Israelis need plan for ‘day after’
Rabbi Vurgan said the civil turmoil in the months preceding the October 7 massacres has not been wiped away by those cataclysmic events but continues to fester.
The seismic shift that shattered fundamental presumptions held by Israelis in the country’s south on October 7 cannot be underestimated, an Israeli Progressive rabbi has told a fundraising event for the UIA Progressive Appeal.
Speaking at Temple Beth Israel in Melbourne, one of several events she addressed in Sydney and Melbourne, Rabbi Yael Vurgan said, “The trust they had in their contract with the state was broken on that horrible Shabbat. We used to think we have this contract with the state. We sit on the border, we work the land to the last centimetre possible [adjacent to the border] and the state protects us. But that whole conception that we are protected has broken.”
Rabbi Vurgan, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism’s regional rabbi for Sha’ar HaNegev on the Gaza border stated, “A lot of people say we can’t ignore this Israel-Palestinian conflict anymore … How many wars and operations have we had already? Every few years there’s an operation.
“People are starting to realise that no military solution is going to end these problems. There has got to be a political solution and it’s not going to be easy. But I think more and more Israelis are demanding now that we start a discourse about the day after [the war] because our government is refusing to discuss the day after with us.”
Rabbi Vurgan said the civil turmoil in the months preceding the October 7 massacres has not been wiped away by those cataclysmic events but continues to fester.
“We must have Israel as our beloved Jewish and democratic state. I want to encourage you to support our work and also to understand that there’s a struggle going on now between different forces in Israel and if you [the Australian Progressive Jewish community] support the opposition [politically] progressive parts of Israel who want a democratic Jewish state, there’ll be a homeland for all of us.”
Before October 7, the 10 kibbutzim of Sha’ar HaNegev, with their 9000 inhabitants, were largely secular communities that welcomed somewhat guardedly Rabbi Vurgan’s outreach as a religious figure when she first arrived there in 2018.
But as the months went by, they embraced the celebration of Shabbat and chagim she brought. Since the attacks, she has conducted many funerals of victims and has counselled displaced survivors.
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