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Here’s how I am organizing my Jewish community against annexation
Here’s how I am organizing my Jewish community against annexation

Sara, IfNotNow info@ifnotnowmovement.org via sendgrid.info
Fri, Jun 26,

Organizing our communities to take bold moral action to fight back against
annexation might seem difficult, but with the right tools and resources, I
did it and so can you.

I want to share my story with you. I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland,
deeply immersed in Jewish youth programming. My Jewish community raised me
to value social justice, inclusion, and equity. However, we rarely talked
about justice for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, and I often
felt frustrated by the silence of my community regarding this issue.

Years later, after leaving my hometown for college, I am back. I’m
organizing the Montgomery County Jewish community to take a stand against
Israel’s plan to annex the West Bank - and things are changing.

It started with some old friends from my Jewish youth group and I starting a
conversation in our community about how annexation will worsen the violence
that Palestinians already experience as part of the daily nightmare of
Occupation. We organized an education event about what annexation is, how we
got here, and what American Jews can do to fight back, and invited our
friends and family.

Now, members of our community are now encouraging elected officials to act.
This has mostly centered on our Jewish progressive Congressman, Jamie
Raskin, to make sure that the Israeli government will face real consequences
if it annexes the West Bank next week. We’ve organized a phone-blast and are
writing letters to Rep. Raskin’s office encouraging him to stop giving a
blank check to the Israeli military.

It has been so meaningful to me to see so many leaders in the Jewish
community that I grew up in coming together to break years of silence on
this issue.

I am proud to be a part of this group of local youth group alumni, rabbis,
and congregants organizing for an end to the occupation — and if I can do
it, so can you. Here are the tools you can use to organize your communities
and pressure your congressperson like I did:

Fill out this short form and you’ll be automatically sent a guide to
(virtually) host an emergency meeting or conversation with your community
that will drive them towards meaningful action.

If you want a bit more support, we invite you to join us for a call on June
30th at 8pm ET to discuss how to talk to your community about annexation.
You can RSVP for that here, and we’ll send you the call-in information.

In justice and in health,
Sara
IfNotNow
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