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“Praying With Our Feet”: Jews and Allies Around the Valley to Converge for Immigration Justice Ceremony October 6, Northampton
For Release: Thursday, September 26, 2019
Contact: Shel Horowitz, 413-586-2388, shel at greenandprofitable.com
Event Summary: Valley-wide Rally and Tashlich Service for Immigration Justice, Sunday, October 6: March from Northampton and Hadley feeder sites to the boat launch below the Coolidge Bridge for Tashlich ritual and rally. Gathering at 4 p.m. Rally begins at 5 p.m. with Tashlich ritual immediately following.
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/376902869899683/ or https://bit.ly/2kYDGvh
NORTHAMPTON: Background: Why have Jews been so out front and visible protesting the treatment of asylum-seekers and other immigrants under the current administration? Jews have a special connection with immigrant justice issues. From the time of Pharaoh to the present day, Jews have been seen as outsiders, and often abused. The Torah repeats several times the command to treat immigrants well, because “you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
As recently as the 1940s, Jews faced deliberate mass murder: an ethnic cleansing attempt to kill all of Europe’s millions of Jews. After the Holocaust, the Jewish community said “Never Again.
In today’s climate of family separations, caged children, borders closed to asylum seekers, and race-based detention camps, we do not have the luxury of pretending we didn’t know. Thus, Jews have come together to say “Never Again is Now!”
Event Details: Jews from at least four congregations, plus unaffiliated Jews and non-Jewish allies including members of the immigrant community, will converge at the Coolidge Bridge Sunday, October 6, in the holy time of year between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, to do a modern variation of the cleansing ritual of Tashlich (“Casting Off”). Instead of throwing breadcrumbs to represent our own sins, traditionally done on Rosh Hashana, we will cast pebbles into the Connecticut River to represent the sins against immigrants done by the federal government in our name.
At the boat launch at 5 pm (downstairs from the bikeway parking lot), we will perform the Tashlich ritual and then hear Jewish and immigrant activists demand the defunding of government-sponsored hate. Confirmed speakers and performers will include teenage activist Maya Luhr (who recently volunteered with immigrants at the US/Mexico border), Holocaust survivor Henia Lewis, and ACLU Massachusetts Immigrant Protection Project Coordinator and musician Javier Luengo-Garrido. Dina Friedman of Western Massachusetts Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice will share her experience at the Homestead Detention Center in Florida. Alice Levine, WMJIJ co-founder and also part of the Homestead delegation, will moderate. Several rabbis will attend, including Rabbi Riqi Kosovke of Beit Ahavah: The Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton, who will lead the Tashlich service.
Bring: Signs, shofars, pebbles for the Tashlich ceremony, and positive, respectful energy. Participants are welcome but not required to wear Jewish ceremonial garb. Preregistrations are encouraged at the event’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/events/376902869899683/ or https://bit.ly/2kYDGvh
Gathering Points: Northampton and Greenfield marchers will meet at 4 pm at Pulaski Park; those wanting a shorter walk can join at 4:30 pm at Sheldon Field. Amherst and Hadley participants will meet at 4 pm at the corner of Railroad St. and West St. in Hadley, at the intersection of the Common and the Bike Path (park at either Paragus or Most Holy Redeemer Church across Railroad Street from the Bikeway). Parking for people with walking disabilities is in the State Park lot on Damon Road facing the river, immediately after the Coolidge Bridge.
Organizers/Sponsors: Organized by Western Massachusetts Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice and part of a national day of events coordinated by Bend the Arc Jewish Action, the event is co-sponsored by Beit Ahavah: The Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton (Northampton) and its Tzedek Tzedek (Justice Justice) Committee, Jewish Community of Amherst Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) Committee, Temple Israel (Greenfield) Refugee Support Project, Congregation B’nai Israel Tikkun Olam committee (Northampton), Prayground Minyan (Congregation), Indivisible Noho, and Pioneer Valley Workers Center.
Media inquiries: Shel Horowitz, 413-586-2388, shel at greenandprofitable.com
Co-sponsorship/general public inquiries: Alice Levine, 617-921-3512, alicelevine12 at gmail.com
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