An open letter signed by over 180 mainstream American Orthodox Rabbis has been published by the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), which represents over 2000 Orthodox American Rabbis. The letter is in response to a recent statement circulated under the title “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis.” The statement, signed by 80 mostly Open Orthodox rabbis, was highly critical of Israel and the catalyst for a New York Times article titled "Rabbis Emerge as Growing Voice of Criticism of Israel’s Tactics in Gaza."
The "Call for Moral Clarity" statement was published in Israel as well, where Arutz Sheva's Hebrew site wrote that the rabbis who signed it seem to have believed Hamas figures and reports over those of the IDF, despite proofs to the contrary, and posted rebuttals by Israeli rabbis. Arutz Sheva's English site also posted several op-eds on the issue.
The CJV letter argues that the previous missive ignored critical facts about the ongoing war against Hamas, and challenges the qualifications of Open Orthodox signatories to speak for traditional, mainstream Orthodox Judaism. Though introduced going into the weekend, the CJV letter quickly gained more than double the signatories of the original statement, including prominent rabbis from across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel.
The "Call for Moral Clarity" statement claimed that Israel bears some responsibility for the suffering of the civilian population, but the CJV letter rejected this as providing “unintended support to antisemitic inversions of… obvious truth.” In reality, and according to international law, CJV asserted, the current war and its impact upon civilians are all due to the Hamas terror organization, the massacre it perpetrated on October 7, 2023, and its unchanged genocidal agenda.
CJV added that the "Moral Clarity" statement exaggerated the significance of isolated, inappropriate reactions to Arab terror attacks upon Jewish citizens, mainly vandalism, while entirely omitting the numerous, murderous Arab terror attacks themselves.
The CJV letter also pointed out that, far from reflecting a mainstream Orthodox opinion, the earlier statement was dominated by signatures from Open Orthodoxy, including nearly twenty women (the Orthodox Union's halakhic decisors prohibit women from using the title "rabbi"), multiple openly gay individuals, and other graduates and affiliates of Open Orthodox institutions. These groups are rejected by genuinely Orthodox bodies around the globe because, in the words of the CJV letter, they do not act “in accordance with Torah.”
“It was important that we stand up for the truth,” said CJV Executive Vice President Rabbi Yaakov Menken, “when the reality was painfully distorted, and both Israel and traditional Judaism misrepresented. Some of the rabbis still coming forward are those who avoid any hint of argument and avidly pursue peace, but who feel that the record needs to be set straight in this case.”