CBI Blogs

Shalom Chaverim,

The past week and a half has been dedicated to the observance of Israeli Holidays: Yom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha’atsmaut. In both our Hebrew and Religious school classes these holidays were the focus of our students’ learning and, the remarkable ShinShin Eyal Butbul, spent time with our second and fifth grade classes offering firsthand knowledge on what it is like to celebrate them in the land of Israel.  

Here in Austin, we are fortunate to have a robust Israeli community, and we hold ceremonies and celebrations for these special days at Shalom Austin on Hart Lane. On Tuesday, April 29^th, I was fortunate to be able to attend and participate in the moving Yom Hazikaron ceremony. Moving stories were shared about the lives of those who have been lost, emotional songs were sung, and prayers for the soldiers, hostages, along with the memorial prayers of eil malei and kaddish yatom were prayed. As always, it was a meaningful and emotional ceremony.

Of course, we are a few hours behind Israel in our commemorations. Earlier in the day (Austin time) headlines exploded in Israeli news about a group of rioters who stormed a Ra’anana (Reform) synagogue as it hosted an Israeli Palestinian memorial event. You can read the full article by clicking here.

Today, I am going to share with you the insightful words of Rabbi Asher Gottesfeld Knight who serves as the senior rabbi at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is an important reminder to those who haven’t yet voted in the World Zionist Elections to do so before it is too late.

“I lived in Israel for two years. I learned that there are few days more sacred in Israel’s calendar than Yom HaZikaron.

It is the day when, across every line of division—political, ethnic, religious—we bow our heads together and remember the fallen. For many Israelis, it is not abstract. It is family. It is friends. It is fate narrowly escaped. It is sacred and holy.

Yom HaZikaron flows directly into Yom Ha’atzmaut - Israeli Independence Day - reminding us that the joy of independence is built on the sacrifice of those we’ve lost—and that our freedom must always be tethered to memory, responsibility, and hope.

But this year, that sanctity was shattered.

In Ra’anana, at a Reform synagogue founded by a grieving father who lost his son in Lebanon, a mob gathered. They weren’t mourners. They came with hate—spitting, cursing, throwing rocks, blocking doors, and chanting, “Death to Arabs.” Their rage wasn’t spontaneous. It was coordinated. Incited. It was Kahanists.

Kahanists (to learn more listen to this podcast of Unpacking Israeli History) believe in a Jewish supremacist ideology that advocates for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian territories, rejects democracy and religious pluralism, and seeks to impose a theocratic, ethnonationalist state rooted in fear, domination, and exclusion.

They came not to grieve but to silence. Not to remember but to threaten.

In Netanya, on Yom HaShoah, another Reform synagogue was vandalized for the fifth time. Graffiti smeared across the walls: “F*** Reform.” Stickers for hostages torn down. Israeli flags ripped. A broken fence. A broken promise of safety for Jews, by Jews, inside the sovereign State of Israel.

These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a broader campaign to marginalize and silence voices of conscience in Israel.

A campaign stoked by a government that empowers ministers who glorify Kahane, who treat liberal Jews as foreign agents, and who normalize Jewish supremacism while dismantling democratic norms.

We are being told that there is only one way to be Jewish in Israel.

We are being told that compassion towards Palestinians is betrayal.

That remembering all the dead is treason.

That peace is a weakness.

That Reform Jews are not real Jews.

We must reject these lies.

I stand with those who gathered in Ra’anana and Netanya. We must stand with those who remember every fallen soul. We stand with those who believe that Zionism must be rooted in justice, democracy, and human dignity.

And we act.

We are in the final days of the World Zionist Congress elections.

This is where we have power. To direct billions of dollars toward the future we believe in.

To support synagogues like the one in Ra’anana and Netanya.

To fund pluralistic education.

To protect our values from the forces that would silence them.

Vote for the Reform Movement—Slate #3.

Go to www.zionistelection.org.

Vote not just with your mind, but with your heart.

Vote not out of anger, but out of love.

Vote because you believe that hope is not radical that compassion is not cowardice.

We remember.

We refuse.

We rise.”

Voting ends on Sunday, May 4^th. The Israel we believe in depends on us to voice our opinions through our vote.

Shabbat Shalom