Especially in war, be sensitive to Israeli sensitivities, just as we expect Israelis to be open to Diaspora sensitivities- this is a time where we need unity no matter where we sit in the normative political spectrum of ‘what’ and ‘ought’. We must recognize there are two areas of Jewish involvement from the Diaspora to be part of this Jewish ‘work in progress’ called Israel- Israel’s need for international recognition of its right to exist and continued safety and need for political, financial and strategic support; while on the other hand- Diaspora’s involvement in the internal evolution of what the future State of Israel will look like for future generations and which Jews worldwide will engage with based on the Declaration of Independence and humanistic Jewish democratic values. We must continue to push for these more personal and challenging conversations mutually recognizing the shared stakes we all have-Israelis and the Jews in the Diaspora.

At the moment we must use an holistic approach to communicate our support:

• use mass media to express our pain at the loss of lives and families of those directly impacted by the situation, and make sure we also communicate that we hurt for the non Hamas Palestinians who are victims of this reign of terror as well,
• write letters to local politicians to push for their active engagement in the regional government’s support for whatever Israel needs to defend itself,
• contribute to those organizations that provide infrastructure support to the country in times of crisis,
• stand up and be counted in public acts of identification,
• work with our Jewish educational frameworks to explain the complexities of the situation,
• work within interfaith frameworks to share perspectives, and do all we can to promote any frameworks that push for dialogue, negotiations and for peaceful resolutions

……apart from this, support delegations and visits to Israel, just as my two daughters are doing next week, where one is studying at TAU for the coming semester, while the other working with Jewish teenagers from the USA and their Israeli peers all meeting up in Israel, real time…..