It is because of my Jewish heritage and my family’s history in pogroms, ghettos, and concentration camps that I am speaking out against Israeli treatment of Palestinians, most especially the nightmare being visited on the people of Gaza right now. It is because I was told the stories of my people, because of the losses, the displacement, the systemic nature and institutionalization of our oppression, that I cannot be silent. It is because the trauma is generational, because it was generational on purpose because my own people ensured that I would never forget, that I cannot pretend I don’t know what’s happening or the power of the masses who do nothing to stop it.

The attack from Hamas triggered every story told to me around the Passover table when I was a child, and along with it, the ferocity instilled in me to fight, fight, fight when they come for us. I was not spared the stories of rape, of torture, of unbearable suffering, and I was not spared so that I would teach my children and they their children, because this is how we protect ourselves. When Hamas bombed Israel and took people from their homes, I knew what I was supposed to do. I was to gather with my people and stand together to make sure they take no one else. Survive at all costs. Never again.

But, it is because of my Jewish heritage, my family’s history, and the trauma handed down to me that I cannot stay silent when people are being displaced, when new ghettos are being built, and when systems of oppression are targeting entire peoples.

I side with the people. They do not have to be My People. Never Again means Never Again.

Rev. Peggy Clarke

Board Chair, UUSJ

Senior Minister, Community Church of New York, UU