jfrej

A week from now I will be a year older. It doesn't seem like it should work that way but I am assured it does. In any case, facebook which knows everything about me thinks I should set up a fundraiser and at first I was like "eh" but they say they'll do it free (in exchange for, you know, your info and your eyeballs but that's on you I guess). So:

I had the very good fortune recently to meet a poet and teacher named Simon Lichman. We were trapped in tiny plane seats next to each other and over the course of two hours talked about pretty much everything you can imagine, most of it about art and justice and religion; whether it's possible to be a secular Christian; his work with Palestinian and Israeli youth; his trip to Lithuania and Poland. More than anything else, what stuck with me was the idea of the "stranger in our midst," an idea that occurs again and again throughout the Old and New Testaments. In Exodus, for example: "There shall be one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you."

So with that in mind I am asking you to pledge a few bucks to Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. They are on the front lines of the social justice movement, fighting for the rights of people of color and immigrants and other oppressed peoples, fighting racism and anti-Semitism and transphobia and other injustices. They are led by my brilliant and fearless friend Audrey, and they're doing the work, and they deserve your support.

So jump in with me. I'll get us started with a hundred bucks; together I'm pretty sure we can grow that to a thousand. What do you say?

Update: Oct 28

I posted this yesterday, and about an hour later I heard the terrible news. Please give if you can and share if you will.

Update: Oct 31

Last night I attended a vigil organized by JFREJ and other groups in Union Square. It was an immensely strong community - Jews, Muslims, Christians, nonbelievers and more - who came together to share their commitment to creating a just world. I feel privileged to be among them.
In my original post for this fundraiser I described my friend Audrey Sasson as "fearless." I don't know, that's the word that came to me; that's the way I think of her. But as it happens, at the vigil on Saturday she talked about feeling the fear rising and even, if I remember correctly, the fear of the fear, the fear that it will keep us from doing what we need to do.

So maybe a better word would have been "brave": not free from fear, but acting in spite of it. From the outside, though, it looks like fearlessness to me.

Anyway, here is part of what Audrey wrote the day after the vigil:

"...this is our country too. We do have a place here. We will advocate for others to be here too, and to welcome them in. Our movement is a movement for multiracial, inclusive democracy. We are building a future for each other, and a future where the promise of this country can be realized. And we know democracy will win."