From March 13-15, Jewish Voice for Peace held its 6th annual National Membership Meeting in Baltimore.
Formed in 1996, JVP has grown a lot in 19 years.
“In 2011, 150 gathered [at the meeting],” said JVP Brooklyn Vice Chair Cindy Greenberg. “In 2013, 350 people were there. This weekend, there [were] over 600 of us.”
JVP was founded when three students decided they wanted a place to be actively Jewish and still support Palestine.
“We have created the largest networks of progressive Jews in the country,” said Executive Director of JVP Rebecca Vilkomerson. “We are redefining [Jewish values] in this country.”
The first plenary session began at 8 p.m. with remarks from Palestinian activist Amer Shurrab about Israel and Palestine in the media.
“Images of pain have disappeared from TV screens, but the situation in Gaza is worse than it’s ever been,” said Shurrab. “There are [so many] homes that [have] been damaged.
“I lost four cousins this past summer.”
The theme of Israel and Palestine continued throughout the weekend and into the second plenary session on March 14, as well as the question of how to be an ally to those struggling in the Middle East, such as recognizing different narratives.
“So often Jewish and Palestinian people are seen as antithetical,” said Sa’ed Adel Atshen, a postdoctoral fellow in international studies at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. “This erases the experiences of Palestinian Jews.”
The first breakout session followed the plenary, including a presentation on how to be a media-savvy ally.
“Tweet it,” said Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace Cecile Surasky. “Facebook it. Do not be shy. People are uplifted every time they see your voice.”
At the same time, panels such as Queer Resistance, Acting as Activism, and Strategy Discussion addressed different ways to be involved in the movement.
In a panel about normalization, Midwest Regional JVP Organizer Ilana Rossoff, loveunderapartheid.com Founder T.K. and National Director of Media and Communications with American Muslims for Palestine Kristian Szremski addressed the discourse on Israel and Palestine.
“Normalization is making normal … what should not be the status quo,” said Rossoff. “[Many] Palestinian campaigns have come out with official stances saying they will not participate in normalization efforts.”
Soon after, Former Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research Antony Lerman and Atshan led a discussion on Zionism.
“I was still calling myself a Zionist until the 1990’s,” said Lerman. “Zionism was still an ideology with a lot of internal debate.”
One of the arguments both speakers made was that Zionism reenforces anti-Semitism.
“Zionism is … seen as the answer to anti-Semitism, [but] Zionism needed anti-Semitism to gain traction,” said Lerman. “That’s what Natanyahu is relying on now.”
Former Rabbi at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill. and Midwest Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee Brant Rosen addressed the crowd the final morning of the conference about keeping our minds open.
“It’s all we can do to open up our hearts to the cry and do something about it,” said Rosen. “Narratives that were formerly unthinkable can become all too politically real.”
“It is not fighting against something, but for something, that will bring the change we fight for,” said University of Central Florida sophomore Mia Warshofsky.
For many, this was a chance to reconnect with the Judaism they thought was incompatible with Palestinian solidarity.
“The opportunity to mourn the Palestinian lives lost this summer, openly in the language I know how to mourn in with hundreds of other Jews and members of many different communities, was something I did not know how desperately I needed,” said Warshofsky. “Thank you [JVP] for giving me a Jewish community again.”
Nicole Zelniker is a student at Guilford College.
