This day brings up profound grief for New Yorkers, and for so many people. 23 years ago, our city was shattered by the attack on the twin towers.

From the JFREJ archives: a flier for a vigil JFREJers organized on October 7th, 2001, calling New Yorkers together to say: Our grief is not a cry for war.

“We are a city in mourning. We honor the lost lives and our own humanity with a call for peace. We mourn with the mission of preventing further horrors. War is not the answer. In the aftermath of this horror, we reject the acts of violence directed against our Arab and Muslim neighbors. We reject all expressions of racial, religious, and ethnic bigotry and violence. We come together in our commitment to a free and peaceful world, a peace built on social and economic justice.”

It is impossible to look at this flier and go through this day without thinking of today's anti-war movement and our calls as Jews nearly one year ago to not use grief as a cry for war. That the 2001 interfaith vigil was held on October 7th only solidifies what we already feel in our hearts. Why was the vigil on October 7th? Perhaps chillingly, that was the day the U.S. began waging war on Afghanistan.

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz (JFREJ’s first Executive Director) wrote in her book, The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics & Radical Diasporism, that at the 2001 rally, she read aloud a statement from the Israeli Women in Black, “which expressed their determination to stand up for Palestinian rights.”

The deadly repercussions of 9/11 have continued for decades: from the ‘war on terror’ and imperial invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, to the countless workers and first responders who contracted cancers and other health conditions and have had to fight for healthcare coverage, to the heightened Islamophobia and expanded state surveillance. The U.S.’s response to the horrific attack was cops, not care, personified. 

Still we see these efforts continue. The same exact rhetoric used after 9/11 to justify war is being used again to justify genocide in Israel-Palestine. The xenophobic sentiments and policies we saw after 9/11 feel ever-present. As we did 23 years ago, we must continue to raise our voices and build spaces for people to come together – through anger, through grief – in fierce opposition to war.

After recounting in her book, the October 7, 2001 rally and JFREJ’s organizing in solidarity with our neighbors in the months that followed the September 11 attack, Melanie added: “These stories are not meant to let us off the hook, but to help us situate ourselves in what is rightfully one of the unfolding Jewish traditions, the tradition of fighting for justice.”

At Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, this is our tradition, and this is our task. We continue to demand: Not Another Bomb. Ceasefire and hostage deal now. Freedom and dignity for all.

I hope to see you next week at The Mazals, and in the streets.

In solidarity, always,
Audrey Sasson (she/her)
Executive Director, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice