Adam Greenman, president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, spoke with our Newport Bureau reporter Cheryl Hatch about the reaction in the local Jewish community in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks in Israel. Read the transcript below.
Cheryl Hatch: “I know this is a difficult time and challenging time, busy time. So I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. I know last week that you were planning a trip to Israel, for community leaders, including Newport Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong. And from that time last week, to over the weekend to now, everything has shifted. Your priorities. Your focus. …explain, describe a little bit how your last week has gone.”
Adam Greenman: So things started Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we’ve had some experience with similar situations, whether it was Charlottesville or Pittsburgh, it usually starts with a friend or colleague texting me, have you seen this? And in this case, that happened again. ‘…you see the text?’ I had an email from a pastor in the community, letting me know, their prayers are with us in this difficult time. And I said, Oh, what difficult time? So I immediately went to the news and just saw with her what was happening in Israel. And I immediately knew that this was something very different than anything our community, our Jewish community, has faced in my time in this role, but in decades. The first instinct is to make sure our community is safe. The second was to make sure that our community had what it needed in terms of care and concern that we were taking care of our community members. And then it was just the full-out, the aftermath of trying to bring everybody together, working with elected officials, law enforcement, our community to put together a vigil so that we could, you know, in a time of great tragedy really come together to mourn together and to grieve together and to begin to heal together. And then the attention the last couple of days has really turned to okay, how can we provide some concrete support to the victims in Israel? And so we’ve launched a fundraising campaign to support emergency needs, trauma counselors, just providing support for the victims of these terrorist attacks. And so it’s been, it’s been really a really, really tough week for our Jewish community.”
Hatch: “I lived in the Middle East. And I remember in Arabic, there’s this expression, Coul al kitaab. We are all of the Book. So Christians, Jews, and Muslims all have similar sacred texts, or similar origins and sacred texts. And they have shared history, shared sacred and holy sites as well. And so how do you reconcile that? Or what does that do to your heart when you think about this small area of land that we’re talking about with this shared history, shared religions and overlapping communities? How do you process that in your heart?”
Greenman: “In most cases, it’s actually pretty wonderful. You know, when you’re there, you actually get to see a lot more of those groups interacting peacefully, and working together peacefully. There are so many interfaith organizations in Israel, either working toward peace and dialogue or working together for civil society. Certainly, there are unfortunately, organizations and groups that seek to find a difference and not the similarities. But overwhelmingly, and this is just a personal belief I have. It’s true here … in the United States; and, my belief, you know, in most places, is that everybody wants the same thing. They want their families to be able to live in peace, and everybody wants their kids to do a little bit better than they did. And overwhelmingly, that’s what you see, when you’re there. That’s what you hear when you’re there. You know, putting all of the geopolitics aside, which is incredibly difficult to do in a moment like this, where what we saw from Hamas is just unspeakable. Unspeakable but we need to speak it. That overwhelmingly, folks just want to live their lives. They want to know they’re safe on both sides of this, in every country, here in America. There are so many similarities between these religions, certainly there are differences, too. But I always think about the word salaam and the word shalom. They are so close to each other. They both mean peace.”
Hatch: “I know, earlier in the week, there was the preparations for the vigil. And now moving forward, what things are you planning? …What’s your work look like here moving forward a day or two a week, a month?”
Greenman: “You know, part of the challenge is we don’t fully know. …our immediate focus has shifted to raising funds to support the victims in Israel. We just launched an Israel emergency campaign, where 100% of the proceeds will go to the victims of this terrorist attack. Will go to support for trauma counselors for folks who are injured, for Israelis who are coping with immense, unimaginable sense of loss. Will go for emergency medical services, to help relocate folks whose houses were destroyed on the border in the rocket fire. …You know, I think that as events shifts in Israel, there will likely be some work we do around policy and education, helping people really understand all aspects of the conflict. And it’s really about maintaining support for Israel, and making sure that our community is safe. As I said, unfortunately, when we see violence in the Middle East, it almost always includes an uptick in antisemitic activity here in Rhode Island, and so, working we have been since Saturday, but we’ll continue to work closely with local law enforcement, with our with the governor with our state delegation, to make sure that all of our Jewish citizens in this in this state You’re safe, that synagogues are safe that people feel comfortable going to pray. And, and responding to things as they come up here locally. And then I think, again, really important that we don’t lose sight of our primary mission, which is to lift up the joy of our community to provide opportunities for our community to come together in joy. And in good times. And so we’re going to redouble our efforts as we move past the initial grief and the initial sorrow to making sure that we do that as well.”
