The leaders of Progressive Judaism were booed off stage for showing support for those suffering in Gaza – now they are ‘more determined than ever’ to stand up for ‘diversity of thought’
August 12, 2025 09:15
The hostages, their families, and their stories are central to our voice and our work. As co-leads of Progressive Judaism, we have been telling their story and advocating for their release, here in the UK and alongside our colleagues in Israel. We were asked by the Hostage Families Forum to be at Sunday’s Stop the Hate rally in London in person. We were also told explicitly that all speakers would have the freedom to speak. We trusted the organisers and shared in advance the headlines of what we would say, none of which was out of line with what is voiced at hostage rallies in Israel every single week.
Just before going on stage we were told to keep it to three minutes because the programme was running short, even though everyone else had spoken for much longer. Our remarks had been written days earlier, and we did not alter them in light of that request.
Since the incident, we have had a message from one person at Stop the Hate apologising for cutting us short for which we were grateful. But having been given assurances that our presence and our voice was as welcome as any other, we are dismayed at how poorly the event was managed, both in its organisation and in the way we were stopped from finishing speaking.
The messages of support we have received from across the Jewish community, from the Board of Deputies, Masorti Judaism, Leo Baeck College and many rabbis and lay leaders of every denomination, mean a great deal. They show that, with some notable exceptions, our community still values diversity of thought and the ability to disagree without exclusion.
What we said was in line with the words of hostage families and Israelis in Israel and rooted in Jewish values and in the lived reality of Israelis who demand both the release of hostages and an end to the war. A recent poll found that 74 percent of Israelis support a single-phase deal that would secure the return of all hostages in exchange for ending the war. We stand with our Israeli brothers and sisters, and the hostages.
This experience has made us more determined to take part in cross-communal events, not less, and more determined to ensure that those spaces can truly hold the full range of views in our community. We have always listened respectfully to voices from every part of the community, including some whose words have deeply offended our Jewish soul. We have heard whole peoples defamed, government policy misrepresented, core Jewish values minimised, and supremacy promoted.
We have stayed and listened, because we believe that communal spaces must be able to hold difference, even when it is uncomfortable. Yet when some in the community, with a diversity of views, had to hear something they found a little uncomfortable, we were silenced. That says more about the fragility of the space than about the words we spoke.
The divisions in British Jewry were plain to see on Sunday. Left and right alike have fallen into the trap of thinking that public humiliation or silencing will bring unity. It will not. If we are to move forward, we need spaces where difference is not just tolerated but valued, where the complexity of our reality can be heard without fear. That is what Progressive Judaism models, not retreating into echo chambers, but speaking with conviction, listening with respect, and still standing together as one people.
Hamas bears full responsibility for the atrocities of October 7 and for the terror it continues to inflict, both on Israelis and on the people of Gaza whose lives they do not value. Their actions have brought unspeakable pain and horror, and they still hold innocent hostages in defiance of every moral law.
We must also look honestly at the suffering now unfolding in Gaza. A midrash teaches us that when the Egyptians drowned in the sea, the angels wished to sing - but God silenced them, saying, “My creatures are dying, and you sing?” Whatever our politics, any deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid and the starvation of civilians is indefensible. And a failure to recognise that suffering does not serve us well as Jews. We must have the courage to call on both the Israeli and UK governments to act, to allow food, water, and medical supplies to reach those in need - because our moral responsibility does not stop at national borders.
Because the safety and dignity of every human being is at the heart of what it means to be Jewish, we can and must oppose both Hamas’s cruelty and the policies that inflame suffering.
And we must not lose sight of the hostages, mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, whose lives remain in limbo. Their safe return, alongside the urgent delivery of aid to those starving in Gaza, is the moral horizon toward which we must keep walking, no matter how difficult the road.
Rabbi Charley Baginksy and Rabbi Josh Levy are joint CEOs of Progressive Judaism
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