Joining around 200 others who were taken into custody on Thursday night, were four prominent New York rabbis . They were arrested during protests throughtout NYC against police brutality and racial injustice. The protesters had recited the kaddish, a Jewish mourning prayer delivered in memory of loved ones.
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 group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, reported the Times Of Israel
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Rabi Jacobs told the Huffington Post by email that she and others arrived at the police station at roughly 11:30 p.m. and were held until 5:15 a.m. Friday morning. Despite the sleepless night, Jacobs said the protest was crucial to her as “a religious act” to highlight the “dignity of every single human being.”
“Rabbis and all Jews need to stand up and say that every single person is a creation in the divine image — that black lives matter,” Jacobs said. “We put our bodies on the line to show how crucial it is that the systems meant to protect us do protect all of us.”
The Huffington Post continues: The protest began at B’nai Jeshurun, a Jewish synagogue on 88th St., and proceeded along Broadway to 96th St. where the rabbis engaged in an act of civil disobedience. Many of the protesters had just attended a ceremony organized by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) at B’nai Jeshurun, during which Rabbi Kleinbaum was one of three recipients of the Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Risk Taker Awards.
B’nai Jeshurun’s Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon said the ceremony was planned months in advance, and when the grand jury decision was announced it was clear to him and others that a demonstration of their concern was in order.
“It was all very peaceful and respectful but carried a great deal of concern and the commitment that we have to make serious change in our justice system and in our society to eradicate racism,” Matalon told HuffPost over the phone. “These incidents which are now a recurring pattern of the deaths of black men at the hands of police are issues of tremendous concern.”
Niamh Harris
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I found a video of the incident. It contains a male voice 3 times saying Garner was being arrested for “breaking up a fight”. An obvious lie! Actually he was questioned for selling single cigarettes! Next we see ERIC GARNER refusing to be handcuffed (resisting arrest). One of the cops used arm bar wrestling hold to take Garner to the ground. The arm bar across Eric’s throat or lower jaw was released in less than 10 secs.
If You have different facts than my explanation, please post them, I am willing to apologize.
The cops were nice about it and warned him numerous times about selling cigarettes outside of a store.
He kept doing it and it was finally time to arrest him and he stupidly resisted arrest….Same bullsh!t as the dead monkey in what was formerly Minneapolis…This has happened hundreds of times with cops restraining savages…The jwe figured out how to exploit these particular events into massive savage riots like that jwe mayor did in Minneapolis….