The Jewish Voice for Peace newsletter this month was so full of good news about its efforts to bring a fair and just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, especially about the growth of the organization, it is worth presenting almost verbatim. The people you see below are genuine peace activists, whose principles go beyond narrow ethnic or racial or religious loyalty.
I left the names off the photos, as there is only need to look at the faces. Peace activists are happy people and very comfortable with whom they are.
Save the Date! Tu B’Shevat Seders Across the Country
(A seder is a feast celebrated during Passover)
Elliott bat Tzedek and Hannah Schwarzschild of JVP’s Philadelphia chapter are 2 of the leaders behind the “Trees of Reconciliation” project which aims to replant 3,000 olive trees throughout the West Bank through the Palestinian Fair Trade Association. The project will launch on Tu B’Shevat on January 21, 2008. Elliott and Hannah are developing a beautiful anti-occupation seder, grounded in the values of social and economic justice, that explores the meaning of trees though Jewish history, especially as they relate to Israel and Palestine. Email Trees-at-jewishvoiceforpeace.org to join the campaign and hold your own seder.
Madison, WI launches JVP chapter
It is with tremendous excitement that we announce that JVP-Madison has joined our family as our tenth chapter. Congrats to Tsela Barr, Judith Laitman, Haley Pollack, (Sydney, Judith and Tsela pictured above) and the rest of our friends in snowy Wisconsin! We know we are in good hands. Check out what they had to say in this important op-ed in the Capital Times: “Jews need to speak out on abuse of Palestinians”
Chapters and campaigns director Sydney Levy is on a whirlwind tour of chapters in Seattle, Detroit, Chicago, Madison, Philly and Boston.
Color of Jews, No Light in Gaza, Muzzling in Sacramento, HaHRP back, AIPAC in the Bay Area, Tutu in Minnesota and more
JVP Advisory Board member Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz’s new book, The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism, is available now. Tony Kushner says:”This is a big and important book…Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz throws open to questioning every assumption about the meaning of race, identity and justice . . .”
For the second year in a row, during Hanukkah, many chapters distributed thousands of “There is no Light in Gaza” postcards to Condi Rice about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Fresh back from the largest delegation yet to Israel and Palestine, JVP Vice Chair Howard Lenow (pictured at right with 2 young friends in the West Bank, photo by Juliette Shimkin) and fellow JVP Boston member Jeff Klein were interviewed on the Arabic Hour about the Health and Human Rights Project delegation. Check out the group’s blog here. Richard Colbath-Hess, also on the HaHRP delegation, participated in this nonviolent protest with 100 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals who marched to Route 443 to protest Israel’s denial of the Palestinian right to free movement within their own territory.
Dr. Alice Rothchild, author of “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams”, who was also part of the HaHRP trip, continues to travel across the country, and write op-eds like this one, the The Judaization of East Jerusalem, in the Salt Lake City Tribune. When the Sacramento chapter asked the local Jewish Federation Jewish paper to print her speaking schedule, they were muzzled. Sacramento News and Review wrote Muzzle Off!, an extended profile of the Sacramento JVP chapter, Alice, and the incident.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Bay Area chapter members sold 3 cases of Palestinian olive oil at Kehillah Community Synagogue Hanukkah events. Many chapter members also gathered outside of various AIPAC meetings to say AIPAC does not speak for them.
JVP Chair Henri Picciotto has a letter about McCarthyism in the Jewish community in The Nation this week.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s managing editor suggested JVP Communications Director Cecilie Surasky be named one of the Forward’s 50 most influential Jews of the year for her work on Muzzlewatch. She will be speaking on December 27 in St Paul, MN on “Silencing the Peacemakers” and JVP’s successful campaign to get the Univ. of St Thomas to overturn their ban on Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Reprinted by permission.
