NEW YORK – Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“I appreciate Mayor Mamdani’s acknowledgment of Hamas’s war crimes including the murders of nearly 1200 people and the kidnapping of 251 more, but his statement missed the mark. Jews and Israelis around the world and in New York City are still acutely mourning the atrocities of October 7 and still experiencing trauma from the killings and taking of hostages. We need time and spaces to mourn, and we need elected officials to understand our experiences and histories. The mayor’s statement did not reflect that understanding.
“At the same time, these attacks have been used by the Israeli government to justify and defend a brutal war of revenge that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. The mayor is right to name that those deaths are also a tragedy.
“I appreciated the mayor attending a vigil held by Israelis for Peace, which commemorated the lives of both Israelis killed on October 7 and those killed in Gaza over the last three years. Our message last night was clear: Not one more death. We must care more about human lives than about politics.”
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T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.