Jewish Voices for Peace: NYT ad from JEWISH Descendants of Holocaust Survivors On Criminal Israeli Policy

Here is Michael Rice' Story, one of the Signatories

I was born 1930 to a single Jewish mother and brought up by her in her parents' household.  At six I was taken to a Quaker boarding school established 1934 in large part to protect Jewish children from Germany.  During a visit to The Hague in May 1940 I experienced the five days of German bombing and learned at first hand what true terrorism was: continuous bombing by airplanes. (I see the bombing of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, and the drone attacks, through thr eyes of the ten year olds.)  My mother and I finally got an American visa and were able to leave Germany in Aprtil 1941 in a German airplane plus a Spanish steamer.  We settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where I became active in anti-racism activism and graduated high school 1946.  I began graduate study in physics at Harvard 1950 completing my doctorate in 1958.  As a young father desperate for a research job to support my studies, I was pointed to a research job at the Harvard Medical School in 1955.  Most physics jobs seemed to be in nuclear weaponry, so I was full of happy anticipation to applying my skills to health until my interview revealed that the job would be tio determine ways to deliver anthrax under varioius atmospheric conditions.  The irony of turning a place of healing into a place to study biological warfare furthered the radicalization that had begun in observing the contrast between American ideals and racial practices.

I did not begin the study of Jewish religious practices until my fifties, and finally joined a congregagtion in my sixties.  I greatly valued the teachings about justice and responsibility to the stranger.  But after five or six years I could no longer stand the way any critical look at Israel, let alone any sympathetic look at my fellow refugees -- tbe Palestinians -- could be entertained in organized Jewry.  The topics were avoided as the proverbial elephant in the living room.  My enthusiasm for Jewishness was somewhat revived by the discovery of Rabbi Waskow's Shalom Center and Rabbi Lerner's Tikkun and Network of Spiritual Progressives, and I have found much needed support and fellowship among the Jewish Voice for Peace.

Michael Rice

From: Michael Rice <risprin@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: Spokesperson for NYTs ad?
To: Sara Kershnar <skershna@earthlink.net>

On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 11:36 PM, Sara Kershnar <skershna@earthlink.net> wrote:

Hello Michael, 

So, we raised the funds for an ad. The ad is going into the NYTs this Saturday as a half-page ad. 

You have a powerful story that we thought people should hear. 

We are working on a press release that will go out tomorrow or Monday (still waiting for input from media people as to whether to send it prior to its print date or after). We are also working on a press conference for Monday or Tuesday (depending on when the press release goes out). Either way it’ll be in the morning. 

We are hoping you will be available to speak to press and/or participate in the press conference. 

If you are willing to play this role, please send us the contact number you’d like to be reached at and a short bio to share with press. 

THANK YOU! 

Sara