🕊️ Staying Human: Witnessing, Learning, Acting
בִּמְקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ
"In a place where there is no humanity, strive to be a human."
In moments of fear, grief, and moral strain, our tradition does not ask for certainty or unanimity. It asks us to remain human.
Staying Human is a series of programs at Temple Hillel B'nai Torah that invites our community to move through this moment together. Through film, music, conversation, and learning, we create space to bear witness to real lives, deepen understanding, and discern how we respond to suffering without perpetuating more suffering.
These programs are not about reaching consensus. They are about presence, responsibility, and staying in relationship with one another — and with our Jewish values — during a painful and complicated time.
The Arc: Witnessing · Learning · Acting
👁️ Witnessing
We begin by seeing and hearing human stories up close through film, music, and testimony — allowing ourselves to be present with grief, loss, and moral complexity.
📖 Learning
We deepen context through speakers, guided conversations, and shared study — asking hard questions and listening across difference.
🤝 Acting
We explore ways of responding rooted in care, responsibility, and Jewish values. Action may look different for different people, and participation is always invitational.
Two Tracks
Like the Mishnah's masekhtot — distinct paths of learning that each go their own way while belonging to the larger whole — this series has two tracks. Engage one, both, or move between them as programs speak to you.
🔹 IPPC Track
Bringing our whole Jewish selves to the hardest questions of this moment: Israel, Palestine, identity, and responsibility.
🔸 Tikkun Olam Track
Standing with vulnerable people in our communities through immigration justice, healthcare advocacy, peaceful protest, and defending democratic norms.
Different terrain, but the same commitment —
to witness suffering, deepen understanding, and act with responsibility.
👁️ Bearing Witness: The Burlington ICE Facility
For nearly a year, members of HBT's Tikkun Olam committee have been among the thousands who gather outside ICE's Boston Field Office at 1000 District Avenue in Burlington -- forming a human corridor along the sidewalk, bearing witness to what happens inside. On some days, more than 700 people show up. The action is called "Bearing Witness" -- and that is exactly what it is.
The stakes are real. On April 30, 2026, eleven people were arrested after attempting to deliver food and personal items to detainees inside, charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace.
The action is there every Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 11:00 AM if you want to join. Not everyone can stand on District Avenue on a Wednesday morning -- and that's understood. Some people make it possible for others to be up front. All of it matters. The GBIO "Not With Our Money, Citizens" campaign is another way.
Witnessing can change us.
Here is one way HBT is acting on what we've seen.
💰 "Not With Our Money, Citizens"
Citizens Bank is one of the largest financiers of CoreCivic and GEO Group -- the two for-profit companies that together operate more than half of all ICE detention facilities in the country, including the one in Burlington. In 2019, eight major national banks ended their relationships with the private prison industry. Citizens stayed in -- and stepped up to fill the void. Bank of America walked away. Wells Fargo walked away. Citizens has not.
The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization is fighting back with organized money. The strategy: gather pledges from member congregations and individuals to move deposits out of Citizens Bank, then bring that total to Citizens Bank leadership and demand they stop financing the detention of our neighbors. Everyone with a Citizens Bank account can make their money speak.
Where things stand: The campaign has already withdrawn $1 million from Citizens Bank and has nearly $18 million pledged toward a $20 million goal. We are in Stage 2 of 4 -- escalating with public action, more institutions signing on, and expanding beyond Greater Boston. The next milestone is a Citizens Assembly on July 4th, at which point an additional $2 million will be withdrawn if demands have not been met.
This campaign is getting attention:
HBT has been part of this fight from the beginning -- in the streets and now in the bank. If you have a Citizens Bank account and want to add your pledge to HBT's voice in this effort, or if you'd simply like to learn more, reach out to Reuben Kantor.
Past Programs
🕊️ 30th Annual Mother's Day Walk for Peace
In 1996, Chaplain Clementina Chéry lost her son Louis to gun violence. Mother's Day was supposed to be a celebration — but she was grieving. So she walked, in the neighborhood where he was killed, as an act of remembrance and a refusal to be silent. Other mothers who had lost children came. Then their families. Then the whole community.
Thirty years later, the Mother's Day Walk for Peace is one of the largest organized walks in New England — and Temple Hillel B'nai Torah walks as part of the Interfaith contingent. Rodef shalom — pursuing peace — means showing up.
National Day of Action: Jews Demand ICE Out
HBT co-sponsored this national day of action, with members attending actions at Coolidge Corner and Jamaica Plain demanding ICE out of our schools, workplaces, parks, and communities.
2026 Joint Memorial Ceremony · Combatants for Peace & Parents Circle – Families Forum
Each year, Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members to the conflict gather together to mourn, remember, and affirm their shared humanity. This year's ceremony was held live in Jerusalem on the eve of Israel's Memorial Day — and streamed to communities around the world.
A local in-person viewing was hosted the following evening by Boston Standing Together and the Boston Workers Circle Israel Palestine Committee, at the Boston Workers Circle, 6 Webster St., Brookline (Coolidge Corner).
▶ Watch the recording:
Yuval Noah Harari: Israel, Gaza, and the Future of Judaism · Guided Discussion
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that the period from October 7, 2023 to the present may be a defining turning point for Jewish history and Jewish identity — perhaps the most consequential since the Roman conquest of 70 CE.
- Jewish Voices Rising: A Benefit Concert for the Children of Gaza · Gaza Children's Village March 8, 2026 Held at Eliot Church of Newton. Together this concert raised over $50,000 to support education, nutrition, healthcare, and psychosocial care for orphaned and vulnerable children across Gaza. Thank you to all who attended, participated, and donated.
- Susannah Sirkin: Human Rights and the War in Gaza February 22, 2026
- Holding Liat · Film Screening February 19, 2026
- Staying Human in a Time of War · Yoav Peck · Video Recording November 12, 2024
About the IPPC
The Israeli-Palestinian Program Committee helps bring programs to Temple Hillel B'nai Torah grounded in human dignity, learning, and staying in relationship across difference. Many of the programs in the Staying Human series grew out of IPPC's leadership.
📬 Stay Connected
This page will be updated as new programs are added. Questions or thoughts? Reach out to a member of the organizing team.