Hatch: “I know it’s nuanced and complicated. But thinking of interfaith, has the community reached out to members of the Muslim community, members of the Christian community, members of other communities of faith? And how do you make those connections? And have those conversations in this time?.. And has there been a reciprocation of that?
Greenman: “Absolutely is the answer. Rhode Island is a state founded on religious freedom, religious tolerance. And I think that all faith communities here, really, not only respect, but work to live into the ideals of which our state was founded. And immediately after these terrorist attacks, as I said, I learned about it from one of our interfaith pastors, who was calling to share her prayers for peace and for our community. We’ve been in touch and talked to our Muslim community. Our Muslim community, they’ve reached out to share their sorrow with what happened… I think that’s the beauty of Rhode Island is that the interfaith community here is really strong. Our clergy and the Jewish community and clergy and all communities actually pride themselves on how closely they work together, to encourage interfaith dialogue, to encourage interfaith support, to be with each other in times where our communities are hurting. I remember, after the Auckland massacre, I was so proud of how many members of our community we’re at the vigil at the mosque in Providence, standing in support in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters or sisters. And so I expect, not to expect, I know that the work will continue in the coming weeks and months. It is such a core part of what we do broadly, that it will 100 percent continue.”
Hatch: “To go back to almost where we started about this land, this proximity of cultures and religions and people. This shared history and how in a reaction, in a time like this, you know, lines are drawn. Divisions are made. Positions harden. And yet there are people hurting on all sides and people dying on all sides. And I know you are here at the Jewish Alliance and you are thinking of your community. …What thoughts do you have for the Muslim community here, for the people in Gaza and for the people in Palestine who are going through an equally horrible time?”
Greenman: “Two things can be true at the same time. Our community can be hurting and grieving and full of sorrow and anger at Hamas, who perpetrated these awful terrorist attacks. And we can hold, also hold in our hearts, and do hold in our hearts, extreme empathy and sympathy for Palestinians, who, as I said earlier, really just want what we all want, which is peace, safety and security. Who were not responsible for this but because of circumstances are unfortunately stuck in this tragedy. And we pray for peace. And for them, while also understanding that, you know, Israel has an absolute right to defend itself against this terrorism. And, and so it is, in some ways, as you said, positions are hardened within our community, within my own personal beliefs. This week positions have gotten hardened. And at the same time, we humans are complicated. This conflict is nuanced. And I trust that we can all hold multiple things at the same time. And in fact, if we tried to do a little bit more of that, I think we might actually find that, you know, we’d all be better off. And, and so here, a lot of what has made our interfaith dialogue and Rhode Island so strong is that we’re not afraid of those conversations. We’re not afraid to say, ‘Yes, I have some hard lines. But I also want to dialogue with you about those hard lines. I want to talk with you. We can agree to disagree on certain things. But let’s center humanity in all of this.’ And so, I think that even as I personally am so angry, and so hurting. And even as our community is so angry and so hurting and so full of grief right now, I also know, and and one of the rabbis who spoke at our vigil on Monday night specifically talked about this, that part of who we are as a Jewish community, is to hold that space, to pray for peace for everyone. And so That’s something we also hold as well, even as we believe deeply. That these kinds of attacks should never happen and can’t happen again. And that we need to make sure that they don’t happen again.”
Hatch: “And services will continue? I mean, we have services coming up this weekend all over the state.”
Greenman: “Absolutely. You know, their synagogues will march on. Actually, it’s the beginning of our last week. The holiday was when we finished the Torah and started again. And so we’re right back at the beginning of our Torah, reading the story of creation, which is pretty universal across the many, …major world religions. And so, a story that many people know, and it’s the story we’ll be talking about, in synagogues across the state this weekend and asking ourselves the question of how do we begin anew you know, under this new reality. And so, yes, life, life will continue. Life will go on.”
Hatch: “Thank you.”
Greenman: “Thank you.”
Information about the fundraiser can be found at Jewishallianceri.org
Cheryl Hatch can be reached at chatch@thepublicsradio.org
