As violence unfolds following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, faith community leaders on Cape Cod and the South Coast say they are heartbroken.
Rabbi David Freelund, of Cape Cod Synagogue in Hyannis, is urging people to donate to relief.
“Many of us, even in this small community on Cape Cod, have, by family extension, already known of a death,” he said. “The Jewish people are not so great in number across the world that we are untouched by this.”
The community will stand up against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it, he said.
Cape Cod Synagogue held a solidarity service last Friday attended by Cape clergy and elected officials.
Earlier Friday, local clergy held an interfaith peace vigil on the lawn at Waquoit Congregational Church in Falmouth. And an interfaith gathering was scheduled for the same day at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.
Martin Bentz, outreach coordinator for the Islamic Society of Southeastern Massachusetts, in Dartmouth, said in an interview that violence against civilians, for any purpose, is unacceptable.
“We pray that there will be restraint and that civilians will not be targeted and harmed in any kind of confrontation,” he said.
The Dartmouth mosque has posted a statement on its website calling for the world community to insist on a two-state solution.
“We should get back to trying to figure out how we can find a solution between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Bentz said.
Freelund said that in spite of deep political division in Israel, the nation has united in its defense.
“I want the Palestinian people to be living in dignity, peace, and respect in this land,” he said. “But this is not the way. And as long as the course of death is chosen over the value of life, this will be the response.”
Bentz said people are distraught about how the situation has escalated, and the Muslim community is praying that Israel does not conduct a ground operation in Gaza.
He said the Dartmouth mosque may participate in a South Coast vigil, but plans have not been finalized.
