Jews protest against ice across the country

Serena Adlerstein did not expect Facebook's status to become a national movement, but her words managed to mobilize thousands of young Jews on the streets to protest the treatment of migrants in US custody. United.

"I posted an article on Facebook like," What would happen if young Jews occupied ICE detention centers and closed them? Said Adlerstein at NBC News, 25 years old.

People responded and on the evening of June 24, she planned an action on the phone with other young Jews in the country. Hundreds of people had signed up for Google Doc to express their interest.

Adlerstein is not new to activism, she is the organizer of Movimiento Cosecha, a movement that works to improve the conditions of immigrants. While she watched experts and politicians wonder whether or not to call migrant detention centers "concentration camps," she remembered the refrain of the Holocaust on which she had been raised: "Never again".

"Never again," she thought, is now.

A week later, on Sunday, June 30, about 200 protesters under the banner of the new action Never Again demonstrated in front of a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Thirty-six people were arrested that day and the demonstration sparked an incipient movement.

"My intention was not to create an organization or a long-term movement," Adlerstein said. But now that Never Again Action has spread across the country, she is looking into it.

Since this initial event, just two weeks ago, Never Again Action has organized more than 10 different events across the country, from California to Rhode Island, and more are planned in the coming months. weeks.

On July 2, in Boston, more than 1,000 protesters gathered at the Holocaust Memorial in New England, where they visited a nearby prison where ICE houses detainees. In Philadelphia, 33 people were arrested after blocking the July 4 parade in the city, waving songs like "Never again, that means closing the camps." "

On Tuesday, Never Again Action planned what he thought would be his biggest action so far, hoping to bring thousands to the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Never Again Action, which describes itself as a "mass mobilization calling on Jews to shut down ICE and hold the political establishment to account", is decentralized, avoids being called "organization" and receives no external funding from non-profit organizations or not. political groups. By using GoFundMe, the group has raised more than $ 180,000 in just over a week to cover the legal costs of those arrested in the facts.

The organizers of the group are mostly young Jews, watch late, take time off work and use their free time to plan their actions. Movimiento Cosecha gave them practical advice, such as ensuring they do not block access to detention centers during visiting hours, and skills in collective outsourcing of people who want to help and find out what is needed to organize big events.

Migrant detention centers have been subjected to scrutiny in the light of reports of overcrowding and ill-treatment. The conditions were so bad in a Texas facility that, according to media reports, nearly 300 children were abducted after being informed that they did not have access to showers for long periods of time, that they were not allowed to use the showers. they lacked food and they lacked other basic necessities.

On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence found the conditions under which the action Never Again Action took place when he visited two federal detention centers in Texas. A group of men arrested behind a chain was filmed. Some were seen lying on mats covered with silver mylar blankets, while others chanted "No shower, no shower" in front of the press cameras while the vice president passed by.

Pence described as "slanderous" reports about the mistreatment of migrants and said he was "impressed" by the "compassionate work" of the Customs and Border Protection Service.

On June 17, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the centers "concentration camps," which led many Jewish organizations to make statements criticizing the Congressman in New York, while politicians of both sides also condemned his tongue.

But some Jews supported his comments. Sophie Hurwitz, a 20-year-old Wellesley College student who was arrested at the protest in Elizabeth, New Jersey, said she also calls the detention centers "concentration camps" but does not think not that this is the most important part of the conversation.

"This is not the time for semantics," she said. "The time has come to ensure people's safety and we have so much work to do."

Hurwitz said she felt compelled to put her body at risk, and so she found herself at the Never Again Action demonstration.

Sarah Giskin, 25, who helped plan the action in Philadelphia, said she believed Jews were being used as "pawns" in the debate over how the government's treatment of migrants and refugees.

"Our trauma story is being exploited to advance a right-wing political agenda," she said.

Giskin, who works as a community organizer in Philadelphia, said being Jewish was a sign of her activism, citing the deep ties of the Jewish community with social justice movements. She joined Never Again Action to "see some of this fire come back on the streets". She hopes that the movement will grow, that it will "wake up" other Jews and serve as a "reminder of what our history means and the role we can play". in the fight for a better world. "

While it is the young Jews who are on the front line, the demonstrations have garnered a variety of support within the Jewish Jewish community – parents bring their children, rabbis are present and Yeshiva students have also passed.

"The Elizabeth action had everyone from non-religious Jews tattooed everywhere with a bunch of piercings to people with tefillin and a yarmulke on," Hurwitz said.

The organizers hope that the movement will be inclusive and will remain focused on the current issues.

"There are probably people out there who do not agree on my position vis-à-vis Israel and Palestine, but we agree on that," said Giskin. "The goal is to build this movement … it is strategic not to tackle all the problems."

Julia Davidovitz, 25, a preschool teacher in Boston, who organized with Never Again, said people like her need to take action and bring the community together, because institutional leaders are not.

"This is an opportunity for which we have been moral leaders," she said. "We have not seen so much moral leadership emanating from the fortress of traditional Jewish leadership."

His message: "Join us."

Davidovitz wants to see entire congregations join in the coming actions and has invited his rabbi and his mother to join her.

"It's a crisis, no matter what language you use to describe it," Davidovitz said. "We are a targeted community. We can not sit idle while it happens to others. "