Photo credits Alyssa Rubin. 
Last Saturday, white supremacists, including Nazis and members of the KKK, rallied and violently attacked the community in Charlottesville, VA. Two days later, the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston was vandalized for the second time this summer. It is not a coincidence that events happened within the same week. Blatant antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy have been given a platform in this country.
On Tuesday night, IfNotNow Boston hosted a Boston rally against white supremacy with over 500 young Jews and allies to mourn the recent violence and condemn antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy in all forms.

This week’s chants in Charlottesville of “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us” stir up generations of old fear, and remind us of the violent trauma that antisemitism has wrought on our people, and we know that antisemitism is just one piece in a puzzle of white supremacy.
We know that white supremacy seeks to tear us apart, to make enemies among those that it marginalizes. The best way to combat white supremacy is to dissolve the false boundaries that it creates and build a strong, united front. To link arms and support each other when our communities are attacked.

We know that black and brown people in our country are targeted by white supremacy the most violently. As Jews, white Jews and Jews of color, sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, queer Jews and straight Jews, we are rooted in this struggle as Jews, and in solidarity with our black and brown allies.
The 500 people who came together stand strong against the rising tide of hate and white supremacy in this country. We came together to say that we will stand with strength and in solidarity with the Black, immigrant, Muslim, Latinx, Native, queer, disabled, and all those targeted by bigotry and hate in our communities, in our cities, in our country and in the world.

“The time is now to find racism, white supremacy, and antisemitism as interconnected, not separate, systems. This fight must be complemented by actively, vehemently opposing Islamophobia, xenophobia, and all forms of oppression within our community and other communities. We will build this world and the future of our communities with love and healing and an understanding of where we came from and where we are now.” – Nadav David, IfNotNow member

IfNotNow is a movement to end the American Jewish community’s support for the occupation and is committed to fighting antisemitism and gaining freedom and dignity for all. IfNotNow has chapters in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Toronto, Minneapolis, Austin, Colorado and Detroit.