In recent days, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has dominated headlines and hearts. The suffering is unbearable for anyone who heeds the Torah’s provocative question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). When Palestinian children are starving — and we’ve been shown that the hostages face the same reality, held in captivity now for 667 days — our answer is unequivocal and universal: We are responsible for each other, for every person. Yet now more than ever, we must also heed the Talmud’s particular directive for the Jewish people: “All of Israel is responsible for one another,” (Shevuot 39a).

Since the earliest days of the war, the organization that I lead, Women of Reform Judaism, has called out the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis unleashed by Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. We do so as proud Zionists — those who love Israel deeply just as we seek to hold the Jewish state to our highest Jewish values. 

Our moral chorus remains the same, crescendoing with the growing public attention on this moment. We have decried the weaponization of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war. We have called on Hamas to cease using innocent Palestinians in Gaza to further their brutal goals for the destruction of Israel. We have prayed and marched in the streets, from Tel Aviv to Washington, demanding an immediate return of all hostages and an end to this terrible war. 

We have done so as Jews, who can hold both the universal and the particular. We are our global siblings’ keeper, and we are responsible for Israel, for our fellow Jews around the world. As Jews, we care for each other, and we must also hold each other to account.

At his inaugural lecture as a member of the faculty at Union Theological Seminary, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z”l declared: No religion is an island. 

“Our era marks the end of complacency, the end of evasion, the end of self-reliance. [We] share the perils and the fears; we stand on the brink of the abyss together… Disorder in a small obscure country in any part of the world evokes anxiety in people all over the world… Horizons are wider, dangers are greater… No religion is an island. We are all involved with one another.”

There are those who would say we must choose between our particular affinity for the Jewish people and our moral outrage at the anguish of the Palestinians.

That is why I would extend Heschel’s assertion beyond religions to all people. No person is an island. We are all responsible for one another.

That is why, since Oct. 7, 2023, our position hasn’t faltered. In fact, this stance aligns with our legacy for over a century: fighting for protections against child labor, starvation, famine and more, and not just for those within our community. We are pulled to the universal always. What’s more, we know allowing this humanitarian crisis to continue will not bring the hostages home. We need a lasting deal and ceasefire that brings us one step closer to peace.

The Jewish people are not a monolith, and Jews will respond in a variety of ways to this fraught period in our history. Now is not a time for blame or hesitation — it is a moment for action and accountability.

Since the protests in response to Israel’s attempted judicial overhaul in 2023, and long before, we have not been afraid to speak out against an Israeli government that does not reflect our values. As feminists, we know that women and all people are safest in a thriving democracy.

At the same time, we must remember that Hamas began this conflict and has no qualms placing innocent Palestinians in harm’s way, endangering their people and the hostages they have held for 667 days.

We can hold it all — the universal, the particular, the anger, the pain, the moral compass and the Jewish values that guide our way. No person is an island, and it is beyond time to step up, hold each other accountable and care for every person.

Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch is the CEO of Women of Reform Judaism.