Reader Letters: 'Our Lives Matter, Too'
A writer of mixed Jewish and Catholic background wonders why the CW doesn't show more support for Israeli hostages; plus, an 'old' CW finds liberation and joy in voluntary poverty.
Why Is the CW Silent about the Plight of Israeli Hostages?
Over the last few months, I’ve read several pieces in the CW about Workers protesting on behalf of Gazans, demanding an immediate ceasefire. While I agree with this demand, as an ethnic Jew raised by one Jewish parent and one Catholic parent, I want to know why the CW sees Gazans as innocents to be protected (and they are!!), but Israeli hostages as not worthy of the same support? The Israelis ripped from their beds, brutalized, raped, assaulted, murdered, kidnapped, starved, etc., because they were Jews, or related to Jews, or working and living with Jews, is also genocide. It's an equal evil. There are no exceptions.
Since the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, I have lost about 80% of my friends, because I’m of Jewish heritage and I have family in Israel. I have been sent images of the Israeli flag with a swastika in the middle. I’ve had Christians scream in my face that Jesus was never a Jew. I’ve been told that Jews cannot define anti-Semitism, as they can’t be trusted with that task. My own Jewish father did not put his menorah in his window this past Hannukah due to the fear of violence. I cannot wave an Israeli flag on front lawn like I can my husband’s Puerto Rican flag. People throw firecrackers at our house and leave us hate mail when I do.
Growing up in an interfaith family, the writings of Dorothy Day were my great comfort. Christians were not always kind when they discovered my heritage but Dorothy was a hero who made my “difference” at Catholic school feel acceptable, because she advocated for peace and for the love of God to be shown to everyone. Everyone, equally. Now, I feel like I can’t hold onto the pacifism of the CW anymore as a safety. It clearly parcels out its compassion for only certain groups of people. I have dear friends, loved ones, who are Palestinian. I want Gaza to be free, and I want the world to demand that. But my people matter, too. My people have been brutalized by the Catholic Church, time and again, over the centuries. My Jewish ancestors were kicked out of Spain because they refused to convert to Catholicism. They were murdered in Europe by Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic Christians. They were gassed and almost completely annihilated by Nazis and their allies in other nations. The ones who’d never left what is now called Israel in 70 AD (news flash—Jews have always been in Israel) were brutalized on their own soil by Persians, Ottomans, Romans, the British and more. We matter. Our lives matter, too. Israelis want a new government. They want to live in peace with their neighbors, but when people who have no connection to Palestinians or Jews take sides, sanity leaves the room and there’s no room for peace. It can never happen.
In 2019, my daughter was targeted for her ethnicity, kidnapped, drugged, and assaulted for more than 10 hours by a group of men where she worked. She was an innocent 19-year-old girl. I didn’t know where she was. The horror that came at discovering what happened to her will never go away, and justice is painfully slow in coming, but she came home. They didn’t murder her as they had planned. THIS is what the mothers of the hostages feel as well, but it’s hundreds of days of horror. When the group that Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded marches in support of the innocents of Gaza, but they remain silent on the innocents of Israel, it is Isabella and Ferdinand all over again. There are Catholics in Palestine, but there are only Jewish hostages there. The CW is concerned with their interests only and not all humankind when they support only one side. As an ethnic Jew who loves Israel, Palestine, and the CW, I ask you to turn your rallying cry into a compound sentence for the sake of God’s grace and love for all: Permanent ceasefire now and release all the hostages now! Repeat it. Scream it. Stomp it out. March it. Be equal. Love everyone. To select one side over the other is to make war, and that’s incongruent with the values of Dorothy Day, let alone Jesus Christ, a Jewish Messiah who lived in what is modern-day Palestine and Israel. Moreover, when you fight for Arab victims but ignore Jewish ones, it’s anti-Semitism, and I do get to define that as a Jew. Please do better. Support all of us.
Name withheld
In the Philippines, an ‘Old’ CWer Finds Joy and Liberation in Voluntary Poverty
Dear CW,
I have had the blessing of getting to know a CW house here in the Philippines and have lived there as a volunteer as soon as I retired, homeless and waiting for pension. I have since gone to many other places after that because when I got my pension finally after a year, I discovered I couldn't afford rent for a decent place, not even a room. So I thought of volunteering for some food and space. God's provisions are indeed generous. I hope to upgrade to a paying member here as soon as I get some income from selling a beautiful book about Birds in the Philippines of which I was part of creating! I hope to write more and get income so I may become an instrument of generous love.
Since then I have been living in voluntary poverty. A liberating and meaningful poverty indeed! I have lived a Catholic Worker at heart, I hope, and am loving the synodal, pilgrimage life of moving from one place to another.
I dream of an inclusive CW House of prayer, rest and re-creation for people in the mission journey of healing mind-body-spirit. ALL are welcome to eat too!(We Filipinos love to be hospitable and share whatever we have!)
I am old, 63, but so much able. I pray that CW houses around the world may spread and flourish and truly be the Heart of God in the world. May Dorothy Day, who loved fiercely, accompany us in the pilgrimage of loving God with all our strength.
Love and prayers,
Weena Meily