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With Israel in turmoil, group of US rabbis visits with a mission: to listen and learn
Over the last few weeks, while Israel has been roiled by demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands, and President Isaac Herzog has warned about the possibility of civil war, American Jews have been watching with grave concern.
Even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a delay in the government plan to overhaul the judiciary that sparked the mass protests, tensions in Israel remained high.
It was precisely at this fraught moment that UJA-Federation of New York decided to bring a group of rabbis from the New York area to Israel — to listen, learn and talk with key Israeli figures, and to communicate the nuances of what they heard back to their communities in New York.
“I learned more than I thought was possible,” said participant Rabbi Jonah Geffen, senior Jewish educator and campus rabbi at Hunter College Hillel in New York.
Over four days in March, the diverse group of 24 rabbis met with a wide range of Israelis, ranging from politicians — including architects of the judicial reform and representatives from the opposition — to leading public intellectuals, journalists representing publications from both the left and the right, community activists, and thought leaders. The trip was funded by the Paul E. Singer Foundation.
“UJA has a tradition of getting our community leaders and our rabbis proximate to the issues of the day to help them as they lead their communities,” said Hana Gruenberg, managing director of Jewish life at UJA-Federation, who accompanied the delegation of rabbis. “We’ve brought rabbis to Israel when there have been security issues, we’ve brought rabbis to Ukraine, and most recently, during this time of challenge in Israel around internal domestic issues and judicial reform, we wanted to give rabbis support in leading their communities at this complicated time.”
Among those with whom the rabbis met to discuss the current political situation in the country were leaders of two Israeli civil society organizations, Yozmat Hameah (the Initiative of the Hundreds) and a group called the Israeli Congress, which strives to address the tension between the state’s Jewish and democratic identities.
The delegation also participated in a program with Co.Lab, a collaborative sponsored by UJA-Federation comprised of social influencers from diverse backgrounds. The group is working on initiatives to advance cohesion in Israeli society.
The group heard from Micah Goodman, research fellow at the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem; Knesset member Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionist Party, who as chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee is trying to advance the judicial reform; Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli; and Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member from the Labor Party.
The rabbinic delegation met with several journalists, including author Matti Friedman, Times of Israel political correspondent Carrie Keller- Lynn, and Jewish world reporter Zvika Klein of the Jerusalem Post.
Rabbis from the New York area gather in a Knesset meeting room ahead of a meeting with Knesset Member Simcha Rothman, an architect of the proposed judicial overhaul in Israel, March 17, 2023. (Courtesy of UJA-Federation)
“UJA was really thoughtful about our hearing from so many different perspectives explaining to us the complexity of these issues,” said Bracha Jaffe, associate rabba at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx. “It struck me as such an eye-opener that it’s more than just about judicial reform. All the different societal factions have felt at one time marginalized, coerced on one side, not being seen, not being represented.”
One of the many reasons for this sort of mission to Israel, said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation, is to convene rabbis from different denominations and across the cultural spectrum that represent the diversity of the New York Jewish community.
“These trips give prominent New York rabbis the opportunity to have their voices heard by leaders in Israel. They provide the rabbis with the ability to better understand the complex reality there so they can more effectively lead their communities in these challenging moments,” Goldstein said. “And they bring together rabbis from across the denominational spectrum, helping to more closely knit our own New York Jewish community — an ever-more important priority.”
Often, the day-to-day life of a rabbi does not lend itself to reflective moments with colleagues to listen and share multiple viewpoints on complex issues facing the Jewish community and Israel.
“What made this trip significant was that people who love Israel equally can have a varied view about what is in the best interest of the Jewish state,” said Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City.
With an itinerary that carefully struck a balance between intellectual, spiritual and political leaders, as well as advocates and activists, the group was exposed to a kaleidoscope of viewpoints, Cosgrove said.
“I was engaging with ideas that affirmed my beliefs about judicial reform and also challenged my beliefs,” he noted.
Both during and after the trip, the rabbis discussed the question of what it means to be a spiritual leader at this moment.
“One of our most important roles is to make sure that our people find reasons to maintain that connection both to the Land of Israel and the people of Israel,” said Rabbi Joshua Davidson of Temple Emanu-El in New York. “For me, that is a critical part of my identity as a Jew and my role as a rabbi. I believe that it is going to be a harder and harder but a more and more important
endeavor in these months to come.”
