Hello from Jon’s colleague Elizabeth—and don’t worry, our vacationing friend will be back next week!
It’s been 27 years since I visited Gaza, but I still vividly remember what it was like: the overcrowded city streets; the sewage flowing through gulleys and across sidewalks; the warning from our Palestinian tour guide to stay close so we wouldn’t get kidnapped; the young man who begged me to take his picture and tell his story when I returned to the United States. These days, conditions in Gaza feel more hopeless than ever—and we have a new article about one facet of that suffering: Ben Norquist and Mae Elise Cannon write about the extreme water shortage that Gaza faces, contextualized within the troubled history of water management in the region.
Widespread awareness of the suffering in Gaza has contributed to a dramatic increase in violence against Jews in the United States in recent months. Such violence is rooted in an antisemitism that runs so deep in our culture and our churches that we may be unaware of the ways it shows up in our own language. In their new article for the magazine, Olivia Brodsky and Joshua Stanton, who serve as cantor and rabbi respectively at East End Temple in Manhattan, suggest ten ways progressive Christians (and anyone else) can critique the Israeli government without deploying antisemitic tropes or implications.
“The scarcity of clean water in Gaza is not only affecting hydration levels—it is also harder (or impossible) to clean clothing, wash diapers, prepare food, bathe, wash hands, clean dishes, flush toilets, and extinguish fires. Naturally, the lack of water in Gaza is having spiraling health and environmental impacts.”
Cantor Olivia Brodsky and Rabbi Joshua Stanton offer ten statements of critique that might even be helpful for Palestinians, Israelis, and the prospects for peace.
“Some technological developments are healthy, some less healthy. The point is, the way we know whether they’re healthy is the extent to which they facilitate faith, hope, and love.”
“The endless stream of vitriol toward Hillary Clinton, especially the references to Satan and demons, is incongruent with the portrait that Gary Scott Smith provides in this remarkable spiritual biography.”
Host Cassidy Hall talks with Assata de la Cruz about embracing the call to be a medicine woman, healing from spiritual violence, and holding one another accountable.
