August 1, 2025

Dear Seattle Community,

This weekend, we mark Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av on our Hebrew calendar, when our tradition teaches that both ancient temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. It is traditionally the saddest day of the year and has come to also be a day where other horrific events in Jewish history are remembered: various expulsions across Europe, the Holocaust, and now also the attacks of October 7. The ancient rabbis taught that the cause of the destruction of the Second Temple was sinat chinam, or baseless hatred of others.

This concept of sinat chinam has me worried about where the Jewish people are today, how we interact with one another, and what the future holds.

Like many of you, I have been consuming a near constant stream of articles the last few weeks about Israel, Gaza, humanitarian aid, claims of genocide, and passionate defenses against genocide. The myriad of news articles, articles claiming to be “news”, corrections (or lack thereof), and pictures shared with or without context, all coupled with the velocity with which information travels on social media, and a baseline heightened level of emotions, have created a storm. Making this worse are the false narratives and rampant misinformation.

At times, it has felt like this storm has pitted the world against Israel, and Jews against one another. Yet beneath that storm, I know that so many in our Jewish community are wrestling internally with how to hold all of these pieces and express multiple sentiments at once. 

In the last weeks, I have seen countless social media exchanges, emails on various distribution lists, and the comments section on articles that prove our first reaction to one another is all too frequently sinat chinam. Saying that children are starving and something must change will get you painted as anti-Israel. Saying nothing leads to accusations of heartlessly not caring. Pointing out that there are hostages in Gaza for over 660 days who have not received any aid or visits from the Red Cross gets an immediate retort about the suffering of Palestinians, and empathy for those who are actually innocent and just caught under the rule of Hamas gets a counter about the horrors of October 7. It is truly a situation of “anything you say can and will be used against you”. 

Jewish organizations have been pushed further into corners and have put out carefully worded statements in recent days in search of an ever-narrowing path of demonstrating the areas of agreement. What can we say that will anger the fewest people or, at a minimum, anger everyone equally? I have struggled all week with what I am reading and seeing, and also with whether the Federation should put out a statement, asking myself “to what end,” and knowing the inevitable backlash that would follow regardless of whether such a statement took a strong position or attempted to walk the tightrope of middle ground. 

But, more than the impact on organizations, as people, Jews have been pushed further apart from each other. Rather than taking the time to listen to one another and find points where we can agree, we are dangerously close to falling into a place of sinat chinam.

And, all of this attention has started to have an even greater impact on Jewish safety here in Washington. I heard from a community member this week who wears a kippah that, in recent weeks, there has been a marked uptick of people shouting at him on the streets about Israel; he lamented that there is no opportunity for a dialogue about why he wears a kippah and the values he holds, there are just assumptions. And, multiple times this week at the Federation, we’ve responded to threats to Jewish institutions in our state—while I don’t know for sure that those threats are related to current events, I have no reason to think they aren’t.

I believe the vast majority of us can agree on some basic tenets:

• The attacks of October 7 were horrific, and the hostages must be returned
• Jews in the US, Israel, and around the world deserve peace and security
• Palestinian people are entitled to live with dignity, health, and safety
• Hamas cannot continue to exert a chokehold of control over Gaza
• Humanitarian suffering is devastating and must be addressed with urgency and compassion
• Children everywhere, including in Gaza, should not go to bed hungry

It is possible to both work for Jewish safety and, at the same time, hold onto these tenets. They are not at odds with each other.

We have paid a heavy price for sinat chinam in the past as a people. As we head into Tisha B’av, I’m reminded that the destruction of the First and Second Temples were about more than the destruction of physical spaces; they each represented the end of an era of our history and the beginning of a period of exile.

Our tradition reminds us that, sadly, any person is capable of sinat chinam—baseless hatred. As we head into Shabbat, may we seek out ways to create ahavat chinam — the extending of unconditional love to one another — lest we find ourselves on a trajectory toward an even more difficult future. Ahavat chinam, beautifully, is something of which we are also all capable. In this way, we can build a Seattle Jewish community whose history, beliefs, and principles bring us together, rather than divide us.

Shabbat shalom,