The current conflict in the Middle East is thousands of miles away from central Kentucky. Yet, there are thousands of people in the Commonwealth with very personal connections to the turmoil in Gaza and Israel.
Following the Hamas attack in Israel and then the military reaction from the Israeli government, a Palestinian rally was held last week in downtown Lexington.
Several people spoke in the courthouse plaza about the violence in the Middle East. One speaker started her remarks by repeating “Peace Be Upon You” to my fellow Kentuckians, to my fellow Muslims, to my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters, to my fellow Christian brothers and sisters, to every single person of faith, and every person from, quote, “a background who cares about humanity.”
She expressed concern about an expansion of anger and hate.
“I am not just afraid for Palestinians in Palestine or our Jewish brothers and sisters in America and Israel. I am afraid of this hatred coming into our community. And the only way to stop this hatred is to educate ourselves.”
Shani Abramowitz is the rabbi at Ohavay Zion Synagogue. She and her congregation were celebrating the high holiday season along with a bar mitzvah on a Saturday morning when the news came about the Hamas attack.
She said her brother lives just outside of Tel Aviv and her best friend lives on the Gaza border but was fortunately not home when Hamas invaded. Growing up in a Chicago suburb, Rabbi Abramowitz noted she’s made about ten trips to the Middle East, including a year during her rabbinical schooling.
“Right now, I’m having a really complex feeling of lucky that I’m here and not in immediate danger, but I also feel very far away like I want to be there and be close to all those places I spent so much time growing up and the people and my family and my friends,” said Abramowitz.
Abramowitz said she was raised in a wonderful Jewish community she would describe as having conservative views as it relates to Israel. The 31-year-old rabbi said in college, she encountered a Jewish perspective that was a more progressive approach to human rights and the state of Israel.
“Learned sort of the hard way that you can be a committed Jewish person and be active in Jewish community, you can be a religious Jewish person and also feel very strongly about the humanity and the civil rights and the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians, that those things are not mutually exclusive,” said Abramowitz.
Abramowitz said the actions of Hamas in attacking and killing innocent Jews must be accounted for and action taken. The rabbi added there is a big difference between justice and vengeance.
Dr. Ishan Bagby is a retired professor of Islamic Studies, spending 20 years at the University of Kentucky. Bagby said what Hamas did was abhorrent morally and Islamically with no justification. He said it’s important that compassion is spread among all those involved. And Palestinian resistance is understandable.
“When you listen to Palestinians, even those who are very much against Hamas, do not belong to Hamas, would never belong to Hamas recognize that resistance is a right of Palestinians. A right to kill innocent people, No. But a right of some type of resistance and that has been denied,” said Bagby.
Bagby said many Palestinians believe the only real way to long-term peace is through the two-state solution, with areas for Palestinians and Jews. As an African American, who grew up in the Cleveland area he remembers the turbulent 1960s. Bagby said Martin Luther King’s message was not accepted initially, but he says the courage of some Jews and white Christians slowly turned the tide. Bagby hopes that’s the case in reference to the Palestinian plight.
The long-time Islamic scholar said Nelson Mandela’s efforts against Apartheid, in time, took a path away from bombings that killed innocent people.
“But he had other tools and one of the biggest and most powerful tools was the call to boycott South Africa. But in America, to say let’s boycott Israel so that Israel will modify its policies toward the Palestinian people, that’s called anti-Semitic,” said Bagby.
Bagby doesn’t think any military operation by Israel will end the desire of Palestinians to end Israeli occupation.
Dr. Sheila Jelen is the director of the Jewish Studies Program at UK. Jelen has family and friends all over Israel, some serving in the military. She said those people feel they must serve in the Army to protect the state, but they also believe a two-state solution is possible. Jelen’s friend Rachel has a son who is one of the hostages taken during the Hamas invasion.
“She wrote a piece saying please look out for my child if you are a Palestinian mother because I would look out for yours and coming from her in this moment in her life that is a very powerful endorsement of my position, which is that we’re all human and we have to watch out for each other’s lives, no matter what,” said Jelen.
Jelen said suffering the attack doesn’t, quote, “give us the right to kill other people in cold blood, it just doesn’t work that way.”
The UK professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies said she’s spent many summers in Israel. And Jelen said many in the city come out at night to walk, following a hot day.
“I see as many women in Muslim garb as I see women in orthodox Jewish garb out on the streets in Jerusalem. It’s a mixed city. There’s a level of presence and comfort that I have felt more lately than I have felt in the past between the different populations,” said Jelen.
Jelen noted the experience on the inside can be different from the view on the outside. And Jelen added the disagreement today is primarily about land and national identity with a religious Zionist attitude of right to the land a loud minority.
In the Lexington area, Christians and Muslims have been meeting together since 1999 as part of the Christian-Muslim Dialogue group. The chair of the steering committee is Addison Hosea who attends an episcopal church. He said CMD was formed as a way to come together with people of another religion you would not normally have contact with.
“By having those conversations participants would be able to change their view of that other strange person and change them from the other to a person and in good circumstances that person becomes an acquaintance and in better consequences they would become a friend,” said Hosea.
Hosea said he decided to get involved with CMD in 2013 because he knew no Muslims and wanted to connect. More than one meeting has been held at Jewish synagogues in Lexington. He said some of the more interesting programs have been trialogues with representatives of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths. Such a gathering is in the works for the coming months.
Here are more comments from those participating in this feature report.
Dr. Ishan Bagby:
Dr. Sheila Jelen:
Rabbi Shani Abramowitz:
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