From the Rabbi

SEEKING ILLUMINATION FOR UNIVERSAL RIGHTS

Most years around this date I write about the anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR), passed by that new institution’s General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

Last year, I noted:

A parallel document, the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, passed on another date this month - December 9, 1948. Genocide, such a charged and ominous word, along with the modifier genocidal, has been ringing in my ears and bombarding my eyes these days. Perhaps you too have noted a sharp spike in its use to describe both the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7, as well as the ongoing Israeli military response.

From 2018:

We have an obligation to create a just and compassionate society, a point emphasized throughout the book of Deuteronomy. Specific values embodied in the Declaration – such as the right to a hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal – are echoed in Jewish tradition. Exodus 12:49, for example, mandates that there shall be “one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you,” while Deuteronomy 16 underscores the need for an impartial judiciary.

Some years, the date falls during Hanukkah, or on a Shabbat, such that its ties to the Festival of Lights or the parshah underscore its deep rootedness in core Jewish as well as universal values.

It should therefore be distressing to us all, no matter our political orientation, to find that not only commissions, courts , and assessments within the UN, but international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have compiled documentation asserting that Israel is committing ongoing violations of human rights, including charges of war crimes and genocide.

It’s hard to convey how deeply roiled I feel, how much this year’s anniversary of the UHDR feels almost like a mockery of its loftiest aspirations, rooted as they are in consciousness of unspeakable horrors perpetrated against the Jewish people. In this moment, horrors are being experienced by millions of Gazans. We Jews must, at minimum, hold up our obligation “to understand, to see, to hear, to learn” – as we declare our obligation to realize the essence of Torah in the ahavah rabah prayer.

Some Jewish organizations in Canada, in the United States, and elsewhere in the diaspora spurn these efforts to look and see, deplore and even strive to block efforts at humanitarian aid and rescue. Our own national Jewish organization concludes its response to the Amnesty International report by declaring that it belongs in “the trash bin”.

The UHDR offered the nations of the world a path forward out of an epoch of mass murder and attempted genocide. No rights-oriented organization, no Jewish organization, should oppose any efforts that might lead to the protection of a vulnerable community. This is what Never Again looks like.

In the midst of the present as well as past Israel/Gaza conflicts, voices on both sides have expressed this most callous and dehumanizing perspective – that all who dwell “there” are combatants in a perpetual war, and therefore are legitimate targets. This is a deeply anti-human, anti-rights, anti-justice perspective.

On these dates, December 9-10, 76 years ago, the killing fields of Europe were still smoldering, yet out of the ashes rose visions of justice, equality, freedom, and dignity. There are many reasons to light extra candles this forthcoming Hanukkah – for the release of the hostages, for a complete ceasefire, for the illumination needed to see a path forward towards peace and the actualization of universal human rights.

All life is sacred – this is the core value of tzelem elohim, that we are all created in the Divine image. What must flow from this is an enduring call for justice and rights for all. Od yavo shalom alyenu ve’al kulam – let peace come for us and for all peoples. Ken yehi ratzon.

Rabbi Liz