Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
Every congregational rabbi in Maine has signed onto a statement calling for peace and urging the state’s political leaders to stop using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza, following a Democratic primary…
Assessment
A unified statement from every congregational rabbi in Maine seeks to shift the political language around the Gaza war, specifically pushing back against the term 'genocide' used by some Democratic primary candidates. The rabbis balance this with their own call for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to pursue peace, signaling dissatisfaction with the status quo. The immediate question is whether Maine's political leaders will heed the request to drop the genocide label.