Fran Putney’s Rosh Hashanah Message for 2025

If I could send a message to the people of Israel and to the people of Gaza, I would simply say that, for what it’s worth, my heart breaks for all of you. It is my fervent hope and prayer that, at some point, your leaders will truly want peace and decide that the difficult task of building lasting peace is the only way forward. Only when the rhetoric of hatred and the endless cycle of retaliation cease will there be a future for the children of the region. The healing on both sides will surely take a generation. The sooner the insanity stops, the better. I pray for it every day.

Fran Putney is the proofreader for Atlanta Jewish Times and serves on the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.