This letter came from a reader of the Jewish Russian Telegraph in Sommerville:
The Boston Metropolitan area is under attack from a scourge that many are underestimating. In the trendy but blue collar corner of greater Boston lays Somerville, MA. less than a year ago many people and organizations from outside of Massachusetts mounted an effort to convince the Aldermen of Somerville to divest from Israeli bonds and companies that do business with Israel. After a lot of work by many people and organizations, the majority of the Aldermen were persuaded not to vote for this biased proposal.
This spring the same proposal has returned with a new twist. The Somerville Divestment Project wants to place this question on the ballot. In order to place the proposal before the electorate, the Divestiture camp will need to file a petition with at least 4,200 valid signatures. To comprehend the magnitude of the effort to file the petition or to oppose the petition requires understanding that this number of registered voters signing the petition is almost equal to the number that can elect a Mayor or an Alderman. A number of that immensity requires a political campaign. A political campaign of this size, in turn, requires money.
JCRC in it’s action alert states that: “We are actively seeking residents of Somerville to help us in mobilizing our “Support Peace, Reject Divestment” campaign. We need people to help distribute our literature in Somerville during rush hour and the weekends.”
To counter this effort, JCRC needs to do a whole lot more than distribute literature during rush hour and on weekends. A major effort is required to reach all Somerville voters by contacting politicians, synagogues, churches, households, civic leaders and all elements of the community
Please call or write to Alan Ronkin: 617-457-8662, 617-988-6255 (F) at JCRC and share your concerns with him and ask him to use some of the resources at JCRC’s disposal to mount this important campaign.
Reading material distributed by the divestiture folks and their backers, it becomes apparent that this is ultimately about the existence of Israel, the United States’ support for Israel, and anti-Semitism. I dare say that a slogan that states “Support Peace” is far from the mark.
Why is it that what happens to the Divestiture Campaign in Somerville should be important to everybody? Because, if I can paraphrase a Nazi slogan from the 1930s - “Today, Somerville, tomorrow, Massachusetts, day after tomorrow, the whole US”.
posted by: jrtelegraph
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