Jews Against ICE Rally Draws Hundreds of Jewish Clergy, Congregants and Advocacy Groups

The sun was shining directly on the headquarters of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Southwest Washington, DC, yesterday as hundreds of protesters gathered in front of it holding signs, blowing shofars and singing songs. Some were based on biblical verses, such as “V’ahavta L’reakha” (Love Your Neighbor), and then there was the new hit out of Minneapolis, “It’s Okay to Change Your Mind.” 

Ostensibly they were inviting people working in the building (a few of whom were visible looking out their office windows five or six stories up) to “come on and join us,” as part of an action dubbed “Jews Against ICE.” 

Organized by the social action group Bend the Arc and the rabbinic human rights organization T’ruah, the event had over 60 co-sponsors. Many were congregations from the DMV area or other progressive Jewish advocacy groups—including HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), J Street, Jews United for Justice and Rabbis for Ceasefire. Organizers noted that simultaneous protests were being held in Minneapolis and Boston.

“There’s nothing more Jewish than standing up to Nazis,” says Maryland resident Dana Fleitman, holding a sign festively decorated with Stars of David in floral patterns and the all-caps message, “NUREMBERG IS COMING.” 

She calls the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown an “insult to the soul on every level.” She doesn’t know anyone personally who’s been detained or otherwise harassed by ICE, but driving around, Fleitman’s seen cars pulled over by police and always wonders, “Is it a routine traffic stop or something else? Should I pull over?” She has mobility issues but had to be at the protest: “We all need to do our part.” 

Jill Berman and Lori Muhlstein have come from Virginia with about 50 others from DC’s Temple Micah. They share that an Afghan family the temple had helped resettle were recently stopped by ICE—“I guess because they looked Hispanic?” Berman says. The family has been keeping a low profile out of fear they could be detained next time. Seeing fear in people they care about is hard, says Muhlstein, adding, “We were strangers in a strange land.” It’s a sentiment expressed repeatedly by demonstrators when asked why it’s important to show up as Jews to protest ICE. 

Suddenly, from the small raised stage and throughout the crowd, shofars are blown, along with high-pitched whistles that organizers have given out. Whistles, of course, have been a key component of the organized resistance to ICE operations in Minneapolis, MN, over the past several months, used to alert vulnerable people that agents are actively moving in neighborhoods. The copper-colored whistles given out at the Jews Against ICE protest are less than two inches long and have that message printed on them in tiny letters next to a shofar. 

“There are two things we know,” a speaker says through a megaphone when the sounds die down. “We know what happens when the outsider is marginalized. And from our theology and from our history, from God, we know what this moment demands of us.”

Rachel Mandelbaum is here from Dayenu, a Jewish climate action organization. She’s their deputy campaigns and organizing director and lives in Montgomery County, MD, where teachers have told her that some of their students’ parents have been taken by ICE agents. “We’ve seen what authoritarianism can reap,” says Mandelbaum, stressing that climate justice, social justice and economic justice are all thwarted under authoritarian governments. 

She’s encouraged to see so many Jewish groups coming together to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. Having done advocacy work with groups like the Jewish anti-hunger organization Mazon to oppose the Big Beautiful Bill—which allotted $75 billion over four years to Immigration and Customs Enforcement while cutting SNAP (food stamp) benefits—she says her organization is watching the current congressional battle over a stopgap funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Democrats are asking for reforms such as requiring ICE agents to wear body cameras, barring them from masking and requiring judicial warrants in return for agreeing to fund DHS.

Debra Katz.

“Yes, it’s worth shutting the government down over,” says the well-known employment discrimination and civil rights litigator Debra Katz. Invoking the Torah commandment not to oppress the stranger, Katz says disruption is now an imperative. “These are not normal times,” she says, emphatically. She knows people who have been deported and others who live in constant fear. “We can’t get to a point where we ask, ‘Why didn’t I do anything?’”

Judging from all the groups co-sponsoring and participating in Jews Against ICE, it seems Jewish grassroots opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policy is mostly coming from the left. “It’s not important to me that I partner with Jews on this,” says Dave, a Maryland resident who prefers not to give his last name and is carrying a printed sign that says “If Not Now, When?” He’s here with his adult son and is adamantly against all the administration is doing. “Of course, it’s nice to be with Jews,” Dave offers, guessing that 90 percent of the people here have “a common set of values” and “problems with the state of Israel.” He tells me about one of his six brothers. “I blocked him because he’s part of the cult,” referring to those who support all that President Trump does and will brook no criticism of the State of Israel.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is something middle schooler June Shepard Klein, who has skipped class to attend the protest, thinks about and says she’s able to discuss with a Jewish friend even though they have different perspectives on it. “The school has an absence allowance for ‘religious activity/non-holiday,’” says her mother Melissa Klein who’s standing with her. “I think this qualifies.” Members of the New Synagogue Project in DC, they’ve been to many progressive protests. Here, they’re holding a large, hand-painted sign of a woman blowing a shofar with the message: “This shofar blasts fascists.” Shepard Klein cites the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis and the abduction and detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father as incidents that have bothered her and made her want to do something. “I’m helping to organize a walkout at school,” she says. Speaking to the imperative to protest as Jews, Melissa says, “Our conscience commands it. Our history commands it,” adding, “We’re safer when we’re together.”

[Read: Q&A | Minneapolis Rabbi Eva R. Cohen Stands with the Stranger]

One of the final speakers is Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who is the CEO of T’ruah. “It’s amazing to be here at the largest gathering of rabbis, cantors and Jews,” she says, “to say we won’t let them grab our neighbors!” 

“The reality is we’re all immigrants,” says Marcia Greenfield of Montgomery Village in Maryland. She’s a member of Kehilat Shalom congregation and the chair of J Street’s DC chapter. She’s come with other J Street members, who are gathered on the periphery of the protest as it comes to an end.

White House border czar Tom Homan will soon announce that the unprecedented surge of ICE agents in Minnesota is winding down. One couldn’t be blamed for wanting to see a certain symmetry in the fact that the ice that has kept DC stubbornly frozen for weeks is slowly starting to melt.

Top image: June Shepard Klein (left) and her mother Melissa Klein (right) at the Jews Against ICE protest in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2026. All photos by Jennifer Bardi