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- Havdalah #37: (Shock &) Awe, Assembly, & Asylum
Havdalah #37: (Shock &) Awe, Assembly, & Asylum
4 Shevat, 5785 / February 1, 2025
White Rose RI
February 01, 2025
Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in Southern Turkey, photo credit to Victoria
Shavua tov, neighbors.
It’s been a helluva fortnight since last we spoke. I have to admit, I feel a bit like a capsized turtle at the moment. I’m sure you’re all familiar.
The imperative to rest has never been more important. I feel myself reacting to every single piece of bad news that crosses my path. I actually had to delete Google off of the home screen on my phone because it’d become a compulsion to open the search and type “news”. So quickly I’d reverted to muscle memory and bad habits.
Confession: I’ve been something of a terror in the White Rose RI group chat this week. Every terrible headline I found, I’d send to the other petals. Katherine eventually mused, “I feel like you’re a cat who keeps bringing dead mice to the group chat in the form of news.”
Now, every time I send a screenshot or a link of yet another Occurrence™, an emoji reaction of a mouse invariably follows.
Reactivity feels warranted, even mandatory right now. It feels so urgent to demonstrate our reflexes. It’s not. Reaction takes energy, energy that’s needed to be effective. Now is the time to wait and listen.
This issue, we have a beautiful Sidebar penned by a guest writer, Victoria. There’s a stillness there, something put into perspective or context. I hope reading it brings you the same peace it brought me.
As always, there are events to attend, crowdfunding campaigns to support, stickers to deface, podcasts to listen to. There’s things to do. Productive, effective things. And they’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready.
And remember: if you can’t rest for yourself, consider just giving it a rest for the sake of the sanity of the people around you. 🐁
Bella ciao.
James (he / she)
PS: We’d like to hear from you! Let us know how we’re doing!
Workers and Renters: Providence General Assembly
When: Saturday, February 1, 12:00pm and every other Saturday
Where: 134 Mathewson Street, Providence, RI 02903
From their Instagram:
Worried about Trump?
Want to defend our communities?
Want a world that works for everyone?
Come to the Providence General Assembly!
Spanish, ASL interpretation and childcare available upon email request
Masking requested and masks will be provided
Direct questions to [email protected]
Dorcas International Community Conversation: What We Know Right Now
When: Thursday, February 6, 5:30pm-6:30pm
Where: online
Join Dorcas at their upcoming Community Conversation virtual event where they'll provide information on the latest updates regarding policy and funding changes impacting the immigration landscape around the country and right here in Rhode Island. You'll hear directly from Dorcas International's Executive Director, Kathy Cloutier about how Washington is changing the way they work and provide critical support to those in need.
Registration is required
Dorcas International Community Conversation: Know Your Rights
When: Thursday, February 13, 5:30pm-6:30pm
Where: online
Everyone in the United States — regardless of immigration status — has certain rights under the U.S. Constitution. Join Dorcas for a special Know Your Rights virtual event, where Dorcas International immigration legal experts will share essential information about the recent executive orders and changes in immigration policy, and help you and your neighbors understand your rights.
Registration is required
Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island is an all-encompassing multi-service agency that provides education and job readiness opportunities as well as legal services for citizenship and immigration, refugee resettlement programs, and more.
Jewish Zine Heart Medicine
When: Saturday, February 22, 7:30pm
Where: Pawtucket, RI; message (508) 244-1207 for the address
From Ocean State Havurah
“Come make zines, read zines, and nourish your heart with havdalah and community! Bring collage / art supplies if you have them!”
Ocean State Havurah is a pluralistic havurah creating sacred space rooted in Jewish tradition for Jews and non-Jews alike in the Greater Rhode Island area.
Trump Administration Play-by-Play Tool for Public Education
When: Up now
Where: Online
The Partnership for the Future of Learning is making an online tool available which aims to demystify the Administration’s plans for the coming months. During his presidential campaign, Trump was open about his plans for dismantling public schools. Even as the campaign backed away from Project 2025, he embraced its proposals to roll back civil rights protections and defund and privatize public schools. Following the election, organizations across the progressive education policy space developed important resources on what these plans will mean for schools and communities. The Play-by-Play includes and complements many of these resources with information on how Administration policies are likely to be enacted, and the steps state and local organizations can take in response.
The Womxn Project’s Bodily Freedom Forever Index
When: Up now, updated every Tuesday
Where: Online
The Womxn Project has put together an index of politicians in RI, showing how candidates did in the 2024 election compared to their stance on bodily freedom. TWP will post weekly reports on Tuesdays, highlighting some of their findings from the BFFI.
They’re also welcoming people to come join them as they organize in each district, creating small hubs. With volunteers, they will keep building a more transparent political landscape with data-informed action and strategy. Check them out if you want to get involved!
ACLU Firewall for Freedom
When: Up now
Where: Online
The ACLU Rhode Island has been strategizing around RI’s strengths and weaknesses to create a Firewall for Freedom page. It covers issues including free speech, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigrants’ rights. They lay out some context for where Rhode Island stands, what rights are safe for now, and protections we need to push for. It also explains some of their priorities for the upcoming Rhode Island legislative session. Check it out!
Office Hours with The Womxn Project Team
When: Every Tuesday, 3:00pm-5:00pm
Where: Zoom
Need a little support or just want to know what’s going on? The Womxn Project team will be on a live Zoom to answer your questions or point you in the direction of where to turn.
Continuing Actions for Palestine
Weekly Kaddish
When: Every Sunday, 1:00pm-1:30pm
Where: Michael Van Leesten Pedestrian Bridge, Providence, RI 02903
Jewish Voice for Peace RI and allies will be hosting a weekly gathering on Sundays to recite the Mourners Kaddish and communally grieve the Palestinians murdered by the Israeli military. You need not be Jewish to attend; all are welcome to participate.
