A Very Narrow Bridge

Friday, June 6, 2025

“Kol ha’olam kulo, gesher tzar m’od. The whole world, all of it, is a very narrow bridge.” Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, the chasidic master who wrote this teaching over two hundred years ago, captures an unpleasant, if common, human experience. It is that vertiginous feeling of instability and peril, of standing on a precipice and looking into the abyss. But we can’t just back away from the edge and get to safer ground because it’s the whole world – all of it – that is that very narrow bridge. In that moment, there is no escape route, no exit, at least not any that we can see from here. 

If you feel like you’re walking on a very narrow bridge this week, you’re not alone. As Rabbi Jay Michaelson wrote this week in The Forward, “After the initial shock, my reaction to this week’s heinous attack on a peaceful vigil in Boulder, Colorado, was that it feels like American Jews are walking on a tightrope. Everything feels precarious and complicated — in Gaza, in Israel, in the Jewish community, in our relationships to a government exploiting antisemitism for political purposes, in how we understand our safety as Jews in this country. Then I realized, we’re walking on multiple tightropes at once.” Progressive Jews and liberal Zionists are walking the tightrope of voicing real concerns about the war Israel is waging in Gaza and also condemning those who violently attack Jews in the name of Palestinian freedom. We are walking the tightrope of acknowledging and trying to combat antisemitism on college campuses, and also protesting efforts to use that antisemitism as a pretext for suppressing free speech and targeting immigrants. We’re walking a tightrope of acknowledging the rise in antisemitic incidents, and of not becoming paranoid or self-absorbed because of them. And what’s even more troubling is that as we’re standing on this narrow bridge, there are voices all around us trying to convince us that we’re not on a narrow bridge at all.

In the Jewish community, these are the voices that insist that Israel has the “most moral army in the world,” and that any reports to the contrary are just antisemitic propaganda. These are the voices that say that the Palestinians are Amalek, Israel’s quintessential enemy in the Bible, the enemy that deserves no mercy but must be annihilated, even the women and children (Deut. 25:17-19, I Sam. 15:3). These are the voices that label non-Jews who criticize Israel as antisemitic and Jews who do as traitors. And these are the voices that remain silent, even when Israel cuts off all humanitarian aid to Gaza for months, or when it allows only a fraction of the necessary food and supplies in. 

In order to counter those voices, we must raise up our own. This is new and perhaps uncomfortable for some of us. We are used to feeling that it is our job as American Jews to defend Israel from the rest of the world, not to “air our dirty laundry.”  As Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund put it, “So why aren’t some of America’s largest Jewish communal organizations ringing alarm bells about [the war in Gaza]? The main reason is that they weren’t built to; they were built for defense. In the decades since the Holocaust, they have made the case that Israel is the tie that binds Jews to their Judaism, and that it will ultimately keep Jews safe. It is just not part of their DNA to be critical of Israel. And so now they find themselves in the position of defending the indefensible.” Sokatch continues, “I believe that it is time for American Jews to rethink what it means to ‘support’ Israel, because it can mean something very different than what we’ve been led to believe…. So, to those who are searching for another way to stay in relationship with Israel without betraying their values: Support those who share the same values and vision for Israel’s future that you believe in. One that is inclusive, just and peaceful. Two peoples live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and neither of them are going anywhere. They must live together.”  

I am grateful to be part of the Reform movement, which is making strides towards speaking up for this kind of support for Israel. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post last month titled “I’m a Rabbi. Starving Gaza Is Immoral.” In the article, Rabbi Jacobs argues that “Hamas’s actions do not excuse Israel’s policy of cutting off humanitarian aid to innocent civilians in Gaza….A just war… must be fought with just means that align with both international humanitarian law and the values of Jewish rules of war.” He continues, “As a proud Zionist who continues to feel deep solidarity with the people of Israel… I cannot be silent in the face of the immense suffering of civilians in Gaza, including hundreds of thousands of children.” He calls on all of us who love Israel to speak up.

Likewise, this week Rabbi Josh Weinberg, the Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America – ARZA – wrote, “We are trying to say at least these five things all at once:

1. We love and care for Israel deeply….

2. We abhor the Netanyahu government…. We are skeptical of Netanyahu’s motives in perpetuating the war, as it is clear that the objectives of the war are likely unachievable and that he has political and personal motives not to redeem the captives and to move forward with the occupation and complete takeover of Gaza with the goal of Jewish (re)settlement there. The growing rates of rampant settler violence in the West Bank are increasingly dangerous and unbridled.

3. We vehemently condemn Hamas and all terrorism…. 

4. We are deeply concerned about the high civilian casualty rate in Gaza: the thousands of children killed; the severe humanitarian disaster; and the vast destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza. 

5. We must uphold democracy and free speech. Just because the terrorists of the D.C. and Boulder attacks called out to “Free Palestine” does not mean that anyone else who says those words is either a terrorist or antisemitic.… [But] calls for “globalizing the Intifada” or “ending Zionism (and Zionists)” should be understood for exactly what they are – incitement to violence, hate crimes, and an excuse to target Jews or supporters of Israel anywhere.

Both Rabbi Jacobs’ and Rabbi Weinberg’s statements were balanced, reasonable, and, to me, a welcome surprise.  I’m proud to see our Movement’s leaders setting an example for us to speak out about Israel. 

“Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tzar m’od. The whole world, all of it, is a very narrow bridge.” Rebbe Nachman continues, “But the essential thing is not to be afraid at all.” I admit that I don’t think that’s possible. But maybe we can start by not being afraid to acknowledge that we’re on a very narrow bridge. And maybe then, we can even start making the bridge a little wider.