Calling out for Justice in 5786!

This year, the call of the high holy days feels muffled. How can one listen for g-d when so much wrong is happening, when a genocide is unfolding, funded by the US in support of Israel’s cruelties? How can I ask myself what wrongs I have committed when the failure to stop this continually unfolding humanitarian horror continues, unabated, revealing so many societal ills in this country?

The time from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur is a time of self-reflection, traditionally, leading up to atonement and, if g-d is willing, being written into the book of life for another year. But it’s not my life I want to ask for this year, it’s not only my regrets that I want to atone for. I want to, I want all of us to, communally hold this pain. To name this wrongdoing.

But not to seek forgiveness, not for ourselves. We must not be forgiven for these failures.

Our Unitarian Universalists belief in the interconnected web of life and the inherent worth of every being, call us to have done so much more. Just as much as every other faith tradition, we have culpability here. Not individually, perhaps, because I know many who have worked unimaginably hard to stop the bombings, the destruction of Gaza, the mass starvation, and the taking of the West Bank.

But nowhere near enough of us have acted truly in solidarity with the Palestinian right to exist. 

These high holy days remind us of our accountability for each other’s failures and omissions, and serve to remind us of our responsibility, individually and communally, for right action. As we examine our actions of the past year, Palestinian survival and self-determination should be in the front of our minds and our hearts.

In this way, perhaps, we might prove ourselves worthy of another year of life.

In love and struggle,

Rev. DL Helfer, UUJME Board Member

All Souls NYC: UUJME shared an Empty Cup for Gaza as part of the congregation's second annual Water Communion and is planning to table during coffee hour later this month, for the first time in several years!

UUJME Chapter at All Souls UU Shreveport, Louisiana: Local physician and yoga teacher, Dr. Mythili Bhat, led a yoga class on August 30th as a fundraiser for the Al Jawad School in Gaza, which provides tent schools in the region for displaced children with no other access to education. Dr. Bhat is part of Yogis for Palestine. They raised $555 at this event. Their September Give Away the Plate is for the LSU Shreveport chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Main Line Unitarian Church, Devon PA: UUJME members, in collaboration with Christian-Jewish Allies of Philadelphia had a meeting with Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon and thanked her for signing onto Block the Bombs legislation. They used this opportunity to talk about the dire situation in Gaza.

UU Church of Arlington, Virginia: Inspired by All Souls DC, this chapter is launching a 21 Day Challenge for Palestine and recruiting people to participate through their Social Justice Fair. They also offered a "pinwheels for peace" activity at the recent Social Justice Fair. Pinwheels for Peace is the campaign of Rebuilding Alliance.  The pinwheel  are made using the "empty cups" keffiyeh design. 

First Parish of Watertown, MA is offering a Palestine/Israel 101 workshop as an attempt to call in members of the congregation who have remained silent about the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

The workshop will take place onTuesday, September 30, at 7pm, and is sponsored by the FPW Social Action Committee and the Palestine Learning Group.

If your chapter is doing work that you want highlighted in our monthly newsletter, send information to [email protected]

Join the UUJME Action Hour on October 6: Gather in community to lament, brainstorm, and strategize about actions to take for Palestinian lives and rights. RSVP at https://www.uujme.org/action_hour_20251006.

Block the Bombs: Since the beginning of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, the US has given more than $30 billion in taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel to enable its atrocities.

The US is not only complicit in Israel’s killing of more than 65,000 Palestinians–our weapons make us partners in crime. As Israel escalates its genocidal violence by killing and starving Palestinians, and by driving them from their homes, it’s time to Block the Bombs!

On June 5, Representatives Delia Ramirez, Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, and Mark Pocan, along with 18 colleagues, publicly announced the introduction of a historic bill in Congress to do just that.  There are new Reps signing on everyday, including the Progressive Caucus, bring the total to 52!

It’s extremely important that Members of Congress hear from their constituents right now that they oppose giving more weapons to Israel! Check to see if your  Representative has signed on and if not, ask them to cosponsor H.R.3565, the Block the Bombs Act now!

The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail late August 2025 with delegations and convoys departing from Otranto, Genoa, and Barcelona, followed by Catania, Syros, and Tunis early September.  This is the latest effort to break the siege in Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and end the ongoing genocide.

On September 23rd multiple civilian boats were targeted by unmanned drones. The attacks included the deployment of explosive and incendiary devices, deliberate dispersal of chemical substances onto civilian vessels, disabling of emergency communication devices and calculated physical damage designed to render the ships unseaworthy and endanger volunteers aboard.

Sign this petition to demand that European leaders act to protect the Flotilla as it sails through their waters.

The Gathering by Side with Love: Land
8 ET, 7 CT, 6 MT, 5 PT, 4 AKT, 2 HT on Zoom

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 13th, we will get grounded with story by Katie Resendiz, who most recently served as Director of Children’s Ministry at the UU Congregation of Phoenix. UU minister Rev. Clyde Grubbs (Texas Cherokee) will invite us to an examination of Colonialism violently imposed on the land and people in contrast to the indigenous understanding of all our relations.

Join live or watch the recording later. On “Columbus Day” it is good to remember and recommit to our collective liberation.

On Sunday October 19, join the monthly Voices from the Holy Land Zoom Roundtable Film discussion, “The Israel Occupation Tech Lab” at 3:00pm Eastern. Israel’s “battle-tested” products fuel an industry of surveillance and repression. Panelists include Helga Tawil-Souri (Palestinian-American scholar and Associate Professor, NYU; filmmaker), Omar Zahzah (Assistant Professor, AMED Studies, San Francisco State University), Mohammad Natsheh (Palestinian human rights activist in South Hebron Hills), and Bianca Peracchi (Moderator; Human rights activist, Nonviolence International; co-founder, Esperança Solidária). Register here for the Zoom link and a link to watch the film.

AN APPEAL TO UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS: Update Your Land Acknowledgement to Recognize the Forced Removal of Palestinians from their land.

Complicit Corporations Campaign: On Thursday September 18, the Global Day of Action for Palestine, Pax Christi USA and more than 20 other faith-based groups launched the Complicit Corporations: Expose and Divest campaign. UUJME is an endorser.

Newly published: Recording of UUJME Webinar at UUA GA 2025 - Action Network in Solidarity with Palestinians

https://vimeo.com/uujme/uujme-solidarityactionnetwork-ga2025

Presenters: Co-founder of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement Omar Barghouti; Lena Gardner, Executive Director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism; Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, Diverse & Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries Community Minister; the Rev. Dr. Allison J. Tanner, Apartheid-Free Communities Organizer; Rev. DL Helfer, UUJME Board Member and main proposer of the UUA GA 2024 Action of Immediate Witness "Solidarity with Palestinians"; UUJME President Dana Fisher Ashrawi; and UUJME National Co-Organizers India Wood and Jolly Hollamon.

Some donation links/Share the Plate (for us and directly to Gaza):

• MECA
• Share the Plate with UUJME