Dozens of rabbis and cantors prayed, sang and blew rams’ horns outside the Israeli Consulate General in Brentwood Monday, calling for immediate food aid to Gazans, an end to the war in Gaza and the safe return home for hostages in Hamas captivity.
Outside the consulate, a group of about 30 people led by a coalition of rabbis urged for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The event was independently organized by dozens of rabbis across denominations in the Jewish community in Los Angeles County. Similar actions have taken place with rabbis throughout the nation as part of a growing resistance movement of Israelis in opposition to the war, according to the L.A. group.
“We will not let you be until all of the hostages are returned,” Rabbi Kerry Chaplin, who previously worked as a spiritual counselor for Beit T’Shuvah in West Los Angeles, said. “You have forgotten God, and God has sent us here as messengers to say this High Holy Day season is the time to return to our reverence for God.”
“When we forget reverence for God, we forget we are human, and I worry for us when we forget we are human. I worry for us when our hearts can no longer break,” Chaplin added. “May we remember God in all our actions, for the lives of starving Gazans, for the lives of the hostages, for their families and friends around the world.”
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director emeritus of UCLA Hillel, criticized Israel’s leadership and the aggressive tactics used against the Palestinian people. He led the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn, which is used to mark the month of Elul. The shofar is blown every morning from the first day of Elul until Rosh Hashanah except on Shabbat.
The month is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The blast of sound is intended to awaken one’s spirits and inspire soul searching, according to Seidler-Feller.
“We sound the shofar today to wake up the Jewish community. Our community has been asleep. Our leaders have been absent. The shofar sound is the inner groan of anguish of our people for what we have done,” Seidler-Feller said. “This is the time for repentance, for return, for acknowledgement, for a reversal of our ways, and for the embrace of peace.”
Israel announced its military would begin an operation known as Gideon’s Chariots B in mid-September, which is intended to capture Gaza City from Hamas with aid from thousands of Israeli reservists.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will end the war if Hamas puts down their weapons and releases the remaining 50 hostages. Hamas has in turn called for a lasting ceasefire and for Israel to withdraw from Gaza.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 Israelis, and abducted 251 others. More than half of the hostages were released in earlier ceasefires or other deals. Israel’s attacks, in turn, have killed 61,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Figures provided by the ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and run by health professionals, have been disputed by Israel.
Negotiations between the two entities may delay or cancel Israel’s planned operation if there is a breakthrough.
“Our community has forgot about the goal. The goal is peace,” Seidler-Feller said. “The goal is not defeat. The goal is not to destroy. The goal is to build and to create, and to generate peace.”
The coalition clergy consisted of rabbis Susan Goldberg, Ken Chasen, Dara Frimmer, Lisa Edwards, and Aryeh Cohen.
“As rabbis and cantors, leaders in the Jewish community of Los Angeles, we stand firmly and deeply inside the values of the Jewish tradition lifting up that everyone is made b’tzelem elohim, in the image of God,” Rabbi Susan Goldberg, senior rabbi of Echo Park-based Nefesh, which bills itself as “an open-hearted spiritual community welcoming all of the identities that make up who we are and who we love.”
“It is time to end the suffering in Gaza and in Israel and be led by those who affirm the safety, dignity, and human rights of all who live in the land. We blast the shofar on this first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, a month of reckoning and reflection that leads us into the new year.
“We join with rabbis and cantors and other Jewish leaders from across the United States who are praying fervently for an end to the killing and the beginning of a new way forward.”
The rabbis and cantors who participated in Monday’s rally “are standing in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets and those risking their freedom to end the atrocities in Gaza,” a spokeswoman told City News Service.
On Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which provides food security and nutrition analyses for decision-making in over 30 countries facing food crises, declared a famine is confirmed in the Gaza Strip, with more than half a million people facing catastrophic conditions characterized by starvation, destitution and death, while another 1.07 million people are facing an emergency and 396,000 are in crisis.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office called the report “an outright lie.”
“Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation,” the statement issued Friday said. “Since the beginning of the war Israel has enabled 2 million tons of aid to enter the Gaza Strip, over one ton of aid per person.”
The statement also said, “Like all previous IPC reports, this one ignores Israel’s humanitarian efforts and Hamas’ systematic theft. Hamas steals aid to finance its war machine. These were the causes of temporary shortages, which Israel overcame with airdrops, maritime deliveries, safe transport routes, and GHF distribution points manned by American companies,” referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the American nonprofit organization established in February to distribute humanitarian aid during the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis.
“The only ones being intentionally starved in Gaza are the Israeli hostages.”