This summer, all being well, both of us will have children attending Israel Tour – the same journey we took ourselves at their age. Israel Tour is a rite of passage, deeply embedded in youth movement life. It marks the end of exams and the start of a new chapter, one in which Jewish identity and values are shaped with lasting force.
This year, it carries an even deeper significance. For the first time, the young people of RSY-Netzer and LJY-Netzer will travel together as one movement, under the banner of Progressive Judaism. That alone is powerful.
But this is also not a simple moment to send children on tour. Many parents have had the conversations – around our Shabbat tables, in our communities, with our Israeli friends, our interfaith partners, and perhaps most intensely, with our own teenagers. We are not immune to the anguish of this time, to the injustice we see, the moral dissonance.
And still, we believe that going matters. That being there matters. Because Israel matters – to us, to our values, and to the future of Jewish life.
If we care about that future, we cannot leave it only to those who dismiss complexity. We need our young people to see it for themselves, not to ignore the discomfort but to engage with it. This is how they form a Judaism and Zionism that are honest, hopeful, and courageous enough to hold many truths at once.
This is also why the aftermath of the suspension of Deputies from the Board has been upsetting for many.
It is not our role to intervene in the internal disciplinary process of another communal organisation. The Board has stated that its decisions reflect process and conduct, not content or views, and that it remains committed to free speech and diversity of voice in our communal institutions.
But there is a risk that this leads to – if not intentionally – a moment of silencing. That it disincentivises free debate at a time when we need it more than ever.
This is a wider issue. Today within the Jewish community, many people feel unable to express their individual conscience, to raise the issues that they see, for fear of being ostracised or the inevitable abuse that always follows.
But could this moment be an opening? Can this be the opportunity for us to begin a new, honest, robust conversation? Can we commit to diversity of opinion, as a sign of the strength of our community?
All five suspended Deputies are Progressive Jews. But this is not a denominational issue. It reflects broader tensions in our community about who speaks, how we speak, and for whom. It raises urgent questions about how we hold both grief and protest, identity and critique. How we balance being a people and being universal. How we speak with integrity in a time of trauma without demanding uniformity.
We refuse to accept that we must choose between the pain we carry as British Jews – shaped by rising antisemitism and the trauma of October 7 – and our deep compassion, rooted in our Judaism, for the suffering of others.
These are not competing instincts. Our grief for those lost and held hostage, and our deep worries about anti-Jewish attacks and hatred, exist alongside, not in opposition to, our anguish at what is unfolding in Gaza and our fear that the soul of Israel is being lost.
Our values teach us not to turn away from suffering, not to ignore starvation, whatever the context.
The daily news – of hunger, of loss, of whole families wiped out – is horrific. It is painful to witness and to have a sense of responsibility as members of the People of Israel. We know how hard it is, how complex the situation is on the ground, how impossible some choices feel for those tasked with protecting life.
There is not one clear vision. But the only way to hold all of this is by admitting it is not easy, and still insisting on raising up all these voices, together. We know and love the people in Israel who are meeting this moment with extraordinary moral courage. They are our friends and colleagues.
Many of them are working directly with the young people we are sending this summer. They remind us that courage, compassion and resilience are not abstract values – they are alive in real people, doing real work, in unimaginably difficult circumstances.
Let us not give up on them. Let us not give up on the possibility of a Jewish communal life that welcomes diversity, embraces disagreement, and resists the pull of fear and uniformity.
Let us raise a generation who can love Israel deeply and still call it to account. Who can honour the past and build a future that is more just, more compassionate, and more honest.
Rabbi Josh Levy and Rabbi Charley Baginsky are the co-leads of Progressive Judaism
