Several prominent rabbis and the president of a national teachers union were arrested Thursday night while protesting police brutality.
Rabbis Sharon Kleinbaum, Jill Jacobs, and Shai Held, along with Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, were taken into custody for blocking traffic to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict the New York police officer who choked Staten Island resident Eric Garner to death. The protests, held on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, were organized by the organization Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
Kleinbaum is the longtime rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the country’s largest LGBT synagogue, and is also Weingarten’s partner. Directly before the protest, she was honored by JFREF with a Marshall T. Meyer Risk Taker Award at nearby Congregation B’nai Jeshurun.
Attendees at the ceremony read the names of more than 20 black males who had been killed by New York police, followed by the phrase, “I am responsible.” They then marched to the nearby intersection at 96th and Broadway — blocking traffic and holding protest signs.
By KINGSMEN
'KINGSMEN' -Atlanta's Photographer|Videographer|Blogger|Editor
They are arresting Jewish money?? Hollywood is Jewish money. This will not end well.
I think this is good also! This is not a war against cops, I’ve met some really great ones but I’ve also encountered some that should have never been given a badge. It seems to me that some type of organization within the organization has declared hunting season on AA men. This must not be tolerated! What happened in Ferguson was the root of the pain, what’s happening now is much deeper! My prayer is that this movement will travel through all 50 states. #BlackLivesMatter
This is a good sign, because the protests are starting to cross over to the Judeo Christian mainstream, at least the progressive wings hopefully. . Believe it or not big Jewish money helped financed the civil rights movement 50 years ago