From the Gaza Flotilla: “I’m Here Because My Jewish Heritage Demands It”

Since the launch of the Global Sumud Flotilla at the end of the summer, as an international maritime initiative and led by civil society to peacefully break the Israeli blockage of the Gaza Strip, David Adler, co-general coordinator of the progressive international and a participant in the flotilla, has communicated with the world via texts and direct messages. On Tuesday, when the more than 40 ships came less than 200 miles from the coast of Gaza and Israel, and faced warnings that they would be intercepted by the Israeli Navy, it began to seem that the flotilla could arrive on Yom Kippour, the holy day of the Jewish calendar. David thought about this perspective in a letter he shared on social networks and which is published here. He told me, “This is my final letter from the global sumud Flotilla before our Likely interception –time, by coincidence, to the Arrival of yom Kippur. This coincidence, However, is an opportunity—To connect with my fellow jews across the United States and Arouse Flotilla’s Mission of Tikkun Olam. “” Tikkun Olam is a Jewish concept that refers to the repair of the world.    —John Nichols

Today, I am writing a very personal letter to everyone – a letter on what it means for me to be Jewish during a mission which should arrive at the “red zone” during Yom Kippour, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar.

I almost never write “as a Jew”. I share the exhaustion of being forced to put Jewish feelings first – when a genocide was committed in the name of Zionist “national interest” and when activists have been detained, tortured and expelled in the name of our “security”.

But today, I felt obliged to write in this register – as one of the only Jews of this mission, which brings together more than 500 people from more than 40 countries around the world.

I believe that the moment of our flotilla is not a coincidence. On the contrary, I believe that it is a blessing that we are approaching the interception at the beginning of Yom Kippur – our annual expiation day – which calls us to reflect on our sins, and what can be done to repair them in the spirit of the spirit of Tikkun Olam.

How can we atone for what has been committed to our name? How can we seek forgiveness for sins that multiply by the time, while bombs and bullets are raining on Gaza? How could we take our mandate seriously to “heal the world” when the State of Israel is so determined to destroy it?

If there is a part of the Torah that I still remember, it is this obligation that she grants us: “Justice, justice that you will continue”. How could we stand in place while the State of Israel perverts this holy obligation, supervising a holocaust of the Palestinian people?

I joined this flotilla like any other delegate – to defend humanity, before it is too late. But on Yom Kippur, I remember that I am also here because my Jewish heritage requires it.

As an adolescent, my grandfather Jacques Adler joined the Paris resistance against the Nazis, putting his life at stake to sabotage their operations while his friends and family were sent to death in concentration camps.

It is the tradition to which my name is and the definition of “justice” which seems faithful to my Jewish identity – like the same genocidal rage which targeted my ancestors is now taken up by its main victims.