A long-time fixture in New York politics and former President of the human rights organization, American Jewish World Service, Ruth Messinger, told me, “I’m here because Torah states we can’t stand idly by. Starvation is not an appropriate weapon of war.”
Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah gave the final speech. An article in Haaretz recently profiled her as one of the new female leaders challenging the entrenched structure of the male Jewish legacy organizations. She told the demonstrators, “It’s important for me to be here. We’re dealing with a settler government. Occupation is destroying Judaism.” She referenced the Biblical metaphor: “A calf doesn’t have to be golden. It can be a state.”
Naomi Chazan prefaced her comments with the rhetorical question, “Can one be overly critical of a country one loves?”
"The Jump Rope Line" by Marcia G. Yerman is included in the Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.
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