JTA — Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, arrived at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly last week with decades of experience building ties between the Lutheran and Jewish communities.

But as Jacobs listened on July 30 to attendees debate a memorial titled “Stand of Palestinian Rights and End to Occupation of Palestine,” Jacobs said he felt compelled to speak out over what he saw as a “one-sided” narrative.

He tore up the speech he planned to give the next day, instead telling the hundreds of Christians gathered in Phoenix that he had hoped for something different — and that the stakes were high.

“Friends, I fear that the resolution you affirmed last night will make our community less safe,” Jacobs told the assembly. “I feel it will embolden those who do not envision a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Jacobs said in an interview that he had been startled by how little the statement seemed to acknowledge calls for peace that have come from Jewish communities, including the Reform movement. In May, Jacobs was one of the first denominational Jewish leaders to urge Israel to abandon what he said was a policy of “starving Gazan civilians” in an op-ed for the Washington Post — previewing the collective outcry over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has galvanized sharp criticism of Israel in recent weeks.

“We have the largest movement in Jewish life, and we love Israel, and we work closely with the church, and we also care about the rights and dignity of Palestinians,” Jacobs said. “I felt like they just didn’t in any way acknowledge all of those things that are also true, and it made me sad, to be honest.”

Memorial D4, which the assembly passed, outlined........

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