‘Deeply Traumatizing’: Jewish Voice for Peace Argues in Resurfaced Booklet Jews Shouldn’t Write Hebrew Liturgy
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by Jack Elbaum
Anti-Israel demonstrators hold a ‘300 Days of Genocide’ rally and march through San Francisco, California, on Aug. 3, 2024, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Photo: J.W. Hendricks/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
The anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) argued in a newly resurfaced 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians.
The JVP Havura Network produced a 59-page booklet — or “zine” — in 2021 in advance of Tisha b’Av, the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem.
JVP’s Havura Network describes itself as “an emergent network that gathers, supports, and resources diasporist, anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, and Jewish spiritual communities.” In an effort to create a “Judaism beyond Zionism,” the network compiles and produces resources such as the Tisha b’Av zine.
In a section of the zine titled “Creating Liturgy,” the author notes it may be best not to include Hebrew in that liturgy.
“Hearing the Hebrew language can be deeply traumatizing for Palestinians,” it reads. “Therefore, prayers are best said in English or Arabic, rather than Hebrew. It is not our place to redeem our tradition on the backs of Palestinians. Enough has been taken.”
Many users on social media mocked the idea that Jews should not pray in Hebrew, as it is a language that long predated Arabic and English and has been the traditional language of Jewish prayer.
This is not the first time that JVP has caught people’s attention for questionable posts online.
In May, JVP claimed on X/Twitter that Israel’s “yearly cycle of state holidays that sequentially commemorates the Holocaust, Israeli militarism, and the creation of the state of Israel … was intentionally designed to conclude and obscure May 15, the day Palestinians mark the ongoing Nakba.”
However, critics noted that Nakba Day — meant to commemorate the Palestinian “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” of the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 — was inaugurated about 35 years after Independence Day and the other major Israeli national holidays near it, making it impossible for the latter to be intentionally established to desecrate the former.
Within local chapters, JVP has also explicitly supported Hamas and terrorism against Israelis.
At George Washington University, the JVP chapter wrote, on Oct. 11, referring to the Hamas attacks across southern Israel on Oct. 7: “This is an active moment of decolonization. As such, our solidarity with Palestine must encompass any and all modes of resistance they use in their efforts toward liberation.” It continued, “Challenging … the modes of resistance presently unraveling in Palestine is unmistakably a stance against Palestinian livelihood and liberation.”
In contrast, the national JVP organization has written it was “horrified by the massacre committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians” on Oct. 7.
The GWU chapter also posted an Instagram story after some hostages were released by Hamas claiming Israel would not allow former hostages to speak to the media because “the resistance [Hamas] treated hostages with dignity and respect” and that “the resistance [Hamas] continues to show its humanity and continues to demonstrate that it is not a threat to Jewish people.”
Released and rescued hostages have since testified that they were tortured, starved, and sexually assaulted while in Hamas captivity.
In the midst of the second intifada, JVP also produced a poster commemorating the first intifada which read, “L’Chaim Intifada,” aiming to normalize the idea of armed uprisings against Israel — which included suicide bombings, stabbings, and shootings.
The poster featured a picture of Leila Khaled, a terrorist who hijacked a plane in 1969 and attempted another hijacking in 1970.
JVP chapters still distribute these posters today on college campuses and around major cities.
Beyond its beliefs and public statements, JVP has also come under scrutiny for legal reasons. In June, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing the political fundraising arm of JVP of misrepresenting its spending and receiving unlawful donations from corporate entities, citing “discrepancies” in the organization’s income and expense reports.
