"Why I Couldn't Pray this Yom Kippur" by Rabbi Amy Eilberg

You are invited to read this thought-provoking reflection by Rabbi Amy Eilberg, a member of the MVPJ Steering Committee, printed in full in "Forward" on October 15, 2024:

A colleague recently reminded me that during the Vietnam War, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel told a journalist that he could not pray because whenever he opened a prayer book, he saw images of children burning from napalm. 

I don’t compare my own prayer practice to that of Rabbi Heschel, but I had a similar experience this Yom Kippur. Wherever I looked in the liturgy, I found myself wondering how many Gaza residents or Lebanese or Palestinians in the occupied West Bank the Israel Defense Forces had killed that day while we were all in synagogue.

Click here to read the full article in "Forward."

... and to save one life is to save the whole world

to destroy one life is to destroy the whole world,
and to save one life is to save the whole world
Jewish Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5, and Muslim Qur'an 5:32

As people of faith contemplating the horrendous violence in the Middle East, we are guided by the truth of this fundamental teaching which is found in both the Jewish and Muslim traditions, that to destroy one life is to destroy the whole world, and to save one life is to save the whole world.

We live in the reality of the destruction of thousands of lives in Israel and Gaza. We acknowledge the appalling massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and the devastating war that has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has taken the lives of over 34,000 people there. We know that for the loved ones of each and every one of these individuals killed, it may surely be that their whole world is destroyed. With our hearts filled with sorrow and compassion, we say, “Enough!”

It is time for all of us, people of faith and goodwill everywhere, civilians and leaders alike, to embrace and follow the second part of this ancient and true wisdom: to save one life is to save the whole world. Let us, as a global community pledge ourselves to work with all of our being so that instead of destroying life, we can save one life, and then another, and then another, on the quest to save the whole world.

For the sake of both Palestine and Israel, and all human beings involved:

Muslim & Jewish Mothers' Prayer for Life and Peace

Prayer of Mothers for Life and Peace
by Sheikha Ibtisam and Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum

God of Life
Who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds
May it be your will to hear the prayer of mothers
For you did not create us to kill each other
Nor to live in fear, anger or hatred in your world
But rather you have created us so we can grant permission to one another to sanctify
Your name of Life, your name of Peace in this world. ...

Click here to read the full prayer on a PDF with more information about the authors.

Click here to visit the Open Siddur Project webpage and read the prayer in Arabic, Hebrew and German.

Prayers for Peace and Responses to war between Israel and Gaza

Words seem inadequate when deeds are so horrific as to defy the ability to string together anything that can ease the pain, lessen the fear, defuse the anger, and move the broken and wounded to doing anything other than striking back. Yet as people of faith committed to peace, we must speak words of compassion and solidarity, aloud and in silent prayer, as well as seek actions that foster healing, justice and peace.

In the face of shocking and deadly attacks by Hamas against civilians in Israel and the Israeli military response to those attacks, adding violence to violence, we grieve for each and every human being lost, wounded, suffering loss, and despairing the coming nights and days of uncertainty and pain.

We pray for the violence to cease and for the world to come together to support all who have been harmed and bring a lasting peace to a land that has suffered too much for too long. Within our own communities and nation, we commit to stand against antisemtic, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim occurence or rhetoric of any kind, and work for relationships of respect, open-heartedness and healing. Although war often leads us to think in terms of "us" and "them," we know from the very nature of our organization, that coming together in the richness of diversity is the only path to peace.

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice continues steadfast in our work and prayers for peace with justice, most passionately in times of violence, oppression and war.

ACTION: We urge you to join with the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quaker-based) in their call to our U.S. government to act to de-escalate the violence. Click here to TAKE ACTION NOW and send a letter to your Senators and Congress Representative. Their website makes this easy, and personalizing the letter can make it even more effective.

Peace with Justice: We affirm these words from Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. "We mourn and we pray for the safety of everyone in harm's way... We know that a true and lasting peace will not be acheived until there is a just, negotiated political solution that protects the human rights of everyone." 

Contribute and Support: Here we highlight a few organizations, mostly led by both Palestinians and Israelis who are working for healing, justice and peace. We offer links for you to consider making donations or supporting in other ways.

Parents Circle - building peace and reconciliation with bereaved Jewish and Palestinian families through dialogue.

Rebuilding Alliance - dedicated to rebuilding war-torn communities. Currently their NGO partners in Gaza are delivering food and hygiene supplies.

New Israel Fund - prodemocracy organization in Israel already mobilized with war relief.

UNRWA-UN - relief for Palestinian refugees - is already established in Gaza.

IsraAid - partnering with local and civil society organizations to coordinate humanitarian efforts, providing psychosocial support and urgent aid. International NGO.

Gisha - protecting the freedom of movement for Palestinians, especially in Gaza.

Listen, Learn and Pray: Below are links to various organizations that include Muslim, Jews and Christians, with statements offering their insight and perspectives from their own experience. MVPJ does not advocate any specific statement or response. We offer these with the prayer that we can learn from one another, even when we disagree.

