A Letter to Tzedek Chicago and V’Ahavtah members:
Dear Haverim
After much consultation over the weekend, we’ve decided to cancel the Tzedek Chicago – V’ahavtah Purim program scheduled for this evening, March 2.
We did not come to this decision lightly. In the end, we could simply not imagine celebrating a festival of making merry while the US and Israel are waging a merciless war on Iran, killing scores of civilians (including 165 people at a girls school last Saturday). We are also well aware that Israeli leaders are using the story of Purim as a sick pretense for its onslaught on the people of Iran – a war that is now dangerously spreading through the region. We do not feel that expressing joy – however satirically – is the appropriate way to meet this profound moral tragedy of this moment.
In lieu of a conventional Purim celebration, we encourage our members to participate instead in a number of ways. Yaakov Rav, a member of V’Ahavtah, has prepared a powerful new version of the Megillah (The Book of Esther) entitled, “Love and Justice for Such a Time as This” for our program this evening. Yaakov has updated it to include references to the current war on Iran. We invite you to read it and think about the ways it might inspire you to action that is meaningful and appropriate.
A coalition of peace groups has called for a National Day of Action with emergency protests in cities across the US today – including Chicago and Boston. Those who are able are encouraged to take to the streets in the spirit of justice that is at the moral core of the Purim story. Purim is also a time for giving tzedakah – and we have identified the Chicago Community Jail Support and Beyond Bond and Legal Defense Fund as organizations worthy of our support this Purim. We also encourage support of organizations that are actively organizing support to end the war on Iran, such as About Face, Win Without War and Code Pink.
We are sorry not to be gathering as a collective community this Purim but we know our two congregations will have opportunities for collaboration in the near future. In the meantime, we wish you a meaningful Purim – not a Purim of merry making in a time of tragedy, nor of vengeance and militarism but of moral conscience and collective action. To paraphrase the Book of Esther,“we were all made for just such a time as this.”
In Solidarity
Tzedek Chicago
V’Ahavtah
Shalom Rav 