In honour of Rabbi Alissa Wise as she leaves ten years’ work with JVP
JVL Introduction
Rabbi Alissa Wise, a long-time activist for justice in Israel/Palestine, was the founding co-chair of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council and is about to retire as JVP’s Deputy Director.
In a farewell statement JVP commends her “bold leadership and her brave, caring heart” – and in this sermon delivered shortly before her retirement you will see why!
She explains that her decision “to become a rabbi, to dedicate my life to the Jewish people and ensure that Judaism endures as a force for good in the world, began by facing all the ways it wasn’t.”
And she says: “I really just want to say how much I love you, my fellow anti-Zionist Jews. I love you in your refusal to accept things as they are. How courageous you are to go against the grain! I love how beautiful you are when you are coming to the defense of a comrade, in your determination and your insistence. I love how creative you are.
“We are not one thing, but we are — you are — everything.”
In solidarity!
This article was originally published by Jewish Voice for Peace on Wed 24 Mar 2021. Read the original here.
Rabbi Alissa Wise’s love letter to anti-Zionist Jews, as she leaves ten years’ work with Jewish Voice for Peace
We are not one thing, but we are — you are — everything
This sermon was originally delivered Friday, March 12th as part of a virtual Kabbalat Shabbat service co-hosted by Kol Tzedek Synagogue in Philadelphia, Tzedek Chicago and Jewish Voice for Peace.
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I am very moved by this courage.
You don’t have to be a practising Jew – just one with independent and critical faculties, who stands up for Palestinian rights – to find this piece enormously moving. I hope Alissa Wise has many more years of radical, thoughtful and independent left politics once she has worked through the pain. I am so angry that she, and those other rabbis who have stood up to be counted, have been so persecuted.
A brave and honourable lady. I have been pleased to receive her emails from the very start. Good luck and solidarity with her for the future.
What a beautiful and inspiring sermon. If only some of our UK rabbis were as brave and principled.
Instead, the Reform movement has chosen to side with the Israeli government in its refusal to make covid vaccines available to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Despite requests from several members of Reform shuls, the Reform rabbis and lay leadership have refused to criticise Israel’s arrogant and inhumane attitude on this vital question. I understand that similar attempts have failed with the Liberal movement. It is LITERALLY a matter of life and death, but these rabbis won’t speak out.
Alissa Wise, please try to teach our British rabbis the basics of Jewish ethical values.
I have great respect for this Rabbi
Some Britons endured a heavy dose of name-calling before the 2019 elections. Hopefully, the people doing it will soon get their come-uppance, with the JVP influence helping to change the climate of public opinion, here and not just in the USA.
What Rabbi Alissa Wise is saying needs to be noted by all people of goodwill who long for a better world.
A very moving sermon. A wonderful defender of Palestinian people but also a teacher of real religious values; a tolerance of other cultures and our fellow citizens of the world. And I’m an atheist! I came to politics and the struggles of Palestine fairly recently, but have seen Rabbi Weiss on zoom calls and received many JVP emails, and Rabbi Weiss has never failed to inspire and move. The current and former Chief Rabbi’s would do well to act in the same manner, as would the vast majority of religious leaders across the world.
Strength from pain.
I wont forget her words.
Israel’s citizens and its supporters consider themselves under an existential threat. They know that if they focus as would ordinarily be their duty on the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of the Jewish state it will weaken their resolve and endanger Israel’s ability to continue with its efforts to drive Palestinians from the land that is rightfully theirs. And yet under it all they know that what they are doing is wrong, not just unneighborly but actively wicked. They harden their hearts that they may survive; but to live with a hard heart is difficult, particularly for those who are sensitive and know their religious duty towards their neighbor. The hateful insults they aim at those who insist on reminding them of things they do not want to face are a measure of the pain they feel.
I’m not Jewish. So, all the more reason to read this. I was moved. Thank you for publishing it.
As I wipe a tear from my eye, I remember once again that my first introduction (way back in 1972) to the injustice suffered by Palestinians by the Israelis was from another brave Rabbi – Elmer Berger. I salute all these brave men and women.
I do not agree with all the choices of Rabbi Alissa Wise for I do not consider myself an anti-Zionist anymore than Mark Seal did when I met him some twenty five years ago. I became Social Action Chair of my Little Shul by the River by default with the passing of my dear friend Jerry Halper. I decided that both I and my synagogue needed to investigate and try to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So I started researching, reading, learning which I’m still doing with Mark’s help and JRF’s co-sponsorship I put together An Educational Forum fo Peace & Understanding with the Israel Counsel General and Deputy Chief Representative of the PLO on the 1st panel discussing the current status of the peace process. I’ve traveled far from that day in March 2000, to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah. I learned to listen compassionately to those on all sides from extremist settlers to a member of Hamas. I sat with Rabbi Froman and Shiekh Manasra and listened until I learned. I am overwhelmed by the efforts that I have witnessed of Rabbi Wise and know that I am aware of only a small corner of her work. May you find love in your travels and continue to share your wisdom as your go forward. Shalom-Salaam-Peace,
Larry Snider
Such a beautiful, wonderful, courageous woman. I’m proud to have met her a few times a JVP events. She’s my hero. Bless her.
I am an Orthodox Jew. First, Alissa, please don’t call yourself a rabbi. All Orthodox rabbis consider Reconstructionist Jews a purely heretical sect of so-called Jews. The cult is so far left field that it makes Reform Judaism look like Hasidic Judaism. To be a rabbi in Orthodox Judaism, one has to know vast amounts of the Gemara and its commentaries and the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish laws). I doubt you can comprehend even a blatt (page) of the Aramaic Talmud. If on Shabbos, you open the light, drive a car, or tear paper, you are desecrating Shabbos.
Second, in your hatred of Israel, where half the world’s Jews live, and your love of the cruel Palestinian enemy – suicide bombers who target Israeli civilians – you violate the great mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael (אהבת ישראל), love of fellow Jews. But the most shocking thing is that you side with a barbaric enemy of the Jews.
Third, the number of members of JVP is wildly exaggerated. I have seen your crowds and they are a fraction of the huge Hasidic gatherings we have in the Haredi sections of Brooklyn, NY, or in Monsey, NY, and Lakewood, NJ. Besides, many of the JVP members are not even Jewish according to Halacha because they are the offspring of mixed marriages. The JVP has only 2 synagogues in the whole of the U.S. Just in Brooklyn, NY, we have thousands of shuls, and each of them has more congregants than in any of your 2 synagogues. I doubt my comment will be published because it exposes the truth of JVP.