Vigil for Peace in the Middle East

VIGIL FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

We come together as people of diverse faiths and backgrounds to:
Mourn all who have died
Pray for all who are suffering
Stand with all who are facing hatred
Call out for an end to all the violence
Unite in compassion and peace

Saturday, November 11, 6:30pm
King Plaza, 250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto

In the spirit of unity and holding fast to our common humanity,
please join us for this peaceful gathering with words, music and prayer.
Coming together in the richness of our diversity is the only path to peace.

We grieve for each and every human being lost, wounded, suffering loss, afraid, and despairing of the coming nights and days of uncertainty and pain.

We pray for the violence to cease, and for the world to come together to support all who have been harmed and to bring a lasting peace to a land that has suffered too much for too long.

Within our own communities and nations, we commit to stand against anti-Semitic, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim incidents or rhetoric of any kind.

As people of faith committed to peace, we gather to speak words of compassion and solidarity, aloud and in silent prayer, and seek actions that foster healing, peace and justice.

Please help spread the world! Link and share via Facebook and Instagram

Battery candles will be available.
Remember to dress warmly! It can be cold on the plaza in the evenings.

July Peaceful Presence Contributions

Our July 2023 Peaceful Presence was hosted by the Mountain View/Palo Alto Musalla (Muslim community). The contributions on the themes of patience and hope were rich and varied!

Our host, Farha Andrabi, told the Muslim story of Hajirah, "Hope, Patience and Perseverance: The Story of Hajirah."  (Some of you may know her as "Hagar." However, the story about her in the Muslim tradition has some significant and surprising differences!)

Ellen Stromberg from Congregations Beth Am and Etz Chayim, read excerpts from this piece called "Praciticing Hope" by Rabbi Betsy Forester.

Eric Sabelman told a story that came to him during a Quaker service. He titled the story "The Courier's Message." The images on the left are illustrations connected with Eric's story. 

Kristi Iverson shared some teachings on "Patience," one of the Ten Paramis (or Ten Perfections) from the Buddhist tradition.

Tell Congress: NO CLUSTER BOMBS!

ACTION ALERT:
Tell Congress: NO CLUSTER BOMBS!!

Cluster bombs are banned internationally by more than 100 countries, yet President Biden says the U.S. will send cluster munitions to Ukraine. Cluster bombs release hundreds to thousands of "bomblets" from the air that spread out over very wide areas. These small bomblets can sit ready to explode -- for decades. Far too often it is when children – thinking they are toys – pick them up - that they explode and rip off limbs of innocent children.

Tell Congress: NO CLUSTER BOMBS!!
Use this ACTION page from
American Friends Service Committee
TODAY!

MVPJ Stands Against Cluster Bombs

July 17, 2023

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice’s Steering Committee is compelled to stand with many other Americans and people of faith and goodwill around the world against the President's decision to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine. [1,2]  We find that the arguments given by the President for doing so are based on expediency, flying in the face of universal condemnation of weapons of mass destruction.  To resort to cluster munitions as a "temporary" solution to delayed production of other weapons does not make them less reprehensible. [3]

Major differences exist between cluster munitions and precisely targeted "smart" bombs and artillery shells; cluster bombs are intended to kill over a wide area, and not just a single target.  The claim that only munitions with very low "dud rates" - where unexploded bomblets remain lethal - will be sent to Ukraine is subject to scrutiny, because variations between batches cannot be predicted in advance of use on the battlefield.  Claims that Ukraine would not use these weapons where its own citizens would be endangered and that post-war clearing of landmines and unexploded ordnance is required anyway ignore the change of citizenship in disputed territory and the risk that not all bomblets will be found in time to prevent injury to the innocent.  The argument that Russia has already used cluster munitions is hardly moral justification for the US and its allies to begin using them. [4]

The fact that the US even has large quantities of cluster weapons to give to Ukraine is evidence of American exceptionalism in selective retention of weapons other nations have renounced as morally repugnant - nuclear weapons not least among them.  Landmines are an example of such rejection of international decisions: despite a UN treaty passed in 1997 [5] the US only in 2022 "aligned" itself with terms of the treaty but still will deploy landmines in Korea [6].  Similarly, in 1997 the US ratified the UN Chemical Weapons Treaty, but only finished destroying its huge stockpile of neuorotoxic bombs and shells this month [7, 8]. It is too coincidental that the White House announced the Ukraine cluster bomb decision and simultaneously proclaimed that the US stock of chemical weapons has been destroyed [9] - as if the latter laundered the ethical stain of the former. 

(click "Read More") for to end of letter. Click here to download a pdf of letter.

May Peaceful Presence Prayer Contribution from Muslim Participant

At our May 11, 2023 Peaceful Presence, hosted by Congregation Etz Chayim, Hilal Cansizoglu from The Pacifica Institute offered a this prayer she wrote drawing from her own Islamic tradition.

She explained, "In our Islamic tradition, when we want to communicate with God through our individual prayers, we like to call Him with His beautiful names and attributes, so I tried to write down a prayer as a believer in dialogue for peace and justice and call God with some of His beautiful names and attributes in my prayer."

The names of God Hilal includes are:

Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim (You are The Most Compassionate and The Most Merciful)

Al-Awwal and Al-Akhir (You are The First and You are The Last)

An-Nur and Al-Hadi (You are the Light and You are the Guide)

Al-Jami'e (You are the Gatherer, You are The Unifier)

Al-'Adl (You are The Utterly Just)