Rabbi Ari Lorge of Central Synagogue in New York said each participant came to the trip with different viewpoints on Israel, but with a common hope to see the country and its citizens flourish.
“Each of us comes with our own dreams for Israel,” he said. “We’re not neutral observers. We must continue to advocate and encourage this kind of dialogue and hold fast to those dreams.”
While any Knesset vote on judicial reform is unlikely before late April, the political tumult in Israel is far from over, and American Jewish leaders intend to stay as involved as possible.
“In this rapidly evolving situation, we’ll continue with these kinds of engagements for rabbis, knowing that we’re still in the middle of this,” Gruenberg said. “We care deeply about what comes next.”
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Hezbollah Pays Steep Price in Battle to Reverse Its Fortunes
Workers remove a coffin with a body from temporary graves and prepare for transport for a funeral ceremony of four Hezbollah fighters and two civilians, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 26, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
Hezbollah has paid a heavy price for going to war with Israel on March 2: Israel has occupied a chunk of southern Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands of its Shi’ite Muslim constituents and killed as many as several thousand of its fighters, according to previously unreported casualty estimates from within the group.
The move has brought severe political consequences, too. In Beirut, opposition has hardened to its status as an armed group, which domestic rivals see as exposing Lebanon to repeated wars with Israel.
In April, Lebanon’s government held face-to-face talks with Israel for the first time in decades, a decision Hezbollah firmly opposed.
However, more than a dozen Hezbollah officials told Reuters they see a chance to reverse deteriorating fortunes by aligning with Tehran in its war with Israel and the United States. The group, founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982, opened fire two days into the conflict, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
The group’s calculations are based on the assessment that its participation would force Lebanon onto the agenda of U.S.-Iranian negotiations, and that Iranian pressure can secure a more robust ceasefire than one that took effect in November 2024 following a conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, the officials said.
Hezbollah was mauled in the last war, which killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with some 5,000 fighters, and weakened its long-dominant hold over the Lebanese state.
Rearmed with Iranian help, it has used new tactics and drones, surprising many with its capabilities after a fragile 15-month truce during which Hezbollah held fire, even as Israel continued to kill its members.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi denied the group was acting on Iran’s behalf when it resumed hostilities, as alleged by opponents. He told Reuters Hezbollah saw a window to “break this vicious cycle … where the Israelis can target, assassinate, bombard, kill, without any revenge.”
He acknowledged losses and damage in southern Lebanon but said “you don’t go into making calculations of how many are going to be killed” when “pride and sovereignty and independence” are at stake.
Hezbollah’s media office said the figure of several thousand fighters killed in the present war was false.
While a US-mediated ceasefire that took effect on April 16 has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade blows in the south, where Israel maintains troops in a self-declared “buffer zone.”
Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said Hezbollah had “shown more resilience than many thought possible, but that was not a strategic gain in itself.”
“The only thing that will contain Israel is a comprehensive US-Iran deal,” he said. “Without a deal, there’s going to be a lot of pain for everyone. At best, a hurting stalemate.”
GRAVES FRESHLY DUG, AND QUICKLY FILLED
More than 2,600 people have been killed since March 2, around a fifth of them women, children and medics, Lebanon’s health ministry has reported. Its toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Three sources, two of them Hezbollah officials, said the ministry’s figures do not include many of the group’s casualties. They said several thousand Hezbollah fighters have been killed, though the group does not have the full picture yet.
In a statement to Reuters, Hezbollah’s media office denied the figures cited by the sources, and that the numbers published by Lebanon’s health ministry included its members killed in Israeli strikes.
One source, a Hezbollah commander, said scores of fighters had gone to the frontline towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiyam intending to fight to the death. Their bodies have yet to be recovered.
In the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, more than two dozen freshly dug graves were quickly filled with fighters’ bodies in the days after the ceasefire took hold. Simple marble tombstones identify some as commanders, others as fighters.
In one southern village alone, Yater, the council recorded the deaths of 34 Hezbollah fighters.
Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim community has borne the brunt of Israel’s attacks, forced to flee into Christian, Druze and other areas, where many blame Hezbollah for starting the war.
Israel has been entrenching its hold over a security zone stretching as far as 10 km (6 miles) into Lebanon and demolishing villages, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas.
An Israeli government official said Hezbollah had abrogated the November 2024 ceasefire by firing on Israeli citizens on March 2. The threat to northern Israel would be eradicated, the official said, adding thousands of Hezbollah militants had been killed, and Israel was steadily destroying the group’s infrastructure.
