An Open Letter to my Brothers and Sisters in Faith

Dear Friends in Faith,

My heart is breaking. Too much hatred. Too many deaths. Too much sadness and crushed dreams. My friends and family in Israel are living in fear and will never be the same. My Muslim and Christian and other brothers and sisters of this region including Israel and Palestine belonging to our larger family of Adam and Eve are living in fear and will never be the same. I who work so hard to build bridges that join and not fences that divide and destroy am hurting beyond words and will never be the same. I am hurting for all of these people, who are members of our human family, the beginning of which we read this week in our Torah portion in our synagogues as we begin the cycle of Torah readings once again. How do we get through this?

This is NOT about politics; it is about the respect we are to show for human lives and the humility we must all hold onto as we remember that we do NOT have the right to destroy the lives of others.

This is exactly why this work of Multi-Faith engagement and connections is of such vital importance to me. We need to respect each other. We need to listen to each other. We need to learn to understand each other and truly see each other for all that we are. We need to acknowledge differences and have the challenging conversations because when we can't talk with each other, and we can't see the humanity in each other, fear, hatred and destruction such as we are all now witnessing happens.

As the lives of too many Israelis and Palestinians all faiths who are innocent and just want to live are destroyed, we must all recommit ourselves to this work of realizing we are all the children of G-d who created us and remember that our G-d, our Lord, Allah or whatever we call The Supreme Being wants much better from us. We, however, must work to be much better and not fail ourselves or The One To Whom We Hold Ourselves Accountable. We must not fall into the trap of moral equivocation when we see one party of the conflict try so hard to NOT destroy lives and the other one parading those they do.

With prayers and ongoing thoughts for the loss of too many lives and the destruction resulting from not working together to be better.

Let us pray, hope and work for a better future for Israel and Israelis of all faiths, for Palestine and Palestinians of all faiths, and for all of us of all faiths.

Sunnie