Charlotte Schallié

Yesterday, we led a protest of hundreds of Jews and Palestinians near the border with Gaza and carried sacks of flour on our backs to demonstrate against the mass starvation our government is creating so close by. (1/4)

Bard president Leon Botstein says Trump’s campaign against colleges follows ‘a classic antisemitic routine’ Botstein, born in 1946 in Europe to Holocaust survivors, has led the liberal arts college for 50 years.

“I actually think the government is playing out a classic antisemitic routine... Blame it on the Jews — ‘The reason that all the research funding is gone is because of the Jews.’” forward.com/fast-forward...

As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here's what changed my mind The incitement for genocide in the Israeli public sphere is undeniable. So why are so many of us liberal Jews so reluctant?

“The more I learn about genocide, the more shocked and embarrassed I am by my own ignorance. Once I actively tried to be better informed about genocide, the picture in Gaza became terrifyingly clear” — powerful and brave personal essay by my NYU colleague Lihi Ben Shitrit for @forward.com

A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves: how Gaza looks from the sky The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel’s offensive

“Seen from the air, Gaza looks like the ruins of an ancient civilisation, brought to light after centuries of darkness. A patchwork of concrete shapes and shattered walls, neighbourhoods scattered with craters, rubble and roads that lead nowhere. The remnants of cities wiped out.”

New books this week: unconventional novels and an oral history of Hiroshima, Nagasaki An oral history of the atomic bomb detonations 80 years ago leads this week's list of publishing highlights, which also includes a handful of novels by authors including Louis Sachar and Jason Mott.

An oral history of the atomic bomb detonations 80 years ago leads this week's list of publishing highlights, which also includes a handful of novels by authors including Louis Sachar and Jason Mott.

We are completely horrified and sickened by the cynical videos of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, who are starving and emaciated, that were published this weekend. (1/5)

A thoughtful thread from a truly excellent scholar.

Opinion | Netanyahu Is Choosing to Starve Gaza

"We cannot wait until it’s time to count the graves of the children who have perished, declare it a famine — or indeed, a genocide — and say, simply, “Never again.”" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/o...

We’re crying out for an end to this madness — an end to the catastrophe that has already killed 20,000 Palestinian children, the man-made famine, the brutal bombardment, and the abandonment of 50 Israeli hostages. Stop the annihilation NOW.

For the past 21 months of horrific violence and heartbreaking suffering in the Gaza Strip, I've been wrestling with the contentious question of whether Israel is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza. I initially rejected the genocide charge, but now I don't. A thread on why I've changed my mind:

I lead a top Israeli human rights group. Our country is committing genocide | Yuli Novak My generation was raised wondering how ordinary people could countenance an atrocity. In a grotesque twist, the question has circled back to us

The director of B'Tselem, one of the largest and most esteemed Israeli human rights NGO's, on how the organization came to the conclusion that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

35 rabbis arrested in NYC and DC protests for Gaza food aid - Jewish Telegraphic Agency The arrests come as reports of mass starvation in Gaza draw global outcry.

“This is about life and death. Our most urgent spiritual responsibility as Jews and as rabbis is to protect life.” Shkoyach. www.jta.org/2025/07/29/u...

Opinion | José Andrés: People of Good Conscience Must Stop the Starvation in Gaza

From @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“There is no excuse for the world to stand by and watch two million human beings suffer on the brink of full-blown famine,” the chef José Andrés writes about Gaza.

Work resumed Friday at WCK’s Deir al-Balah kitchen. Our team cooked 60,000 hot meals today—these meals reach vulnerable families who rely entirely on the kitchen for food. But more is needed in Gaza. Our ability to bring food to families in need depends on a reliable flow of aid. #ChefsForGaza

Because WCK's Gaza operations are short on fuel, donkey-driven carts are critical to bringing meals to as many people as possible. It's a fraction of the families we reach with adequate fuel, but the team is doing everything they can to keep deliveries going. #ChefsForGaza

HAPPENING NOW: As our government continues the starvation, killing, and destruction in Gaza, we’re disturbing the peace. We can’t have business as usual as horrors happen just over the fence!

Let food aid in, in massive quantities. Full stop. It is the very bare minimum of what we need to do.

Is starvation in Gaza really Israel's fault? The facts are clear Rising starvation in Gaza may have a number of factors. But Israel's wartime policies on humanitarian aid are inarguably among them.

For @forward.com, I wrote about how we know that Israel has been withholding food as a military tactic because Israeli officials have said versions of “we are withholding food as a military tactic” for the entirety of the war and pretending otherwise is willful ignorance forward.com/opinion/7586...

Right now, civilians are starving to death.

Right now, every voice opposing the famine is valuable.

Right now, we need the tent of outcry to be as big as possible.

Making room for that expansion now does not mean ignoring all that's come before and must come after. So, please, make room. (3/3)

"The two groups were B’Tselem... and Physicians for Human Rights — Israel. Their announcement was the first time major Israeli rights groups have publicly concluded that the Gaza war is a genocide, an assessment previously reached by some organizations like Amnesty International."

"Doctors say the damage to children's bodies in Gaza after months of hunger is already irreversible."