The Israeli military says Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel since March 2. Israel has announced 17 soldiers killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.
Citing ongoing Israeli strikes, Hezbollah has called the April ceasefire meaningless and continued to attack.
IRAN ‘WILL NOT SELL’ THEIR FRIENDS
A diplomat who has contact with Hezbollah described its decision to enter the war as a big gamble and a survival strategy, saying it felt it needed to be part of the problem so it could be part of an eventual regional solution.
It has yet to be seen if the gamble will pay off.
Tehran has demanded that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah be included in any deal on the wider war. But US President Donald Trump said last month that any deal Washington reaches with Tehran “is in no way subject to Lebanon.”
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Tahir Andrabi, referred Reuters to an April 16 statement in which he said peace in Lebanon was essential to the talks it is mediating between the U.S. and Iran.
A Western official said they saw a possibility the US and Iran might eventually reach a settlement that does not address the war in Lebanon.
Asked about this, the US State Department, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva and Lebanon’s government did not immediately comment.
Hezbollah’s Moussawi said a ceasefire in Lebanon continues to be a top priority for Iran, adding Tehran shares Lebanon’s objectives, including that Israel halt attacks and withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah has “full trust in Iran – that the Iranians will not sell their own friends”, he said.
The State Department referred Reuters to an April 27 interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio did with Fox News, in which he said Israel had a right to defend itself against Hezbollah’s attacks, and that he didn’t think Israel wanted to maintain its buffer zone in Lebanon indefinitely.
The United States has urged Israel “to make sure their responses are proportional and targeted,” he said.
When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah’s disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon.
Hezbollah has ruled out disarmament, saying the matter of its weapons is a topic for a national dialogue. Any move by Lebanon to disarm the group by force would risk igniting conflict in a country shattered by civil war from 1975 to 1990.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have sought Hezbollah’s peaceful disarmament since last year. On March 2, the government banned the group’s military activities.
Hezbollah has demanded the government cancel that decision and end its direct talks with Israel.
Lebanese officials have told Reuters they believe direct talks with Israel under the auspices of the US are the best way to secure a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, as only Washington has enough leverage with Israel to achieve those aims.
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US President Trump Tells Israeli Media: ‘I Studied Iran’s New Proposal, It Is Not Acceptable to Me’
US President Donald Trump arrives to award the medal of honor to Master Sgt. Roderick ‘Roddie’ W. Edmonds, Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 02 March 2026.
US President Donald Trump said he has reviewed Iran’s latest proposal and described it as “unacceptable” in an interview with Israeli broadcaster Kan News on Sunday. Trump added that ongoing efforts related to the conflict are “progressing very well,” without providing further details. He also renewed his call for clemency for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that Israel needs a leader focused on wartime priorities rather than legal matters.
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Israel Court Extends Detention of Gaza Flotilla Activists
Activist Saif Abu Keshek, a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla detained by Israel, sits at a magistrate’s court for a detention extension hearing in Ashkelon, southern Israel, May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
An Israeli court has extended by two days the detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Greece, their lawyer said on Sunday.
Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli authorities late on Wednesday and brought to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestinian activists aboard the boats were taken to the Greek island of Crete.
A court spokesperson confirmed that their remand had been extended until May 5.
The governments of Spain and Brazil issued a joint statement on Friday calling their detention illegal.
The activists were part of a second Global Sumud flotilla, launched in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. The ships had set sail from Barcelona on April 12.
Israeli authorities requested a four-day extension of their arrest on suspicion of offenses that include assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership in and providing services to a terrorist organization, and the transfer of property for a terrorist organization, said rights group Adalah, which is assisting in the activists’ defense.
Hadeel Abu Salih, the men’s attorney, said that the two deny the allegations. Their arrest was unlawful due to a lack of jurisdiction, she told Reuters at the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court after the hearing, adding that the mission was meant to provide aid to civilians in Gaza, not to any militant group.
Abu Salih said that Abu Keshek and Avila were subjected to violence en route to Israel and kept handcuffed and blindfolded until Thursday morning.
Asked for comment, the Israeli military referred Reuters to the Israeli foreign ministry, which said that staff were compelled to act to stop what it described as violent physical obstruction by Abu Keshek and Avila. All measures taken were lawful, it said.