WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, more than 100 rabbis and cantors led hundreds of Jewish community members in a protest outside ICE Headquarters, calling for an end to the agency’s mistreatment of immigrants and demanding respect for human dignity and human rights. The action represented the largest ever gathering of Jewish clergy protesting ICE brutality and brought together an unprecedented coalition across the political spectrum.
The action was organized by T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, and over 60 co-sponsoring Jewish organizations and synagogues, including HIAS, Never Again Action, Keshet, J Street, IfNotNow, Sixth & I, Adas Israel, and more. In a moment of unprecedented ICE violence and brutality, speakers emphasized the importance of a Jewish response to these attacks, emphasizing solidarity with immigrant communities and opposition to detention and deportation practices.
Simultaneous actions took place in Minneapolis and Boston to draw attention to the complicity of corporations, including Target and Signature Aviation, a corporation that provides fuel and logistical support for ICE detainee transport flights throughout the United States. The action in Minneapolis was led by Jewish Community Action, while the action in Boston was led by Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, who emceed the protest, opened by saying: “We are watching ICE commit heinous acts of violence our communities. Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, children, people exercising their first amendment rights, anyone being caught up in their mandate of cruelty and dehumanization. As Jews, we witness these horrors and are emboldened by our Jewish values to confront them, resist them, and commit to building a better world.”
Jamie Beran, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, spoke at the protest. She said: “As Jews Against ICE, we know that ICE is held up by pillars of support. Pillars such as corporations who profit from and enable the detention and deportation machine. When racism and xenophobia are made into policy, and when corporations raise their hand to participate, they choose to become the infrastructure for ICE. These corporations are actively profiting from the kidnapping, caging, deporting and killing of our neighbors.”
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, spoke at the protest, saying: “God takes the side of the gerim– the immigrants and sojourners. And God demands that we do the same. Let us be clear: ICE is an affront to the Torah. ICE is an affront to God.”
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T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action is a movement of progressive Jews across the country who are fighting for justice and equality for all.