Throughout my life, the Jewish High Holidays have always been a time of joy and warmth. Some of my most tender recollections from growing up Jewish are from family Rosh Hashanah gatherings. Yet, underneath the happiness that marked these holidays, a subtle but powerful fear pervaded my synagogue congregation at the mark of each new year.

As I reflect back on my childhood experiences around the Jewish holidays, the causes for that fear are obvious. Our rabbi’s sermons would frequently deal us a warning message of the existential danger facing the Jewish people, wrapped up in a terrifying war story from his days in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Each service contained a prayer for IDF soldiers in combat. Fear surrounding Jewish safety, particularly in Israel, always accompanied the joyous holiday.

Each year, my community reckons with the constant dangers facing our people. This year, I’m thinking about how the fear in my community every year is driving millions of people to accept, or even promote, movements that are blinding us to the most serious threats in our midst, while also sacrificing our commitment to social progress.

Last year’s events are evidence enough to prove this is happening. As the Israeli occupation of the West Bank enters its 50th year, a Palestinian town in the South Hebron Hills, Susya, is once again facing the threat of demolition and its residents are on the brink of eviction. One of the main engines of the demolition threat is a far-right nonprofit called Regavim, which surveys land in the West Bank to document Palestinian development, so that it can later be reported to Israeli authorities, halted and demolished. Their activities cannot be divorced from American political involvement: Regavim receives tax-deductible donations from the United States citizens, as does an organization called the Central Fund of Israel, which was found in a recent Haaretz article funneling millions of dollars from American donors into settlement projects.

The impacts of these settlement projects, which many American Jews tacitly accept, should be a matter of serious urgency for anybody who cares about Israeli or Palestinian safety, as well as the prospect of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Settlement expansion is prolonging this conflict; this means ongoing violence, distrust and unrest. The Union for Reform Judaism has publicly denounced the construction of new settlements and the demolition of Susya, but few other mainstream Jewish organizations have done the same. The lack of public outcry over these settlements from American Jews gives the startling impression that many in our community believes that Israel can occupy the West Bank forever and still expect Israel to be a Jewish and democratic country.

Our community has more power than we may realize to reverse the downward trajectory of peace prospects in Israel and Palestine. Just this summer, J Street mobilized thousands of people around a petition to call on the State Department to condemn the proposed demolition of Susya. The State Department ultimately did so, and the Israeli Defense Ministry subsequently postponed its decision to destroy the Palestinian village.

It was a victory for those of us who care deeply about peace, but a temporary one that makes it all the more evident how much work we have to do. The members of J Street U Stanford intend to start doing that work right at the brink of this new year.  This Thursday in White Plaza, we will commemorate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and raise awareness about Susya by constructing a sukkah, a temporary shelter meant to serve as a reminder of the meaning of homelessness and of wandering. A traditional part of the holiday is to dwell in the sukkah. We will build upon this tradition by learning, discussing and building community together in our Sukkah and sleeping in it overnight on Thursday. On Friday, we will hold a teach-in in and around our sukkah about the current situation in Susya.  We hope that you will join us.

– Benjamin deMayo ’18
J Street U Stanford

Contact Benjamin deMayo at bdemayo ‘at’ stanford.edu.