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Sunday, July 20, 2025
Hundreds of US, Israeli Jewish community leaders condemn deadly West Bank settler violence
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Some 700 Jewish community leaders, rabbis, and academics in the US and Israel have signed a statement condemning deadly settler violence in the West Bank, after two Palestinians were killed last week, one of whom was a US citizen.
The statement is published by Smol Emuni US, a left-wing Jewish organization that describes itself as being “committed to the foundational religious principle that all people are created in the image of God.”
The letter is endorsed by Jewish leaders from across all streams of Judaism, from Orthodox to Reconstructionist and non-denominational.
“In response to settler violence targeted against the West Bank village of Sinjil last Friday, and which led to the deaths of two Palestinians, Orthodox rabbis, educators and community leaders in the United States and Israel have led a charge to condemn this incident as well as the alarming increase in settler violence against civilian, nonviolent Palestinians,” the statement reads.
“These escalating incidents of settler violence have included the burning of inhabited homes and expulsion of men, women, and children from their land. Some of the perpetrators believe they are fulfilling God’s commandment to conquer the land.”
“Led by Orthodox rabbis and organized by Smol Emuni US over 700 leaders in the Jewish community have signed a letter of condemnation, declaring these actions contrary to the morality of the Torah and calling upon all spiritual and communal leaders to denounce these actions, and not remain silent in their presence,” it adds.
Among the signees are several well-known Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Yosef Blau, the former president of Religious Zionists of America; Israel Prize winner and Talmudic expert Rabbi Daniel Sperber; Rabbi Tully Harcsztark, principal of New York’s modern-Orthodox SAR High School; and the founder of Beit Midrash Har’el in Jerusalem, Rabbi Herzl Hefter.
Others who signed the statement include Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; Rabbi Amy Eilberg, the first woman to be ordained by the Conservative movement; and Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, the rabbi of SAJ, the first Reconstructionist synagogue in the US.
The Times of Israel Community.