Tonight was the best night of Chanukah Ive ever celebrated. Over 300 Jews (and a couple shiksas in solidarity) marked this holiday of liberation by taking over the streets of downtown San Francisco, marching, praying, laughing, and shouting for justice to ensure that #BlackLivesMatter. It was pouring rain when we started at the Yerba Buena Gardens, singing the new freedom song: I can hear my neighbor crying I cant breathe / Now Im in the struggle and I cant leave... We sang the Hebrew peace song Lo Yisa Goy. And then, when it was time to march, the sky cleared and the rain stopped and we knew this is where we were supposed to be. We marched over to Powell and Market, a 10 year old girl next to me leading the chant: From Ferguson to Frisco: Black Lives Matter! She told me her name was Alana, she was there with her grandmother. I asked Alana if this was her first protest. She said, Its the first one this week! Alana and Grandma live in Bernal Heights. They go to rallies all the time, especially the ones for Alex Nieto, the young man shot and killed by SFPD on Bernal Hill last March. Then came the most powerful part of the night. In the middle of Market Street, a group of rabbis led the crowd in the Mourners Kaddish for all the black and brown men and women killed by police and vigilantes. They took turns reading the names, and we repeated them back. It was like the Peoples Mic of Occupy mixed with the Latin American tradition of Presente! mixed with socialist shul in the middle of San Francisco. We recited the Kaddish. We said our prayer for those whose lives have been stolen by racist violence. Yitgadal vyitkadash... And the rabbi closed us out by saying, This is only the beginning. Lets pray thats true. And make sure that it is. There were over 10 similar actions across the country tonight. Reclaiming the radical Jewish tradition for justice and solidarity. Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. 8 nights for liberation, lets see what happens next... chanukahaction.org #ChanukahAction
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:38:53 +0000
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