The Place of Justice in a Post-October 7 American Jew’s Heart

in memory of Ilana Schatz z”l

There was a time when all I wished for was another way to reach beyond my Jewish community to achieve justice with and for others.

It’s been 304 days since I thought that way.

At first, I thought it was the trauma of October 7 that led to the shift. Ten months later I’m not so sure. But the loss of a justice-seeking friend with whom I shared countless hours discussing the necessary integration of sacred ritual and universal justice triggered my heart-mind to reflect on this.

What happened? Is the change an internal one? (Have I changed?) Is it an external one? (Did the world change?) My gut says it’s a lot of the former and very little of the latter.

The world has contained abundant antisemitism, but its relatively low rate in the United States for the last two decades made it possible for me to think less tribally, to think: We’ve made it, now it is time to leverage Jewish privilege on behalf of other oppressed communities. The Jewish obligation to pursue justice is not less important in light of exploding antisemitism (I see anti- Zionism as antisemitism, garbed in a thin veneer of inadequate nuance). But I’ve come to understand that my extra-tribal focus left my family unprotected in an environment that resembles earlier, harsher times far more than I would have imagined. It is tragic that the rampant antisemitism around the world has kept Jews like me from devoting more time to societal injustice. But who will fight for Jewish dignity if I don’t?

A prayer, offered from the wounded heart of one justice-loving Jew: May the world one day soon hold itself accountable for the scourge of antisemitism, so that we Jews will have to worry less about our own safety and dignity and find ourselves free to worry more actively about the safety and dignity of others.