Holocaust survivor supports blacks in Missouri and Palestinians in Gaza
Most elderly citizens in America focus on their own joy during their remaining years but some focus on ensuring the world will be a better place for future generations. Among those arrested defending black people's rights against police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri, was a 90-year-old white Jewish woman, one of the last living survivors of Holocaust who fled the Nazi Germany as a child and never saw her parents again. Hedy Epstein came to the United States in 1948. Her only living relatives were an uncle and an aunt who had emigrated to the US. Once here, Epstein worked in a variety of jobs and became active in the causes of civil and human rights and social justice. Some of her causes have included fair housing, abortion rights, antiwar activities and defending Palestinians in Gaza against Israel's police brutality, which has brought on attacks by right wing publications.
"I've been doing this since I was a teenager. I didn't think I would have to do it when I was 90," Epstein told The Nation during her arrest after Missouri protests. "We need to stand up today so that people won't have to do this when they're 90."
Another prominent Holocaust survivor and Jewish activist who is nowadays defending Palestinian rights in Gaza is Henry Siegman, the former executive director of the American Jewish Congress. Siegman's family fled Nazi troops in Belgium and moved to the United States. His father was a leader of the European Zionist movement, pushing for the creation of Israel as a Jewish state. In New York, Siegman studied and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. He later became head of the Synagogue Council of America. After his time at the American Jewish Congress, Siegman became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in charge of the U.S./Middle East Project.
Over the years, Siegman has become a vocal critic of Israel’s policies in the Occupied Territories and has urged Israel to engage with Hamas. He has called the Palestinian struggle for a state "the mirror image of the Zionist movement" that led to the founding of Israel in 1948. In July, he partially blamed Israeli for Gaza bloodshed during an op-ed he wrote for Politico headlined, "Israel Provoked This War" and an interview with Democracy Now's hosts Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh. Earlier this year in an article published in Israel's Ha'aretz titled "This isn’t a new Netanyahu" he argued Netanyahu's reaction to Kerry's proposals was "a deception providing additional time for a deepening of the settlement enterprise and for preparing the ground for blaming Palestinians for the failure of Kerry’s effort."
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