Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg created controversy last week with a moving plea about the pain of Israelis after 7 October and the plight of Rafah’s Gazans. He talks to the Observer
When Jonathan Wittenberg, a British rabbi, posted a “statement on Rafah” on the website of the community he leads last week, he had no idea of the response it would generate.
“It never occurred to me that it would go beyond those it was intended to reach,” he told the Observer. Much of the response from within Masorti Judaism, a traditional branch of the Jewish faith, had been supportive, but there had also been “tough feedback” from Jews outside the UK in particular. Wittenberg said he “well understood” it.