Sarah's IfNotNow Fundraising Page

For the past year and a half, I’ve been organizing with IfNotNow. We are building a movement of young American Jews working to to transform our community’s support for the occupation into a call for freedom and dignity for all. IfNotNow is grounded in the belief that the liberation of the Jewish people is bound up with the liberation of all other oppressed groups, both in this country and in Israel/Palestine.

We are in a moment right now that has exposed more racism, misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia and antisemitism than I have ever experienced in my lifetime. I am afraid for myself and for my friends, family and neighbors, and the planet. We have inherited a culture that knows the trauma and fear of annihilation and isolation- we have seen this before.

But I also have hope. We have also inherited, from our Jewish traditions and our movement ancestors, a culture that knows from resistance and resilience and a reimagining of what it means to be Jewish in our times. In this moment we have seen thousands of us flooded into the streets with the #JewishResistance to show we are ready to Trump’s administration’s policies of hate and and to name in public that fighting against anti-semitism in this moment also means fighting for the most vulnerable during this presidency.

And yet, since the election, our institutions have failed to take leadership in this moment in naming anti semitism and standing up to Trump: Institutions did not speak out when Trump appointed actual anti-semites and white-supremacists like Stephen Bannon to his administration, and institutions that claim to support a two-state solution did not speak out when Trump appointed David Friedman to be the ambassador to Israel -- a funder of illegal settlements and leading proponent of endless occupation.

A crisis like this calls for a response bigger than we’ve ever imagined. Each one of us has a choice to make about what it means to be Jewish in this time and place.

As a generation of young American Jews who are fighting for a joyous and liberated Jewish future that believes in freedom and dignity for all, we will be the moral leaders the Jewish establishment refuses to be. It's working: since the election, IfNotNow has brought THOUSANDS of people into the streets under the banner of #JewishResistance.  You can see photos from our “Day of Jewish Resistance” in 30 cities here.

We are calling on the American Jewish establishment to stop its silence and come out against Stephen Bannon. We know our alliances with other targeted groups is both the right choice for our security and to live out the values inherent in our tradition.

Over the next few months, we will continue to build the #JewishResistance by mobilizing locally and across the nation. We want to train hundreds more people as members of IfNotNow, bring thousands more into the streets, and make the connection in our community that support for the occupation at any cost, human or moral, is the greatest threat to a flourishing Jewish future.

We are not going to allow the American Jewish establishment provide the political cover white supremacist Nazi fascists- we know that doesn't keep us safe, and it doesn't keep anyone else safe either. Our movement is names for Rabbi Hillel's 3 questions: If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? If we are only for ourselves, what are we? IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

I am going to AIPAC to make sure that the next time Rabbi Friedman at Temple Israel says from the bimah on Yom Kippur that "Young Jews don't care about being Jewish or the future of our tradition," every single person in that giant sanctuary will know that is not true. I am going to AIPAC because BPD Comish Evans went to Israel on a trip to learn "best practices" from the Israel Defense Forces how to administer a violent and racist occupation that destroys communities and lives: “The ADL sponsors it every year,” Evans said. “They bring law enforcement over to learn how Israel handles its security. We’ll hopefully learn something and take it back here.”Surveillance and an increasingly militarized police presence in black and brown and queer and trans and Muslim communities here in Boston threaten the lives of our families, friends and neighbors. The Occupation in Israel/Palestine is a daily nightmare of checkpoints, demolition, and denial of access to water other means to life for Palestinians.

Not in our name, if we have anything to do with it. 

NOW, we can’t make any of this happen without the support of our community. I have pledged to raise $500 to support this work, and I have already committed $100 myself. I am asking friends and family to consider contributing as well. Not sure how much to donate? How about $26 in honor of my 26th birthday on March 26th.  Will you join me in building the #JewishResistance?

Which side are you on?
Love,
Sarah