Yes, I’m worried that giving to Gaza could benefit Hamas. But Zionism today demands hope. |
“Rabbi Greyber, you can’t hide — we charge you with genocide.”
Those were the words shouted at me in front of Hebrew school students outside my synagogue two years ago. In the months and years since Oct. 7, I have stood with my community in grief, in fear and in a fierce commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself despite the vitriol thrown my way.
And yet, after our synagogue supported a recent fundraiser for the Gaza Children’s Village, I have been asked — sometimes with genuine concern, sometimes with anger — how such a decision could possibly align with that commitment. Some of those questions have come from within my own community.
Let me begin here: My Zionism is not theoretical. It is existential.
Just a month after Oct. 7, I visited Israel with local leaders. I’ve returned three times since to express solidarity and see beleaguered family and friends. Our mid-size synagogue in Durham, North Carolina, raised $175,000 for Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency response service. We advocated for the hostages, prayed for them week after week, and, after they were freed, brought Keith and Aviva Siegel — who have ties to our community — to share their story.
We raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the rebuilding of Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel. And like so many Jewish communities, we have carried the ongoing pain of a war whose reverberations have not ceased — whether in the trauma of Oct. 7, the anguish of hostage families or the continued threat of Hezbollah rocket fire in Israel’s north.
That commitment has not wavered.
So when people ask whether I am concerned that money raised for Gaza could end up in the hands of Hamas, my answer is simple: Of course I am.
Hamas has systematically corrupted Gaza’s humanitarian infrastructure, diverting vast sums of aid to build tunnels,........