“We were warned about Culpeper,” said IfNotNow (INN) member Ayelet Wachs Cashman (pictured above), “but there was more honking in support there than anywhere we’ve been, and there was a greeting line. There was spirit there in droves.”  Wachs Cashman is one of many trekking from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC on the March to Confront White Supremacy. The March will culminate in non-violent civil disobedience in DC on September 6th, after the group has walked over 100 miles. This morning, when we spoke, the marchers was preparing to leave Culpeper, Virginia, and walk 12 miles to Remington, Virginia.
Until the fifth day of the March, Wachs Cashman was the only Jew, and INN the only Jewish organization represented (the other Jew who showed up was also from INN). “I want to see more of us than INN,” she told me. “People flew in from California, Alabama, people who are affected by DACA, they made time to be here. We need resources – housing, cars, money, and I want to see Jewish leadership showing up for us.”
“As Jews, we’ve seen this before,” she continued. “We know about lists, about rallies. Jews aren’t the group being most targeted by white supremacy right now, but some Jews are always being targeted – Jews of Color, for example. I’m showing up in solidarity in the only way I know how, and INN believes in showing up for ourselves and showing up for each other.”
What would she like to see from the Jewish communities when the March gets to DC? “I want to see visible Jews supporting us, I want to see talitot and kippot. And I’d love it if folks at the AIPAC convention would leave it and come to the convening.”
Follow the March on Twitter at @cville2dc. 
Image Credit: IfNotNow