Sh’ma Koleinu: Solidarity with Butler Hospital workers is a moral call for us all

By now, you have likely seen, read or heard that on May 15, 2025, nearly 800 union employees at Butler Hospital went on strike. In partnership with dedicated leaders of 1199SEIU New England, those striking are demanding a livable wage and a demonstrated commitment from management to keeping workers safe through increased protections against workplace violence and appropriate staffing numbers on all shifts. In the nearly six weeks since the strike began, striking workers have been stripped of their health insurance benefits and had their jobs posted for permanent replacement.

I along with many other local clergy colleagues have spent time on the picket line over the last several weeks, speaking with these workers and listening to their stories, fears and concerns. Though a sense of heaviness for what’s at stake has been tangible at each gathering, what has been most present at the picket line is a fierce and enduring sense of hope from those on strike that they will soon be able to return to the work they care so much about doing.

During the candlelit vigil that took place on June 8, several individuals shared their personal experiences at Butler hospital with the gathered crowd, honoring the impact that Butler’s caregivers have had on the greater Rhode Island community for decades and underscoring the urgency of resolving unsafe working conditions for the sake of being able to go back to doing the critically necessary work of caring for patients at the hospital as soon as possible.

As the speakers continued, one fact emerged clearly: no one understands how acutely this strike affects those most in need of care as the people gathered in this picket line do. No one is more heartbroken, no one is more aware, no one is more desperate to resolve these negotiations for the sake of the patients than these striking workers. And, just as saliently, no one is more aware of what is at stake if the people who are expected to care for individuals in some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives cannot meet their own basic needs for safety, survival, shelter and healthcare.

The Talmud teaches, “Anyone who has the ability to protest against the wrongdoing of the members of their household but fails to protest, that person is held accountable for the sins of the members of their household. Anyone who has the ability to protest the wrongdoing of the people of their town, but fails to do so, is held accountable for the wrongdoing of the people of their town. And anyone who has the ability to protest the wrongdoing of the whole world, but fails to do so, is held accountable for the wrongdoing of the whole world” (Talmud Bavli tractate Shabbat 54b: 20, translation by R. Sharon Brous)

 If you saw this strike not as something causing traffic on the boulevard but instead as a fundamental violation of the wellbeing of a beloved family member, a neighbor, a friend, how would you respond? Who would you call? If you knew that you would be held personally accountable for the suffering of even one of these striking workers, what, if anything, would you do to change things?

 We are a small state, connected to one another in intricate webs of relationships frayed and rebraided again and again through decades of rupture and repair, a state built through generations of friends and families always finding their way back to this one tiny stretch of land. I have to believe that at the end of the day, it will be relationships leveraged with loving accountability that will tip this strike trajectory toward the conditions needed to allow Butler’s dedicated staff to get back to the work they’re so skilled at providing for our community.

With so much happening in our world right now, allowing ourselves an alternative to feeling powerless and paralyzed is a path to power, and it becomes available to us only when we allow the cries of our neighbor to break through the cacophony of crises we’re bombarded with daily. Taking care of each other is a path of power in this moment. Walking our Jewish values out of our prayer spaces and into our board rooms, contracts and community spaces is a path of power in this moment. Showing up for people and believing them when we hear that they are hurting is a path of power in this moment. To remain passive in response to the call of these beloved community members is to surrender the power well within our hands to change things for the better. It is my firm belief that to do so is to act in direct opposition with some of our most central Jewish values.

Only a few weeks ago, we celebrated the holiday of Shavuot, a joyous festival commemorating the receiving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, the moment in which the ancient Israelites entered into a communal covenant with the vow “נעשה ונשמה,” “we will do and we will listen.” The question we should all be asking ourselves in this moment is whose voices we’re willing to hear, and what we’re willing to do when their cries reach us. If we are more upset about cars honking on the street than we are about the fact that the people doing some of the hardest work in the state are unable to meet their basic living needs, what does that say about our priorities, our values or the state of our community? Our neighbors call is the call to and of us all. What are you willing to do about it?

To any of Butler’s striking workers reading this, to anyone who wanted to walk out but couldn’t and to those who were forced back due to financial or familial stress, please know that we, your local clergy, see you. We believe you. We are with you, not just as representatives of our faith communities but also as your colleagues, friends, neighbors, patients and family. We are full of gratitude for the work that you do to keep this tiny state of ours thriving with each and every person that you serve and support. We know that we could not do the work that we are doing if you are not able to do yours. We are at your back and with you shoulder to shoulder. You should not have to be in this position, and we are so sincerely sorry that you are. May the way we stand together be a reminder that “that’s just how things are” need not become how things will always be.

To the rest of us, let us not just answer but also echo and amplify this clear call to justice, to humanity, to a world that not only believes but also acts in a way that values people over profits. Let us reach out to one another with support, with care and, when needed, with the kind of love that holds us unwaveringly accountable to one another. This is not an issue out of our hands or beyond our means. It is a wrongdoing being perpetrated in our backyard, and we have the power to put a much-needed dose of goodness and justice into this world just by showing up.

Just a few short chapters after instructing us, “not [to] abuse a needy and destitute laborer” (Deut. 24:14), the book of Deuteronomy reminds us, “Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to observe it… Choose life^” (Deut. 30: 11-14;19b)

There can be no cause closer to us than this. The call of these dedicated professionals is a call to “choose life”- life for Butler’s workers, life for Butler’s patients and life for the sustained health of the greater Rhode Island community. How will you answer the call?

RABBI HEATHER SHORE is an HUC-JIR ordained rabbi and received an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling & Spiritual Integration through Fordham University in May 2024. She has worked in a wide range of programmatic, educational and pastoral capacities in the US and Israel, and loves the challenge of crafting creative spiritual experiences to meet the needs of our moment. She now serves the greater RI Jewish community through chaplaincy and clinical work as an LMHC-A.