Photos by Kamal Moon
“Free the hostages,” a woman told protesters in front of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation Tuesday. “We agreed with her,” said Bryan Atinsky (center left) of Milwaukee. “We were saying a permanent ceasefire is the way to get them released.”
Protestors marched back and forth Tuesday in front of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, 1360 N. Prospect Ave., chanting and singing in English, Yiddish and Hebrew. The mostly Jewish group was there the week before and said they plan to be there every Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m., except for Election Day, “until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.”
They invite every one of any creed or none who wants a ceasefire in Gaza to join them.
A dozen protesters marched and carried signs that said: “Do Unto Others,” “Never Again for Anyone,” “Jews Invite the Milwaukee Jewish Federation to Stop Supporting Genocide” and “The Federation Does Not Speak for All Jews.” Two carried a banner that said, “US Jews Say: Stop Arming Israel! Free Palestine!” Cars passing on Prospect Avenue honked occasionally and drivers waved in support.
“We are here because we believe we are most Jewish when we stand up for the value of human lives,” announced Jodi Melamed, Ph.D., a member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee, organizers of the protest. Speaking through a megaphone, she continued, “We are here because the Federation does not speak for all Jews. We are calling for an arms embargo and a ceasefire. We are here because we believe, ‘Never again, for anyone!’”
“The media and most people in Milwaukee think the Federation represents Milwaukee’s Jews. It doesn’t,” added JVP-Milwaukee co-founder Rachel Buff, Ph.D., in an interview yesterday with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal. “It is very Zionistic, increasingly extreme. Many of us Jews are horrified by the genocide taking place in Gaza and do not support the institutions that support the genocide.”
“The military is the religion of Israel, not Judaism,” said Bryan Atinsky of Milwaukee, who describes himself as an “anti-Zionist Israeli.”
“Horrific humanitarian nightmare”
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 and the taking of 240 hostages, Israel launched the most brutal retaliation in modern time, reported Oxfam, a human rights organization, in January. “Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day, which exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict in recent years,” the report said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 43,204 Palestinians and wounded 101,641 since October 7, 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the real death toll will reach more than 186,000 people, according to a July 5 article in The Lancet, a leading medical journal.
International organizations have condemned Israel for significantly limiting humanitarian aid, systematically targeting hospitals and killing civilians in airstrikes, including children.
UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland, in a briefing to the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday, said he had witnessed a “horrific humanitarian nightmare” during a recent visit to Gaza, the BBC reported Wednesday. “He said the north of the Palestinian territory had received virtually no humanitarian assistance since the start of October,” the BBC article said.
At least 95 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes yesterday across the Gaza Strip, mainly in the north of the enclave where a hospital was attacked, medical supplies were torched and operations were disrupted, Al Jazeera reported today.
The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned an attack last week on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, which caused injuries and damaged recently delivered lifesaving supplies. It reported some hospital staff were injured and lifesaving WHO supplies were destroyed, as well as the desalination station and water tanks on top of the hospital.
An Israeli strike Tuesday on a residential building in northern Gaza killed dozens of people, the New York Times reported. Estimates of people killed range from 55 to 93, including 25 children, the article said.
Almost two million Gazans—more than 85% of the population—have fled their homes since October 2023, the Council on Foreign Relations reported Oct. 6.
Rising voice of anti-Zionist Jews
JVP-Milwaukee is a branch of an anti-Zionist Jewish national organization that was growing even before Oct. 7, 2023. According to a 2020 Pew Research study of Jewish Americans, 35% of Jews 18-29 said caring about Israel is essential to their Judaism on some level, compared to 52% of Jews over 65 who felt it essential to being Jewish.
Since Oct. 8, when Israel declared war on Gaza, JVP and other anti-Zionist Jewish groups report increases in membership. JVP and others, often dressed in t-shirts saying, “Not in Our Name,” have been on the frontlines at protests calling for an arms embargo against Israel in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, among other American cities. Tuesday protestors chanted “Shanda,” Yiddish for shame or disgrace, at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation for its “political support for Israel’s ongoing genocide and war crimes,” a recent JVP-Milwaukee press release said.
“We invite all of our co-religionists to stop supporting the Israeli genocide in Gaza, in accordance with the revered Jewish teaching: ‘Anyone who saves a life, it is as if he saves a world,’ a press release prior to the Oct. 22 march said. “Our Jewish people have endured terrible repression, including the Nazi holocaust of World War II. We understand the deadly consequences of genocide, even for those who survive it. Never Again means no holocausts for anyone, anywhere.
“As the death toll in Gaza rises and Israeli violence spreads through the region, we call for a ceasefire and an arms embargo by the United States, which continues to send billions of dollars in support of the Israeli military. There is ample evidence that Israeli actions in Gaza violate both international human rights laws and US policy regarding limitations on what can be done with military aid. Genocide is not a Jewish value. Our Jewish community is diverse, and not well represented by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and its unquestioning support of Israel.”
Sheila of Milwaukee, who asked her last name be withheld, said she is afraid the protest against the Biden-Harris administration for arming Israel during the military assault on Gaza may result in a Trump victory in the upcoming election. Protester Bryan Atinsky explained he wants to see Harris change U.S. policy of unquestioning support of Israel.
JVP-Milwaukee’s Message
In response to questions from WMJ, Melamed identified the protesters’ target audiences and messages.
To the Milwaukee Jewish Federation: “We wish to say, ‘We invite you to get on the right side, to support an arms embargo, not genocide. We ask you to work for the only real peace possible in the region, peace with justice and safety for all. Your disregard for Palestinian lives is an affront to our Judaism.
“We know the wider Jewish community does not fully support the MJF’s militant attitude of Israel, right or wrong. We know many of them would be shocked to know the full extent of the MJF’s (work) to undermine the right to protest and to weaponize antisemitism against Palestinians in the U.S. and Jews who do not support the Zionist state of Israel.
To interfaith and progressive organizations: “We say, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation does not speak for all Jews. The MJF is using interfaith and progressive spaces for their own political agenda. We want to create space for our justice-minded interfaith and progressive organizations to be courageous and stand up to the MJF’s bullying.”
To Milwaukee and the local press: “We want to say loud and clear, ‘The MJF does not speak for all Jews. It doesn’t even speak for most Jews. The truly horrible approach it is taking to minimizing or censoring the truth about Israel’s annihilationist violence in Gaza—the starvation, the medical torture, the killing of journalists, the mass slaughter—goes against Jew tradition completely.”
