Image by Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune, May 5, 2024, “At U. of C. encampment, Jewish organizers explain significance of their anti-Zionist Shabbat service“

The Chicago Tribune published a good article, written by food reporter Ahmed Ali Akbar, on the Jewish presence and prayer and Shabbat observance at the United for Palestine encampment on the University of Chicago quadrangle. I’m quoted in the article, in support of the students and their Jewish observance. My quote might imply that I merely tolerate them, when, actually, I’m enthusiastic about them. No fault at all to the reporter; he did a good job and my statement was not the focus of the article. But I want the record to have the full statement I gave to him:

I’m in favor of Jewish people observing shabbat, praying three times daily, and fulfilling the commandments wherever they are. Of course there are sizable Jewish populations in the encampments on different campuses, including the University of Chicago, as there are in most struggles against tyranny, empire, capital, and brutality. I’m heartened that in this generation, Jews in this and other movements understand that their resistance to today’s Pharaohs is an expression of Torah and Jewish law and teachings, and not in conflict with them, no matter how much the hoarders of Jewish institutional resources try to defame them as anti-Jewish Jews. There is nothing more assimilationist than doing the bidding of the Christian hegemonic empire. I salute the students and community members building community and performing the commandments in these encampments and hope that they are buoyed to lives rich in Torah and the commandments wherever they are. And I honor those who came before them and pointed this way, including Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Chutzpah Collective and Brooklyn Bridge Collective, the New Jewish Agenda in the 1980s, Rabbis for Human Rights, IfNotNow, NeverAgainAction, and others.