Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends welcomed a surprise "celebrity guest vigiller" this Saturday, and the just-under-the-wire appearance of Lee B. put us over the top to set a new record of 16 people holding vigil. Dan McGowan, and his traveling companion Bob Lannon drove their modest sized camper in from Geneva, New York to stand with us in front of Beth Israel Congregation. They arrived at 5PM Friday, and left at 2PM Saturday. If the vigil were a motorcycle rally, these guys would have taken home the Long Distance trophy - 418 miles. Talk about dedicated peace workers!

Dan is Executive Director of the project (Deir Yassin Remembered) and a professor at Hobart and Smith in Geneva. Three members of JWP attended the dedication of the memorial last Sept. 24th, and readers can review that dedication ceremony at:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hfc/mideast/deiryassein/index.htm

Dan's writing is contained in "Speaking the Truth about Zionism and Israel", a recent collection edited by Michael Prior. Other contributing authors include Ilan Pappe, Jean Zaru, and Ann Arbor's own Betsy Barlow. And Dan, the check is in the mail!

Sunday's events were stirring, if not downright amazing! At the Hiller's Boycott, 12 vigillers stood, including Mahmoud, who reported that his wife was finally released by Israeli security, and has rejoined the Ann Arbor community. The writer's license plate was stolen from his car in the parking lot of Arborland, and JWP held a second Sunday vigil at the Jewish Community "Conversation", presented by the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County, AIPAC, and 9 other sponsors. Again, see

http://www.jewishannarbor.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=116082

This event drew 320 members of the Ann Arbor Jewish Community, and was led by Mark Gerzon, who was introduced by Federation President Joan Lowenstein, and Executive Director Jeff Levin. Part of the "ground rules" was that names should not be used in describing events that happened Sunday afternoon, but the writer feels that mentioning the names of organizers and workshop leader is still in keeping with this rule, and will refrain from mentioning names of attendees.

Four members of Jewish Witnesses attended this event. Chairs were arranged in tight circles forming ~35 groups of 8-10 people. In each group was a sub-facilitator, who, upon receiving instruction from Mr. Gerzon, proceeded to conduct conversations within each working group. The conduct in this writer's group ranged from kindness to an outburst of vulgarities, for which an apology was soon received.

Quite evident in this event, was the notice that the Ann Arbor Jewish Community has taken of Jewish Witnesses on Saturday mornings. Mr Gerzon asked, in a private conversation before the meeting, whether JWP would object to gatherings of the Jewish community in locales like Hillel (Sunday's venue), or did we "demand" meetings only within Beth Israel. It was explained that regular meetings would still be desired, but the venue was unimportant.

JWP members noticed a slightly biased presentation by Mr. Gerzon: he used the word "complexities" over a dozen times (Jewish Witnesses believes that the situation is not at all complex, and can easily defend that claim), while the word "Occupation" was uttered only once.

But despite this perceived bias, Mark's upbeat remarks at the end of the meeting were notable and encouraging. He recognized the impact that the Saturday vigils were having on the AA Jewish community, and challenged the community at large to make attempts to reach out to the "protesters", to determine, in an adult way, the message JWP is trying to promote. He gave great credibility to our group, and for this we thank him. To their credit, attendees approached members of JWP and enjoined them in conversation. Prior obligations prevented me from accepting post meeting discussions, but hopefully that will be remedied in the near future.

Work for Peace,

Henry Herskovitz