Dear Yoav Gallant: You are welcome at my synagogue
Why a Washington, D.C. congregation was wrong to cancel Israel’s former defense minister
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets with soldiers stationed along the border with Lebanon as Israel readied a ground invasion against Hezbollah there. (Screenshot)
I was enraged to see that a Conservative Jewish congregation in Washington, D.C. rescinded a speaking invitation to Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defense minister, over security concerns and following objections from congregants.
To this I can only say: Yoav Gallant, as the rabbi of the only Conservative synagogue in Sacramento, I want to personally invite you to join us here. Brave, independent thinkers like Gallant are always appreciated and welcomed by me as rabbi of Mosaic Law Congregation.
Gallant, who led Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and its counteroffensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, was scheduled to speak at Adas Israel Congregation on Dec. 9 about Israel’s multi-front war.
It would have been one thing for Adas Israel not to invite Gallant in the first place, but to invite him and then disinvite him because of congregational pressure and fear of protestors is cowardly.
Synagogue leaders said his appearance was canceled due to security concerns — protesters had gathered outside Gallant’s hotel in New York City chanting, “We don’t want no Zionist here!” and waving signs with his photo and the words, “Wanted for Genocide.”
According to a report in the Forward, there was also pushback from within the congregation from members who accused Gallant of being an extremist, comparing him to far rightwing ministers Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“How is Gallant any different?” one congregant asked.
My answer: In so many ways.
Unlike those ministers — and unlike Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself — Gallant took his share of responsibility for Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. “Taking responsibility is the source of authority,” he said at the time, adding that he would step down after the war.
He had been an independent check on the Netanyahu government on the judicial reform bill, subsidies for daycare for the Haredim, and on the Haredi draft bill. In short, he spoke his conscience rather than being a Netanyahu yes-man, and he paid the price by being fired twice because of this, the last and final time in November.
“The mission of my life is the security of Israel,” Gallant said during the judicial reform controversy in the weeks leading up to Oct. 7, before delivering these haunting words: “For the sake of Israel’s security, the legislative process should be stopped, and negotiations should be held.”
A month ago, Gallant warned that a “moral darkness” has fallen on Israel due to Netanyahu’s attempts to exempt Haredim from IDF service, his unwillingness to go through with a hostage deal, and his refusing to form an independent National Commission of Inquiry into Oct. 7.
Had the commission been allowed to form and investigate, it is likely that the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Gallant and Netanyahu would never have been issued.
After Netanyahu first fired Gallant in March 2023, thousands of Israelis took to the streets in protest, forcing the prime minister to keep him. How shameful that American Jews won’t likewise stand up for him.
Our community, located in the capital of California, the world’s fifth largest economy, will. We have managed security concerns before, hosting the Oct. 7 commemoration at the Capitol in front of hundreds of people with the Capitol police standing guard. There was a peaceful counterprotest two blocks away. They did their event, and we did ours.
Gen. Gallant, I have no doubt as to our ability to protect you when you join us here in Sacramento. We look forward to learning from you.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
