When I was seventeen, I traveled through the deep south with a group of African American and Jewish teens from the D.C. area to engage with the history of the Civil Rights movement. During our visits to Black churches, we learned that the story of Exodus was and is still a huge part of Southern Black culture. Community members from one church, expressed how this timeless story of the liberation of the Israelites serves as a constant reminder to their community of the need to continue to fight for freedom. I remember feeling a deep sense of pride: this was the story of my people. Every year we also tell the story of Exodus as a reminder that we were once slaves. On Passover, we are commanded to view ourselves as though we personally have gone out from slavery to freedom. We do this to remember the Biblical commandment to not oppress the stranger for we were once strangers in a strange land.
The American Jewish establishment has forgotten the purpose of this practice. Last week, across the country, members of IfNotNow sought to remind them by demonstrating our refusal to allow the out-of-touch leadership of the establishment to separate our liberation from the liberation of the Palestinians. Twenty-three young Jews across the country were arrested to highlight the moral urgency of ending the occupation -- for Palestinians, for Israelis, and for the soul of American Jewry. In the Bay Area, we held a sit-in seder outside of the East Bay Jewish Federation building. The Federation admirably funds programs for vital Jewish life. When it comes to Israel, however, the Federation is out of touch with the community that it claims to represents. It sets boundaries upon acceptable Jewish opinion on college campuses and Jewish institutions across the country. It rationalizes the occupation and refuses to affirm the fundamental rights of Palestinians.
The occupation is a daily nightmare for Palestinians living under it and moral disaster for those who support and administer it. Every day, Palestinian men and women wait in line at checkpoints for hours, they experience home demolitions and property destruction without legal or civil protections. Palestinians face undefined and unlimited detention for unspecified crimes and, in the most extreme cases, summary execution without trial. The horrible attack in Jerusalem on a public bus this week is another reminder that the status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable -- for Israeli Jews as well as for Palestinians. Palestinians are unfree and oppressed, Israeli Jews are afraid and mistrustful, and our generation of American Jews is no longer willing to be silent.
The establishment that claims to speak for us refuses to acknowledge the occupation themselves or allow anyone else to do so. Two weeks ago, Abe Foxman left retirement to help lead a vicious attack on IfNotNow leader Simone Zimmerman's appointment as the Jewish outreach coordinator for Senator Bernie Sanders. This absurd attack against a young woman who has repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to the Jewish community and to justice is emblematic of the narrowness of the establishment leadership. The American Jewish establishment is trying to intimidate and silence young people acting on the very Jewish values with which we were raised. When young Jews call for freedom and dignity for the Palestinians, the establishment only responds with intimidation and fear.
This cognitive dissonance is no longer tenable. Respect for human life applies universally and the values of our generation -- and of our community -- should not be ignored or denied in regards to the occupation. Across the country, young American Jews are saying that we can no longer celebrate freedom at the very same time that we remain complicit in the denial of freedom to Palestinians. This year, young Jews are saying: enough. We will continue to take action until the establishment joins us in upholding the dignity and freedom of all people.
As Jews commemorate the liberation of the Israelites this year, I urge all of us to remember that our liberation is tied to that of our neighbors. Remember that our tradition instills in us the commitment to fight with those who are oppressed and embittered. Remember that we, too, were once slaves and that this memory demands of us to respond to the suffering of the oppressed. The time has come for our community to pick a side. Do we stand for endless occupation or freedom and dignity for all? I am standing for the latter and with IfNotNow. We will not be silent.