October 11, 2011
Jewish activists and clergy to join Occupy L.A. with sukkah outside City Hall
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Occupy L.A. demonstrators cheer on the lawn in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Oct. 8. Photo by REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn
Since the beginning of this month, a group of Angelenos has gathered near downtown’s City Hall as part of Occupy Los Angeles, its version of the much-publicized Occupy Wall Street — a protest movement calling for reforms to the U.S. political and economic systems.
On Oct. 16 at 1 p.m., local Jewish clergy and activists will join Occupy Los Angeles to hold a demonstration in a sukkah outside City Hall at the site of the demonstrations, where people have been camping out and protesting for several weeks. Rabbi Jonathan Klein of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE-LA) — along with representatives of Progressive Jewish Alliance and Jewish Funds for Justice — is among those planning to participate.
This is a “collaborative, consensus-based effort,” Klein wrote in an e-mail. “It is not just CLUE-LA or PJA/JFSJ that is making this happen … this is less about organizations and overwhelmingly about a common vision for justice in the world.”
They are inviting anyone interested to join in.
“We are calling on the Jewish community to go out to the streets, to join with Occupy L.A. at City Hall, during the festival of Sukkot on Chol Hamoed (Oct. 16) for a day of demonstration, learning, praying, singing, dancing and conversation in which we begin to clarify the way from here to a more just society,” is the message on a Facebook event page created by the Jewish activists.
Klein and four others, including Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, associate professor of rabbinic literature at American Jewish University, created the Facebook page, titled, “Not Just a Sukkah: A JUST Sukkah.”
