Until last week, President Biden was my boss.
Last week, I resigned from my position at the U.S. Department of the Interior, becoming the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest and mourning over President Biden’s support of genocide in Gaza. Over 35,000 Palestinians killedThis was an incredibly difficult decision, but a necessary one — and one that feels even more urgent now that the president of the United States has relentlessly distorted the notion of Jewish safety and weaponized my community as a shield to avoid responsibility for his own role in this atrocity.
I worked hard to elect this administration, first as an organizer for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2019 Democratic primaries and then as an organizer for Biden-Harris in the general election in battleground state Arizona. I once saw the Biden-Harris administration as a bright, flickering beacon of democratic hope in the dark that was looming. But now, as we witness America’s ongoing complicity in the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, I am reminded that in times of catastrophe, many with great power choose to do nothing.
Like many Jewish Americans, I am the descendant of people who fled Europe and survived violent persecution. My pregnant great-grandmother hid in the back of a horse-drawn wagon to escape pogroms, then traveled alone across an ocean to find safety in a new land. I inherit the absence of those who should be here today; the lineage of families who were wiped out, lost to memory, unable to escape the approaching Holocaust. I feel the weight of this history every day.
In the aftermath of the nightmare of October 7, I spent my days connecting with loved ones and attending to the trauma suffered by my community. I remember the days that followed were dominated by mourning for loved ones who were missing or held hostage, and the overwhelming devastation I felt as the list of confirmed deaths grew and grew. And I still held my breath, waiting for Israel’s response to this tragedy.
In the months since, I’ve watched as Palestinians struggled to survive the indiscriminate bombings plaguing their homes, bombings bought and funded by the U.S. Children livestreaming on social media have forced me to put myself in the shoes of the many journalists killed in this conflict. The deadliest death of a journalist in historyI have seen countless videos of families fleeing falling bombs, children crying as they lose their mothers, and the refugees now terrified in Rafah.
This doesn’t make anyone safer — not Palestinians or Jews. I know what it’s like to fear rising anti-Semitism. I’m scared. I feel it every day. But I am convinced that the Jewish people will not be better protected by a war effort supported by the United States, carried out in the name of Jewish security, and which promotes the genocide of an entire people collectively deemed “our enemy.” In fact, making the Jewish people the face of a relentless genocidal campaign only puts us further in danger.
The security of Palestinians and Jews are not at odds. In fact, they are deeply intertwined. President Biden does not acknowledge this. He has refused to seek a permanent and lasting ceasefire, to end the blank check offered to Israel, to secure the diplomatic release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, to end the blockade of Gaza, and to work toward the abolition of the apartheid system that permeates the Holy Land. That is why, at this moment, my former boss is the person who makes me feel the most unsafe as an American Jew.
Right now, I take solace in the work of activists demanding that their voices be heard, and I am inspired by the safe community that a coalition of Jewish and Palestinian activists have created. Let’s work together in this momentand the voices of the choir, student, Trade union member, Battleground state voters, teacher, Artist, Religious leaders, Writer, Military yes, More than 500 members of President Biden’s own administration Those who condemned the genocide. These voices are spoken in accordance with my Jewish faith. Pikuach Nefesh In other words, saving a life is the greatest good a person can do.
There are lessons to be learned from our faith and our history, as we see the same dehumanization that befell our community now befell another. Every day, I look at photos of displaced people in Gaza and recall my family’s memories of loved ones lost in the Holocaust, which in turn reminds me of the Nakba, a tragedy that occurred in 1948 that destroyed Palestinian society, forced an estimated 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, and gave birth to today’s modern Israel. The words Holocaust and Nakba mean the same thing in Hebrew and Arabic. Disaster.
I resigned on Wednesday, May 15, the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, because I can no longer serve at the mercy of a President who refuses to stop this new catastrophe.
