It’s now 2 years since Oct 7th.
Where are we collectively as Jews? Understandably, there is an increase in both discomfort and confusion.
Our invitation - to create a safe space for Jews to be Jewish in this fraught moment…together. To stretch into our own sense of expanded morality to embrace the complexity.
Can we hold these three things simultaneously?
Top RT - An Israeli officer walks on the ground of the Nova Festival in Re'im, Israel.
Top LFT - Palestinians walk past the rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli military offensive in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Bottom - Graffiti written on my Synagogue - (Summer 2025, Congregation Emanu-El, Victoria, BC)
Our tradition values nuance, multiple perspectives, and ongoing dialogue.
In this spirit, we invite you to join us as we co-explore what may be modern Judaism’s most difficult living text: the endlessly complex situation of Israel/Palestine.
Is this event for me?
You may be a Jew who longs for a wise and caring community container—two years after the October 7th massacre and the start of the war in Gaza—to reflect, share, and be seen in how you are feeling.
You may feel shock, grief, or anger over Hamas’ brutal attack, in which some 1,200 lives were taken.
You may feel shock, grief, or anger over Israel’s military attacks, in which, something like 60,000 Palestinians have been killed.
You may feel strongly pro-Israel, and worry that expressing sympathy for Palestinians could feel like a betrayal.
You may feel deep distress over the Netanyahu government’s military response, fearing it is doomed to backfire or to harm Israel’s civil fabric.
You may feel troubled by the long history of Palestinian dispossession and occupation - Ottoman, British, Israeli - and how it has shaped the present reality.
You may feel a genuine wish for peace and justice for all people in the region.
Details
What: Embracing the Complexity is a unique Zoom gathering for Jews who want to explore, in community, how they are feeling two years after October 7.
When: Two different dates to choose from
Each of these 2hr gatherings is one-off event (NOT a series.).
Thursday, October 9 · 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Saturday, October 11 · 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free. At the end of the event, you’ll be invited to consider a donation to support these events.
What: Embracing the Complexity is a unique Zoom gathering for Jews who want to explore, in the context of a sturdy community container, how they are feeling two years since the Oct 7th massacre.
What happens when we try to hold these multiple perspectives together?
Some Jews find it nearly impossible to feel sympathy for Palestinians who voted for Hamas. Others struggle to feel sympathy for Israel, whose history of dispossession helped create the conditions for Hamas to flourish. Still others feel torn between grief and rage at Hamas’ brutality on October 7 and anguish at the scale of Israel’s military response in Gaza. For some, the very act of naming both Israeli and Palestinian suffering feels disloyal or unsafe. For others, refusing to name both feels like a betrayal of Jewish values of justice and compassion.
To hold these perspectives together is to resist the temptation of certainty, to sit with contradiction, and to acknowledge the pain of multiple truths. It is to stretch our moral imaginations and to recognize that the future will not be secured by denying the humanity of one side or the other.
What Embracing the Complexity Is Not
Not a place to “settle the facts.”
Not a space for lecturing or insisting on your truth.
Not about doubling down on rigid, one-sided views.
Not a venue for left-wing or right-wing fundamentalism.
What Embracing the Complexity Is
A container to feel and own your complex emotions about Israel/Palestine.
A place where you can widen your circle of care to include those suffering in Gaza, while also honoring the grief over Israeli lives lost on October 7. Wherever you are in this process - just starting or deep into the journey - you are warmly welcome.
A space to stretch toward nuance, complexity, and compassion.
A gathering where you will be seen and welcomed.
Jonathan Gustin, M.A, MFT is a meditation teacher, purpose guide and psychotherapist. He founded Jewish Allies (a Jewish Victoria Group that fights antisemitism), and has a long time interest in trans-lineage mysticism including Kabbalah. While his values are mostly liberal/progressive, he regards himself as politically homeless.
NOTE: Jonathan Gustin & Purpose Guides Institute are allowing this event homepage on their platform for registration and hosting. That said, this is NOT a Purpose Guides Institute event.