Reform Jewish Movement Statement on Starvation in Gaza July 27, 2025 - The ongoing crisis in Gaza is a devastating reminder of the immense human cost of war. Nearly two years into Israel's war against Hamas, Israelis are still waiting for the return of their loved ones held hostage, and innocent Palestinians are caught in a mounting humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel's destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war. While long-delayed and not-yet-certain to be more effective than previous efforts, we are encouraged by Saturday night's announcement that the Israeli military would revive the practice of dropping aid from airplanes and make it easier for aid convoys, including those from the UN's World Food Program, to move through Gaza along "designated humanitarian corridors," and to temporarily cease fighting in Gaza for a humanitarian pause. No one should be unaffected by the pervasive hunger experienced by thousands of Gazans. No one should spend the bulk of their time arguing technical definitions between starvation and pervasive hunger. The situation is dire, and it is deadly. Nor should we accept arguments that because Hamas is the primary reason many Gazans are either starving or on the verge of starving, that the Jewish State is not also culpable in this human disaster. The primary moral response must begin with anguished hearts in the face of such a large-scale human tragedy. Our tradition teaches that all people are created b tzelem Elohim — in the image of God. One consequence of this is the moral priority, which is affirmed throughout the Bible and rabbinic tradition, of feeding the hungry - both for the individual and for the self-governing Jewish community. More than a few members of t…

Despite PM Netanyahu's calls to ignore these full members of his cabinet, their presence in this government has consistently morally compromised Israel's actions. Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the "total victory" over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law. It's hard to imagine that this tragic approach will bring home the 50 remaining hostages, including the 20 who we pray are still alive. It's imperative that the Government of Israel ensures that the recently announced plans to deliver humanitarian aid succeed as Israel works with international partners to ensure its safe and sustained delivery and do whatever possible to reduce or eliminate the shootings and other injuries sustained at food distribution centers. We applaud Israel's green light for foreign nations to resume providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza population desperate for food and are confident that they will do all they can to ensure that such aid does not fall into the hands of Hamas. As Israel has effective control of 70% of Gaza, with the intent to remain in significant swaths of it, even if only temporarily, it should be directly involved, facilitate and cooperate with the international community, international humanitarian NGOs, and regional friends, to take urgently needed actions, such as these suggested by Israeli Reform rabbi and Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv: • To prevent the alarming number of civilian deaths in and around the food and humanitarian aid distribution sites. • Opening a significant number of food distribution centers at various locations across the Gaza Strip. • Large-scale entry of infant formula (especially liquid formula) and ensuring safe delivery to both functioning medical centers and the few remaining international aid facilities. • Establishing secure methods - potentially through cooperation with regional countries - for delivering food supplies to aid organizations and international agencies. • Resuming su…

Finally, while it is imperative that Israel and the U.S. resume diplomacy to bring home all hostages and end this war, denying basic humanitarian aid crosses a moral line. Blocking food, water, medicine, and power- especially for children- is indefensible. Let us not allow our grief to harden into indifference, nor our love for Israel to blind us to the cries of the vulnerable. Let us rise to the moral challenge of this moment. Union for Reform Judaism Shelley Niceley Groff (she/her) North American Board Chair Rabbi Rick Jacobs (he/him) President Central Conference of American Rabbis Rabbi David A. Lyon (he/him) President Rabbi Hara Person (she/her) Chief Executive Officer American Conference of Cantors Cantor Josh Breitzer (he/him) President Rachel Roth (she/her) Chief Operating Officer

INBOX: Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis & American Conference of Cantors issue a lengthy statement declaring:

"Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the 'total victory' over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law."

Nursing my baby before bed and thinking of mothers in Gaza who can’t— mothers whose babies might not make it to morning.

It is beyond.

My only hope is that the long overdue international outcry will bring meaningful change and a better future for the survivors. But it won’t help the dying now.

No Meals, Fainting Nurses, Dwindling Baby Formula: Starvation Haunts Gaza Hospitals

"The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do it justice... I saw the severity of malnutrition that I would not have thought possible in a civilized world. This is man-made starvation being used as a weapon of war." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/w...

“Reason is insufficient. Sympathy is inadequate. Only the force of history and memory is strong enough to form a counterweight to hate.”

Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

"“God’s name is being desecrated through our sins,” Rabbi Amital wrote nearly five decades ago. “Is it possible to remain silent?!” Today, his challenge tragically rings just as true."

My words in the Forward today (appropriately on Rav Amital’s yahrtzeit)

forward.com/opinion/7575...

Opinion | The World Is Letting Gaza Starve Today, many children in Gaza are so hungry they may never recover, and our supplies are critically low.

“Mothers arrive at our clinics exhausted, often after walking for hours carrying malnourished babies,” writes Mohammed Mansour with the International Rescue Committee in Gaza. “They ask, ‘Will my child survive?’ or ‘Do you have any milk or food?’ These are questions we can’t always answer.”

A surge of food, medicine, and other aid into Gaza, right now. Period.

Read these words posted online by Palestinians in Gaza. Let them horrify you. Because this reality is intolerable and it cannot continue.

As trucks of aid – food, water, medicine, and hygiene supplies – wait at the border, millions of people are hungry. Stop this catastrophe.

Mass starvation spreading across Gaza, aid agencies warn, as pressure on Israel grows – Middle East crisis live More than 100 aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam, say ‘our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away’ Palestine Red Crescent says the situation in Gaza is “only getting worse”, with spokesperson Nebal Farsakh calling it an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”. Farsakh said in a video posted to X on Tuesday that there has been no food, clean water or medicine entering the Gaza Strip for more than four months. This has resulted in a catastrophe where people are literally starving to death. More people are being admitted to hospitals with malnutrition especially among children, pregnant women and the elderly. Continue reading...

Mass starvation spreading across Gaza, aid agencies warn, as pressure on Israel grows – Middle East crisis live