Jay Saper

Illustration by Ellen O’Grady

Are you, like us, beginning to question the viability of democracy within a capitalist framework? If we truly are a republic guided by democratic principles, where the majority opposes war, why does conflict persist so tenaciously? Why do wars appear to be interminable? What ignites these cycles of violence in the first place? Many of us abhor the horrific violence unfolding in Gaza and Lebanon, yet we find ourselves feeling powerless to intervene. Similarly, we wonder why more has not been done to prevent the war in Ukraine and why it remains in a state of stagnation without a foreseeable resolution. Do you share the sentiment that this upcoming election transcends the figures of Trump and Harris, reflecting a more profound disillusionment with the realization that our voices may ultimately hold little weight? With these pressing concerns in mind, we reached out to Jay Saper, an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace and the organizer of the recent protest at the New York Stock Exchange:

As we approach the polls, many of us feel disenchanted. What’s the point of voting if we believe our voices won’t be heard? Should we just throw in the towel?

The Biden administration and Congress have gifted an $18 billion slush fund to the Israeli military, which right now is dropping US-made bombs on children in schools, hospitals, mosques, and refugee camps in Gaza. Polling shows that the vast majority of Americans do not want our government to continue to send these weapons to Israel while it carries out what the International Court of Justice has deemed plausible genocide. 

We are supposed to have a democratic process where electeds follow the will of the people. But warmongering organizations like AIPAC are spending record amounts of money to bully politicians and corrode our democracy. The fact racist organizations are so deeply invested in undermining the power of people’s vote shows both that it matters significantly and also it has limits. We will have to remain politically engaged beyond the ballot box as well to build power together that can hold politicians accountable and pressure them to enact the policies we need. 

You sought to disrupt the world’s financial machine. Are you satisfied with the outcome, and how do you measure the success of a protest like this?

On the morning of October 14, Israeli forces dropped a bomb on the al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza, burning 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou, who was still attached to an IV, and his 38-year-old mother alive. Hours laters 500 Jews shut down the New York Stock Exchange to demand the US stop arming Israel and profiting off of genocide. The NYPD arrested 212 people, dragging elders and descendants of Holocaust survivors out by our arms and legs as we chanted, “Stop arming Israel. Let Gaza live.”

We organized the protest to help expose how politicians are not arming the Israeli military out of a concern for Jewish safety as they claim, but instead for their own financial and governing interests. The only condition of the $18 billion slush fund Congress provides to the Israeli military is that they must use it to purchase exclusively from US weapons manufacturers. As a result, the stock prices of two such leading corporations, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, have skyrocketed over the past year. At least 50 members of Congress, who vote to send money to the Israeli military, have investments in these weapons firms and have seen their personal portfolios boom.

What inspired you to become an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace?

My aunt grew up under Jim Crow in Jackson, Mississippi, where she helped to integrate the public schools as a child. Her community’s outspoken support for the Black Freedom Movement led the Klan to bomb her synagogue and rabbi’s home. My aunt’s community was undeterred. They doubled down on their commitment to a politics of solidarity and fighting for racial justice. My aunt’s bravery inspires me. Her story compels me to understand my Jewish identity as a commitment to take action for justice for all people. 

Our community knows all too well the horrors of genocide. Members of my family were killed at Auschwitz. I honor their memory by carrying forward their mother tongue of Yiddish and doing everything I possibly can now to be the neighbor I wish that they would have had then. Someone who refuses to be a bystander as genocide unfolds in realtime.

This is why I have helped to organize protests with Jewish Voice for Peace that halted Congress, shut down Grand Central Terminal during rush hour traffic, took over the Statue of Liberty, shut down the Manhattan Bridge, disrupted the President’s Hanukkah Party at the White House, disrupted the President’s appearance at 30 Rock, derailed the President’s fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall, honored the historic Freedom Seder, and intervened in Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress. 

Tens of thousands of American Jews have joined with us in protesting in the streets over the past year, embracing our Jewish identity as perfectly consistent with expressing solidarity with Palestine. We refuse to allow our beautiful tradition to be used as justification for slaughter. We cry out, “Not in our name. Arms embargo now”

Why do you think political polarization has escalated to such extremes in recent years, and what steps can we take to bridge that divide?

I am not afraid of polarization. I think that it can be helpful in clarifying our commitments. There is no such thing as neutrality in moments of grave injustice. While this might seem self-evident in retrospect, it is just as applicable to the present. 

For instance, it was deeply polarizing when the Klan bombed my aunt’s synagogue. It made the issue clear. Are you on the side of defending white supremacy with dynamite or are you on the side of the Black liberation and overturning Jim Crow?

Our actions in this moment reveal how we respond to the questions of our time. Do we support our government sending $18 billion in weapons to the Israeli military while it carries out genocide in Gaza or do we believe our tax dollars should not be spent on bombing Palestinian children in schools, hospitals, mosques, and homes?

Is true democracy even possible within a capitalist framework?

Wall Street was founded in 1711 when white enslavers set up a marketplace to auction off people they had forcibly kidnapped from Africa. With its roots in chattel slavery, overseen by settlers who carried out genocide against the Indigenous peoples of these lands, the pursuit of profit in the US economy knows no moral bounds.

When we shut down the New York Stock Exchange, we joined a long lineage of people and social movements who have challenged its crooked foundation and advocated for an economy that puts people before profit. ACT UP began at a protest on Wall Street in 1987 that challenged pharmaceutical companies making a killing off of people dying with AIDS. The Occupy Wall Street movement was born there in 2011, in the wake of the Great Recession, popularizing how the 1% were benefiting at the expense of the 99%.

Over the past year, Palestinian-led organizations have also protested on Wall Street, illuminating the influence of war profiteering on foreign policy. Students who led the historic uprisings on their campuses this past spring were violently suppressed by their administrations for calling on them to divest their endowments from these same corporations. Divestment was a campaign I also helped organize on my campus and was nearly expelled for over a decade ago. 

We are honored that ACT UP veterans, including Eric Sawyer, who helped organize their founding protest on Wall Street, got arrested with us at our protest at the New York Stock Exchange. Several Occupy Wall Street organizers, including the artist Molly Crabapple, did as well. We were joined by students and professors, including the MacArthur Fellow Ros Petchesky, along with Palestinian leaders, including Sumaya Awad of Adalah Justice Project.

Justice is __________.

We are inspired by the words of Grace Paley who teaches us, “The only recognizable feature of hope is action.” When justice feels so elusive it is imperative that we do not give in to inaction. Justice will only prevail when we come together to build community, when we organize to leverage our power to transform the world.

Justice will never be handed down from above. We must collectively wrestle for it from below. Palestinians are the ones leading the movement for their liberation and it is all of our responsibility to flank their efforts. Each of us has a role to play in helping to pressure the US government to stop arming Israel. Winning an arms embargo will help to end this genocide and bring us closer to the day when Palestinians are able to return home and live with the full freedom and dignity they deserve.