This letter summarizing the October 6 Immigration Justice Taschlich in Northampton, MA was published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton’s newspaper) on October 19, 2019.
We were very grateful for Bera Dunau’s article, “Praying with Their Feet,” which previewed our October 6th March and Tashlich ritual. And we think Gazette readers will want to know how it turned out.
More than 300 people showed up at the Connecticut River Greenway State Park boat dock, many marching from downtown Northampton and from Hadley. Members of at least 5 synagogue congregations stretching from Holyoke to Greenfield attended, as did at least four rabbis. That is especially remarkable, because the time from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur is a rabbi’s busiest time of the year. But they took time away from their urgent duties to participate.
One of them, Rabbi Riqi Kosovske of Beit Ahavah in Northampton, was an active member of the planning committee and led the ritual.Equally important–before the ritual, attenders heard several deeply moving speeches on surviving the Holocaust, working with immigrants on the border, being an immigrant, and making the connections between the oppression of Jews and others during the Holocaust with the heartless behavior of the American government today.
Our planning committee received several heartfelt thank-you notes. And we also have some thank-yous: to the two police departments, the elected officials, and the many Jewish and other community organizations that co-sponsored and publicized the event.
For Western Massachusetts Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice,
Joyce Duncan
Joan Epstein
Dina Friedman
Ellen Kaufmann
Shel Horowitz
Alice Levine
Betty Lynne Wolfson