On October 2, 1989, the Jewish Women’s Committee to End the Occupation (JWCEO) led its first national action: the “Jewish Women’s Call for Peace—Days of Awe.” On this historic day, women’s groups in Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Boston, Eugene, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Montpellier, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, San-Francisco, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Syracuse, Toronto, Tucson, and Washington, DC, held vigils in solidarity with women’s peace groups in Israel and Palestine. Symbolically occurring between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, this day, and a larger week of action, emphasized the importance of reflection within a feminist-Jewish ethics of justice and peace. 

In April 1988, Clare Kinberg, Irena Klepfisz, and Grace Paley, motivated by the intifada of 1987, founded JWCEO in New York City. They were inspired by the work of the Israeli Women in Black, which had been founded that January. The Women in Black began by holding weekly protests at a major traffic intersection in Jerusalem, dressed in black and carrying a poster that read “Stop the Occupation.” 

JWCEO promoted dialogue in the US Jewish community around Israel and Palestine and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They held regular Monday night vigils in Jewish neighborhoods and in front of important US Jewish institutions, published the Jewish Women’s Peace Bulletin, organized educational and cultural programming, and often worked closely in coalition with the Women in Black. Particular actions ranged from workshops for Jewish women on the subject of Israel and Palestine, like in Toronto, to letter writing campaigns calling out a newspaper in Minnesota for anti-Arab racism. The wide range of activity by JWCEO demonstrates the emphasis chapters placed on organizing within their local contexts. In 1990, before disbanding in 1992, they published Jewish Women’s Call for Peace: A Handbook for Jewish Women on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict, a project intended to grow “the network of women committed to peace.”  Despite their efforts to chronicle their work, JWCEO and other women’s peace advocacy of the end of the 20th century is all too often forgotten. These women demonstrated immense resilience; holding weekly vigils, engaging with hard questions, and advocating for peace despite the isolation that came with such work. 

Sources: 

Beth, Amy, Rita Falbel, Judith Helfand, Amanda Joseph, and Irena Klepfisz. “A Letter from the  JWCEO.” September, 1992. https://www.palarchive.org/index.php/Detail/objects/215093/lang/en_US. 

Falbel, Rita, Irena Klepfisz, and Donna Nevel, eds.,  Jewish Women’s Call for Peace: A Handbook for Jewish Women on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict. Firebrand Books, 1990. 

Svirsky, Gila. “Local Coalitions, Global Partners: The Women’s Peace Movement in Israel and Beyond.” Signs 29, no. 2 (2004): 543–50. https://doi.org/10.1086/378570.