(Editor’s note: this piece was completed prior to the Saturday morning shooting of an individual in Minneapolis, but after Shabbat had started; per our editorial policy, we typically do not post content on Shabbat. We will continue to bring you important news related to the Minnesota Jewish community as soon as we can.)
Braving subzero temperatures, local Jewish leaders joined tens of thousands of people marching to protest the federal government’s immigration crackdown in the city.
Friday afternoon’s general strike, titled “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom,” aimed to show federal officials that participants oppose federal actions in Minnesota, according to the organizers’ website. ICE Out of MN says more than 75,000 protesters marched in dangerously cold temperatures. Organizers said more than 700 businesses closed as part of a unified, statewide pause in economic activity on Friday.
The crowd gathered at The Commons outside U.S. Bank Stadium and moved through icy streets in frigid temperatures before filtering into the warmth of Target Center for a peaceful anti‑ICE rally.
Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker met with a handful of other Jewish clergy downtown in a warm space before joining the crowd outside.
“I’ve been in tears on and off for days and sometimes it’s because I’m horrified by what I’m seeing,” she said. “But then there’s other times I’m incredibly moved by what I’m seeing. Everybody is here with the best of spirits and solidarity and showing up with moral voices which is something unique that we can do.”
It has been a busy week for Cantor Spilker. Earlier Friday, she joined an interfaith service at Temple Israel that drew nearly 600 people, including elected officials and more than 100 clergy from faith traditions across the country.
They gathered in Minnesota in a show of solidarity with the community, as more than 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began arriving last month as part of “Operation Metro Surge.”
Roughly 80 of the clergy were Jewish, highlighting the event’s broad interfaith support.
“It’s been a very inspiring week. I was part of trainings and press conferences with the interfaith community in Minneapolis and St. Paul, mostly with ISAIAH but also with MARCH,” Cantor Spilker said.
ISAIAH, which is one of the organizations leading the charge on Friday’s events, is a statewide multiracial group of faith communities, black barbershops, and childcare centers fighting for racial and economic justice in Minnesota. Also leading this week’s protests against the federal government was MARCH MN – (Multifaith, Antiracism, Change and Healing), according to their website, MARCH is “a pro-queer group of multiracial clergy and faith leaders who cross faith traditions and spiritual practices to organize for freedom and liberation on Dakota land in the Twin Cities.”
MARCH has been active since the late 1990s, and the group is calling for the following actions: ICE must leave Minnesota immediately; the officer who killed Renee Good must be held accountable; No additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming Congressional budget; and ICE should be investigated for human and Constituational violations of Americans and our neighbors. The group is calling on “Minnesota and national companies to become 4th Amendment businesses, cease economic relations with ICE, and refuse ICE entry or using their property for staging ground,” according to their website.
Rabbi Jonah Pesner (orange hat), Cantor Tamar Havilio, Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker, and Rabbi Jill Avrin march to Target Center on Jan. 23. (Molly Rosenblatt/TC Jewfolk).
Members of progressive Jewish activist organizations T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Bend The Arc, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism of the Union for Reform Judaism, along with the locally-based Jewish Community Action took part in Friday’s activities.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, arrived Thursday for a clergy training and gathering. He also attended the interfaith service at Temple Israel Friday morning before joining the march from U.S. Bank Stadium to Target Center
Pesner navigated the icy streets of downtown Minneapolis alongside fellow clergy members Cantor Spilker and Cantor Tamar Havilio.
“They are participating in protests. They are doing neighborhood watches, they are doing direct support and service for impacted families, and it’s really remarkable to see how they are living their Jewish values,” Pesner said.
With temperatures plunging to 20 below zero and wind chills near 45 below, Pesner pressed on, his breath forming clouds in the frigid air. Dodging handmade protest signs, cameras, and slick patches of ice, he said he was proud of the broader Jewish community for coming together to support their neighbors
“Intense gratitude to the members of the congregation and the wider community who have shown up and really modeled what love thy neighbor looks like,” Pesner said. “These are people who are directly impacted. There are people with challenging immigration statuses within the community in the congregation.”
The masses weaved their way through the streets of downtown and filtered into the Target Center for the closing rally inside the warmth of the arena.
Surrounded by interfaith clergy onstage at the center of the arena, Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg of Shir Tikvah Congregation addressed the crowd.
“I am so damn proud to be from Minneapolis,” she said.
The audience erupted with cheers as she continued in prayer.
“I want to lift up the name of Renee Nicole Good, queer poet, wife, parent, murdered in South Minneapolis by ICE on January 7th while observing an abduction in her neighborhood,” she said. “May their memory be a blessing. May their families be comforted and surrounded in love.”
Lekach-Rosenberg urged the crowd to stay unified and continue pushing back against ICE operations in Minnesota
“Together we are irrepressible. Irrepressible. So Holy one, in this time of rupture and change, we know we need more. More creativity, more experimentation, new courage, new alliances, new possibilities,” Lekach-Rosenberg said. “So, will you imagine with me, what songs will we sing when our breath is no longer being used to blow whistles on our street corners. What will we create together when we are no longer fighting this culture of death?”
She called on audience members to use the tools, teamwork and connection they’ve developed over the last few days to continue to stand-up to ICE.
“Let us imagine using all of these beautiful skills, all of this powerful mutual aid, all of this fearless organizing in a world without ICE,” said Lekach-Rosenberg.
She concluded her speech by describing what she sees as something restorative emerging from collective pain: “Beneath this paramilitary invasion of our state, something new is growing: This civil society, this weaving of love is growing beneath this crust of ICE.”
ICE out ! Trump OUT ! Prosecute the murderers of Ms. Good