Jewish Federation Appreciates Raleigh City Council Statement

The Jewish Federation of Greater Raleigh appreciates the statement read by Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin on behalf of the Raleigh City Council today, which announced that the council will not be voting on a one-sided ceasefire resolution.

The Jewish Federation is proud of and thankful for all of the Jewish community leaders, rabbis, and volunteers, including the many local Israelis, who spent the last several weeks speaking up and sitting in the gallery at Raleigh City Council meetings, sending emails, making phone calls, spreading the word about how to get involved, and advocating against the Raleigh City Council passing a one-sided ceasefire resolution against Israel.

The debate over this resolution only served to increase divisiveness in our city and community. With this statement, the Mayor and Raleigh City Council show they are ready to move forward and bring their focus back to city issues and shared values. 

The Greater Raleigh Jewish community is ready to help in this important work. We will now focus our resources on other actions, such as connecting people in our growing community, providing resources to people in need, fighting antisemitism, and raising awareness of the remaining hostages until they are freed.

"While we are grateful that this particular debate has reached its conclusion, we hope every day that the Israel-Hamas War ends as soon as possible and the hostages are returned home," said Mark Goldhaber, chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

"I would like to thank our JCRC volunteer leaders, our staff, our rabbis in the community, and all our partners who helped advocate on behalf of the Jewish community. We call on all people of good faith to join us in our bridge-building efforts so that we can talk about Israel and other issues in a way that brings people together rather than pushes them apart," said Phil Brodsky, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Raleigh.