Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) today published an open letter responding 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 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, Orthodox Judaism. Though introduced going into the weekend, the CJV letter quickly gained double the signatories of the original statement, including prominent rabbis from across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel.
Regarding the current war in Gaza, whereas the earlier statement claimed that Israel bears some responsibility for the suffering of the civilian population, the CJV letter rejected this as providing “unintended support to antisemitic inversions of… obvious truth.” In reality, the current war and its impact upon civilians are all due to the Hamas terror organization and its genocidal agenda. Similarly, the first statement exaggerated the significance of isolated, inappropriate reactions to Arab terror attacks upon Jewish citizens, while entirely omitting those 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, 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.”

The full letter, along with the names of 160 Orthodox rabbinic signatories, can be found online at the CJV Website.