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GUEST ARTICLE
No Pharaoh can force us to kill them.
From: Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Shalom Center
Date: 12/12/02
Dear Friends,
I spent three hours yesterday in a New York City jail, one of about 150 people who were arrested in a deliberate act of civil disobedience as part of a religiously defined vigil to challenge the Bush Administration's pressure for war against Iraq. Among us were Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's (his first arrest), Rabbis Michael Feinberg and Ellen Lippman of NYC, a rabbinical student at Academy of Jewish Religion -- Michael Rxxxx [I'm sorry, can't recall his full name] who blew the shofar and read the "beat your swords into ploughshares" passage from Micah to start the vigil.
Just before the arrests began (our act of "disturbing the peace" was clustering in front of the US Mission to the UN), a Buddhist priest chanted a prayer for the peace and well-being of all beings and I read the Torah passage about Shifra and Puah, the midwives who undertook the first recorded act of civil disobedience in human history, resisting Pharaoh's order to kill Israelite babies. (I was privately delighted all over again that my newest grandchild, less than a month old, is named Shifra.)
There were also Rev. David Dyson, founder of a national anti-sweatshop organizing effort, dozens of other Christian clergy, at least one imam, a couple of Buddhist priests, Daniel Ellsberg and his son (first arrest), David McReynolds (long-term leader of the War Resisters League), and many religiously motivated folk.
Besides those arrested, there were about 200 other people who took part in the vigil who did not choose to be arrested, including retired Episcopal Bishop of NY Paul Moore. Many of those present gave money to buy food for hungry children in NYC, and medicine for the children of Iraq (some of whom are suffering from cancers caused by "depleted
uranium" bombs with which the USA showered Iraq during the Gulf War -- 300 tons still remaining).
Chief organizers came from Judson Memorial Church, led by Rev. Peter Laarman. Three times as many people were arrested as they had originally expected. The whole event was part of the national December 10 (Internatlonal Human Rights Day) effort of United for Peace. There were protests in more than 100 cities across the US.
I spent my three hours crowded with 61 other men in a holding pen in the 17th Precinct. The atmosphere was joyful and determined. Many of us had cell phones, and used the opportunity to call the press and radio stations in our various constituencies. (A very odd feeling, first in my 40-year experience with occasional civil-disobedience arrests: our bodies were in prison but our voices, literally, were not.) The police were polite. We are to return for trial on
January 17.
The Shalom Center has initiated discussions with a range of groups in and beyond the religious community about calling for a nationwide fast for peace and against war on Martin Luther King's real birthday, January 15, the Wednesday before the weekend of official observance of his birthday. Bob Edgar, the head of the National Council of Churches, and Ben Cohen, head of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, support this effort.
Today I am off to Washington DC for the founding meeting of a new anti-war coalition, "Keep America Safe," and a gathering of leaders from a broad range of religious traditions under the aegis of Progressive Religious Partnership to plan anti-war efforts.
We are convinced that we can address the possibility of highly dangerous weapons that may or may not be held by Iraq, without ourselves bringing mass destruction on the Iraqi people. Our numbers are growing, our commitment is deepening, our knowledge is increasing. As did Shifra and Puah, we revere God, Who speaks in every baby's cry
and appears in the face of every parent, full of life. No Pharaoh can force us to kill them.
Shalom, Arthur
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
