Fragments of a Fractured Land

graffiti reading “AI slop” and “antihuman”

April 2026, NYC

I'm too worn out to repeat information that's already been reported on elsewhere. I'll share some of the reporting on the event, and then add what I have to add.

Speakers talked about how all Jews there were immigrants, about ancient Jewish identity as migrants, about the laws in the Torah about treating the ger, the stranger/sojornur/migrant, with the same rights as a citizen—a directive that is repeated an incredible 36 times. "God is on the side of migrants," they said. Many signs evoked the story of the exodus from Egypt, "Resisting Tyrants since Pharaoh." A shofar was blown to wake listeners up from the silence of complicity. Several people had brought the own shofars and joined in. There were chants of "Jews demand: ICE out" and calls for NY to pass the New York For All Act to stop local law enforcement from being deputized to help ICE. The crowd mourned the loss of Alex Pretti and Renee Good and others, and cheered for the release of Mahmoud Khalil.

There were cops there from the start, and volunteers in high-viz vests directing traffic, and photographers. Some double-decker busses passed and people turned their heads.

They taught the crowd songs and chants and outlined the plans for the march a couple blocks from the park to the ICE detention center. When the march began, they started by symbolically parting the red seas. People on either side held banners of blue cloth like water that everyone else walked between while singing "no one is getting left behind this time, no one is getting left behind, we get there together or we never get there at all" in a somber minor key.

The clergy blocking the street, holding signs and posters with the faces of people killed by ICE, while those on the sidewalk sing "I will not stand on the blood of my neighbor, I will not stand idly by":

There were crowds of cops the whole time. I don't know for sure, but it really looked like they didn't want to arrest anyone. There was a lot of waiting. Uniform cops got on the phone. Then a cop in a blue shirt arrived in a cop car. He got on a phone. Then a cop in a white shirt and a fancy hat arrived. He got on a phone. It looked like it kept getting bumped up the line, but who knows. Some people began to leave. At some point the clergy sat down in the street.

Eventually some cop came with a megaphone, and a while after that, an automated voice repeated a message saying something along the lines of You are blocking the street, if you move to the sidewalk now, no charged will be filed against you. This repeated for what felt like a few minutes, and onlookers got quiet, chanted and sang, and got quiet. Then the message changed to say that they were going to be arrested. And a police van was brought in and cops took out zip ties and arrested those in the street and put them in the van.

As they were being led to the vans, some onlookers chanted "That's my rabbi!"

At the end an organizer did a mic check and announced in so many words: We are here today, we will be here tomorrow, we are paying attention and will not relent.

A handmade sign from the event: