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Progressive and Masorti rabbis to hold Havdalah vigil, calling for ceasefire
Organisers say they are standing in solidarity with the hostages and demanding more aid into Gaza
August 8, 2025 13:37
Organisers say they are standing in solidarity with the hostages and demanding more aid into Gaza
August 8, 2025 13:37Leading Progressive and Masorti rabbis are gathering in central London on Saturday night to call for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and to demand that more aid goes into Gaza.
Announcing the vigil, which will be part of a Havdalah ceremony, marking the end of Shabbat, they stated they were “protesting the continuation of the war in Gaza…praying in solidarity with the hostages and those Gazans being starved and suffering from lack of essential aid”.
Israel, responding to international accusations that it is denying the Gazan population sufficient food, has said that the United Nations was responsible for aid distribution failing to reach the people of Gaza.
Among those attending on Saturday evening are Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy, co-leads of Progressive Judaism, Shulamit Ambalu, chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis and Cantors and Igor Zinkov, Chair of the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors.
Masorti rabbi Jeremy Gordon from New London Synagogue will join the vigil and David Djemal, cantor at New London Synagogue, will lead Havdalah.
Many of us are bringing our empathy to the hostages and not the Gazans. We need to be able to empathise with more people than just our own.
Also taking part is Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, former senior rabbi at Reform Judaism, who told the JC: “We are doing this as we see that there needs to be a ceasefire. It’s urgent. As rabbis, we are looking at the situation from a humanitarian point of view. There is clearly not enough aid getting in safely and securely, and this is damaging both the hostages and the Gazan people.”
She added: “I was listening to the hostages speaking in the videos which were released, and it just made me feel sick what they are experiencing, but the destiny of Israelis, the hostages and the Gazan people are completely intertwined. Everyone is made in the image of God, and it concerns me that many of us are bringing our empathy to the hostages and not the Gazans. We need to be able to empathise with more people than just our own.”
While condemning Hamas for the stealing of food, Rabbi Janner-Klausner criticised the current aid system being run by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying that she had friends in Gaza who “are afraid to go to food stations as they are scared of being shot”.
The UN's human rights office (OCHR) said that since May 27, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food aid in Gaza, with at least 859 of the deaths occurring in the vicinity of one of the four GHF distribution centres.
GHF says it uses "limited, non-violent crowd control measures when necessary to prevent chaos and protect civilians".
Rabbi Janner-Klausner said she had observed a recent change in the views among the British Jewish community. “British Jews are extremely wonderful and decent communities. There has definitely been a change in the narrative because people are saying that if basic aid isn’t reaching Gazans, when baby formula isn’t getting in, something is wrong. We are Jews. We need to do something. We need to speak out.”
Saturday evening’s event, which will include words spoken in English, Hebrew and Arabic during the ceremony, is only being attended by clergy, who have been asked to wear black and not to display any badges or flags “for solemnity”.
Rabbi Janner-Klausner said that Havdalah was about “going from the past to the future, and the future has to be different for the hostages and the Gazans. To say the situation is ‘urgent’ doesn’t even begin to express it.”