-Jews are not even known to exist) of the deliberate barbaric atrocities and the pride and glee with which the perpetrators have filmed themselves killing, raping, and mutilating. “Anti-Zionist” movements have universally made the claim that they are against the State of Israel, not the Jewish people, yet you can easily find the rally occurring right now in Australia where the chants are not about Israel, but are “F*** the Jews.” For anyone paying attention, this should not be a surprise as even in my last book I document the demonstrations against the “State of Israel” in the last decade+ in Germany where the “peaceful” protests inevitably move to “Jude Jude Feige Schwein” followed by “Töte die Juden” – “Jews, Jews, cowardly pigs,” and then “Kill the Jews.” So much for the lie that this is about a country. One of these series of chants I had the honor of personally seeing on Adenauerplatz two blocks from my apartment in Berlin in 2009. And among the Hamas, Hezbolla, and Palestinian Flags were also several handfuls of Germans chanting along with the slogans. These videos are relatively easy to find for anyone wishing to search.

In light of all this, I also have not known what to say as I see headlines obfuscating what anyone in Israel or anyone who has actually looked knows of the events of the last few days. This is quite deliberate and quite tied to ideology. The CBC, for example, has put out a memo that the word “Terrorist” cannot be used in any of its reporting of this. The New York Times Sunday front page read "Palestinian Militants Stage Assault on Israel" followed by the sub headline: "Assault Met With Big Strikes On Gaza Cities" then lower on the front page the article about children being afraid referred solely to children in the Gaza strip. All are technically true yet whose remaining impressions are "Well, they are all at the usual again. No need to read further." I have already had conversations with some of you dear ones who through your own news outlets had the impression that about 70 Israelis had died. As of this moment the civilian number is over 700 including the 260 massacred at the music festival in the desert. You can see how those 700 were killed, as it happened, as the massacres were videotaped and proudly uploaded to Telegram and Twitter. My friends and colleagues in Israel with missing loved ones are currently looking through THOSE videos for any clue of what happened to those missing, and some have found that their parents, husbands, wives, siblings, and yes children were murdered through these proud videos.

I have not known what to say as the inevitable quotes have come out, especially at outlets like MSNBC who has invited on a disproportionate amount of guests more enlightened than I, that Israel is solely to blame for what has happened, with the reasons being “structural injustice” and “decolonization.” The words are the most common associated with the fact that we would be outraged on behalf of any other population, but it is ok to not be outraged for the Jews. I am sorry, Israelis. You see, you had it coming. Because of colonization and structural injustice. Apparently, every other country, region, group, or religion has a clear and unambiguous narrative rather than a complex history. This seems to allow actions to be clearly gauged and moral inequalities called to clearly non-equivalent actions and intentions. But in Israel, the Jews deserved it. Something sounds familiar.

So, back to the quote from the World Jewish Congress.

During the Pogroms and into and especially the biggest one in the 20th century, Jews were also blamed for their own murder, neighbors were also silent, and some also cheered. The test is really simple, especially since there have recently been other horrific, albeit much smaller, shootings at concerts and music festivals. So taking that one of many incidents of the past days, if there had been any other group in any other country on the face of this planet where 260 people at a desert rave were mowed down for political and religious purposes, would you already have your statuses changed, profile pictures moved to “I stand with x” and clear condemnation communicated? My feed is often filled with the righteous condemnation of injustice. For the last few days, other than a very few sources (thank you), it has been silent. The actions have not been morally comparable and had the smallest of this happened to anyone else it would be universally condemned. To - Anyone - Else. (Yes, I understand the history is complicated. The moral implications in the current attacks, however, are not.) My wife and I feel very alone. My friends in Israel so much more alone. If you are able to find moral equivalence in what has happened, that the gleeful filming of rape, execution, and mutilation, of women, children, men, the very very old and the very very young, the posting of that online again with pride and glee, and the very public underlying charter of that being a sought for genocide – if your first instinct to that is “Israel had it coming” then this would be the appropriate time to unfriend me.”