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How Jews are joining the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington on Shabbat
(JTA) — Six decades ago, shortly before Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Rabbi Joachim Prinz called for racial equality in an address that began with the words, “I speak to you as an American Jew.”
This Saturday, about a dozen Jews will be in the lineup of more than 100 speakers who will return to the memorial’s marble steps for what is being billed as a continuation of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on its 60th anniversary. Alongside the anniversary march, which will take place on Shabbat, an initiative is launching to encourage discussion at Friday night dinners about fighting racism and antisemitism.
The event is being organized by activist groups helmed by King’s son, Martin Luther King III; Rev. Al Sharpton, and other civil rights leaders, and is expected to draw 75,000 people, according to the Washington Post. The 1963 march drew more than 200,000 people.
The roster’s Jewish speakers include rabbis, activists and representatives of Jewish organizations, including Jews of color. Yolanda Savage-Narva, who serves as the Union for Reform Judaism’s assistant vice president for racial equity, diversity and inclusion, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the participation of Jews of color indicates that “our country has made progress.”
“Our community understands that people of all backgrounds can come from different faiths, and the fact that there are Jews of color on the podium of the March on Washington speaks to the fact that we’re intersectional beings,” said Savage-Narva, who is Black and Jewish. “We’re not just one thing, we’re not just our racial identity, our gender identity, our religious background, and it gives people an opportunity to see a whole person.”
Savage-Narva said she will be speaking briefly and will deliver the message that people should “be proximate to one another, build relationships so we have more capacity to hear each other’s stories, and see each other b’tzelem elohim, in God’s image. We are all God’s children.”
The 1963 march came during the campaign for the Civil Rights Act, which was passed the next year. At Saturday’s march, King III, a leader of a group called the Drum Major Institute that aims to continue his father’s legacy, will call for strengthened voting rights as well as other measures to protect American democracy, according to the Washington Post.
“It feels like we’ve gone backwards in relationship to civil and human rights. Dad talked about eradicating the triple evils of poverty, racism and violence,” King III told the Post. “So we have to be more vigilant, we have to be more engaged, we have to be more, in fact we are, more determined than ever to actually address these great issues.”
One of the march’s co-chairs is the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish civil rights group’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, will also speak. He noted that ADL leaders were at the original march as well, “when standing next to Dr. King wasn’t necessarily easy” because of controversy over civil rights.
“This is a march that’s not just about equality for Black people or just about fighting hate against Jewish people,” he said. “This is about standing up for all people.”
Greenblatt added that he hopes to encourage cooperation between Black and Jewish leaders. “It will be more specifically focused on the need for the Black and Jewish communities to work together and not allow those with ulterior motives to divide us, but instead to focus on the shared experiences and common values that we share with one another,” he said.
In its programming surrounding the Saturday march, the ADL is marking Shabbat while launching an initiative that it hopes will strengthen Black-Jewish ties.
On Friday night, it will be hosting a Shabbat dinner featuring author Michael Twitty, whose memoir “Koshersoul” charts his work fusing African-American and Jewish culinary histories. It has also reserved hotel rooms within walking distance to the march for participants who don’t drive on Shabbat, and Greenblatt said there will be a morning prayer service before the program begins.
The ADL, the National Urban League and OneTable, which facilitates Shabbat dinners, have also partnered on a new initiative urging people to convene Shabbat dinners to reflect on the March on Washington and on fighting racism and antisemitism. A pamphlet meant to be a guide for the Shabbat dinners includes essays by Jews of color and suggested action items.
“Shabbat is a time of rest and replenishment for Jews, and a way to activate and to be in community, to have other people understand how important a moment like this is,” Savage-Narva said. “Even though it is Shabbat, it’s a sacrifice of sorts to say, ‘Hineni,’ I am here, I’m showing up and this is so important for me and the multiple identities I hold.”
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The post How Jews are joining the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington on Shabbat appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success
US President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation alongside US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, DC, US, June 21, 2025, following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Pool
The United States launched a large-scale military strike against Iran early Saturday, destroying key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.
US President Donald Trump said in a public address that the operation had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities and urged Tehran to “make peace,” warning that any future aggression would be met with even greater force.
The multi-pronged strike combined stealth B‑2 Spirit bombers deploying bunker-buster bombs with Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from submarines. Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — all central to the Iranian nuclear program — were targeted in a coordinated assault. US military officials said the campaign neutralized Iran’s main enrichment operations.
Trump praised Israel’s role in coordinating the response and hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a key partner, saying the two leaders worked “as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” Netanyahu, for his part, called the American action “unmatched” and said it signaled a shift toward restoring regional stability.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the operation as a breach of sovereignty and international law, vowing to respond with force. Hours after the strike, Iran retaliated by unleashing a salvo of roughly 30 ballistic and hypersonic missiles toward central Israel. Several missiles hit urban centers including Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Haifa, and surrounding areas, causing injuries to at least 25 civilians and extensive property damage. Israel closed its airspace and instructed residents in key regions to only venture out for essential activities. In response, Israeli jets struck military targets in Iran, including missile launch sites and rocket depots.
Domestically, Trump’s decision exposed sharp political divisions in Washington. Republican hawks applauded the move as decisive, while isolationists and some constitutional conservatives questioned the legality of bypassing Congress, demanding oversight before further military escalation. Meanwhile, the United Nations and key US allies, including Britain and France, urged caution and a swift return to diplomatic solutions.
Iranian state media reported that most nuclear material was evacuated from Fordow ahead of the strike, the Reuters news agency reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said it detected no spike in off-site radiation.
According to Arab sources cited in The Wall Street Journal, the United States sent messages via regional intermediaries to reassure Tehran that the strike was a one-off and not part of a campaign to topple the regime. A senior US official confirmed that the administration clarified it had no intention of pursuing regime change and that the door remained open to renewed negotiations.
US Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution to block unauthorized military action in Iran, criticized Trump’s strike as unconstitutional. Massie called the move illegal, while Khanna urged Congress to immediately vote on their Iran War Powers Resolution “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), meanwhile, called for Trump’s ouster, claiming it violated the US Constitution and as such was an impeachable offense.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, rejected the criticism. He said Trump was acting well within his powers under Article II of the Constitution, which grants the president authority as commander-in-chief to protect national security.
“This is not without precedent,” Ostrovsky told The Algemeiner, pointing to former President Barack Obama’s operation to kill Osama bin Laden and former President Joe Biden’s airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria.
“Trump did not need the authorization of Congress in order to initiate a military strike,” he said, adding that the action was also supported by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which affirms a nation’s right to self-defense.
Ostrovsky also defended the legality of Israel’s involvement, saying its campaign was not a sudden act of aggression but a response to a protracted armed conflict initiated by Iran.
“Faced with an existential and imminent threat from a nuclear Iran, the Jewish state had no choice but to act before it was too late,” he said. He described the strikes as “lawful, necessary, and proportionate under the Laws of Armed Conflict against a genocidal regime that had vowed to destroy the world’s only Jewish state and stood on the cusp of acquiring the means to do so, had Israel not acted.”
“In striking Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israel and the United States made the world a safer place. They did it not only in their own defense, but in defense of the free world,” he concluded.
The post ‘Totally Obliterated’: US Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Trump Declares Operation a Success first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.