Power Half-Hours for Gaza
When: every day, Monday through Friday, 3:00pm EST
Where: online
Jewish Voice for Peace is holding Power Half-Hours for Gaza every day — join us as we channel our fury and sorrow into collective action to stop genocide.
News Coverage
As always, especially when getting news from social media, be aware of who is sharing information and why they’re doing it.
Al Jazeera Coverage of the War on Gaza has continued to be a reliable source
Mondoweiss has also provided excellent context and deep dive pieces.
URI Sustaining Democracy Lectures: Where Can We Go From Here?
When: Thursday, February 13, 5:00pm-6:00pm
Where: Galanti Lounge, Robert Carothers Library, 15 Lippett Road, South Kingstown, RI 02881; also livestreamed by the Island Free Library
The University of Rhode Island Center for the Humanities will continue its year-long look at “Sustaining Democracy” this spring through the groundbreaking work of four guest speakers.
At a time of wide concern about challenges to democracy, the series showcases the vital role the arts and humanities play in interpreting and communicating threats to democracy and offering paths to democratic engagement. The spring speakers will focus on such issues confronting democracy as racism, censorship, and the meaning of freedom. The lectures are free and open to the public.
February 13’s lecture will be with artist Eric Gottesman, the William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor of Community Engagement at George Washington University. Gottesman’s presentation will focus on “Where Can We Go From Here?”. Gottesman’s work explores issues such as nationalism, migration, structural violence, history and intimate relations, questioning accepted ideas of power and fostering critical self-reflection and creative expression. In his talk, he will discuss his collaborative work over the last 25 years, which has brought together photography, art, teaching and civic action.
Community Support Needed for Undocumented Single Mother, Legal and Medical
The Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) is fundraising for Luisa, a single mother from Honduras seeking asylum from violence and death threats. They are raising $10,000 for Luisa, to cover the cost of legal fees for her case and postpartum care.
Luisa was forced to flee her home in Honduras with her oldest child and mother in November of 2023 when her two brothers were killed for refusing to traffic drugs. She arrived in the US at the border and was detained by ICE and held in detention, but ultimately was released when it was found she had a valid case for asylum. Upon settling in Rhode Island she experienced a number of challenges including wage theft. In October, Luisa gave birth to her second child and in November sought legal consultation for her asylum case. Her lawyer has affirmed that her asylum case is strong, but she will have to pay for upwards of $9,000 in legal fees.
Your donations will help Luisa pay for $9,000 in legal support and filing fees for immigration processes. Once the $9,000 goal is reached any additional funds will go towards care for Luisa’s children
givebutter link for Luisa
When: Saturday, February 15, 5:00pm-11:00pm
Where: AMOR Office, 545 Pawtucket Avenue, Pawtucket, RI 02860
Schedule:
Event Start: 5:00pm
Bachata Workshop: 6:00pm-7:00pm
Dance Social: 7:00pm-11:00pm
General Admission: $15
All proceeds go to support the work that AMOR does to support our RI community members with an undocumented status.
The Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) is celebrating eight years of resistance and community work, supporting community members and families who are suffering the injustices of the broken immigration system.
From the Trump administration to the Biden administration, for 8 years the AMOR community has continued to resist the systems of white supremacy that see the lives of Black, Indigenous, and people of other colonized races and nationalities as unworthy of the right to cross borders with dignity and life.
Join them for a night full of community, joy, food, music, and raffles to celebrate community resistance!
Masks will be available. They ask that you wear a mask during the event to prevent the spread of COVID.
We’re still early in the Legislative session; most of the activity thus far has been the introduction of new bills. Not much movement for this issue, but in the meantime, here’s a list of some of the bills we’ll be keeping a close eye on:
House Bill H5225: The Protected Spaces Act
This bill would limit the ability for any federal immigration authority to investigate, detain, apprehend or arrest any individuals for potential violations of federal immigration laws without a judicial warrant within certain protected locations.
This is a crucial bill to support in light of Trump’s crusade against immigrants.
House Bill H5132: Workplace Psychological Safety Act
This bill would prohibit psychological abuse in the workplace by employers or co-workers, ensuring a safe environment for employees, providing protection, civil remedies, and penalties for employers based on revenue.
I can say from personal experience that holy shit this is so necessary and overdue.
Senate Bill S0090: Milk Sanitation Code
Proposed by Jessica de la Cruz and Elaine Morgan, this bill would permit and legalize the sale of raw milk.
Because that’s what we really need right now: bird flu.
This is just a tiny sample of the many, many other bills that have already been introduced that will be important to watch, both good and bad.
If there are bills you’d like updates on, let us know! Email us at [email protected] with the bill number, and we will track it!
Victoria (she / her)
I’d like to talk to you all about awe.
Firstly, introductions. My name is Victoria. 20-odd years ago, Katherine and I befriended one another at a neighborhood barbeque, the only other 13-year-olds who had read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. All these years later, and I’m profoundly honored to be invited into this sacred digital space. I’m also a little out of place, on the back foot, as an atheist born to atheists born to (mostly) atheists. Being as I’m based in Scotland and usually traveling the world for work and play, please consider me your heathen correspondent at large.
This past month I was at Karahan Tepe, an archaeological site in Southern Turkey, about an hour from the Syrian border. This was play.
The whole trip was my dad’s idea. He was turning 75 years old, and he wanted to be standing at Göbekli Tepe – the oldest religious structure in the world – on his birthday. No problem, I said, my googling fingers already at work.
I. Karahan Tepe
Fast-forward to early January, and my dad is kneeling on the cold, hard earth, hand pressed to a limestone door frame. The evening light is leaving us slowly, as though it knows we just need five more minutes on this ancient hill. Originally, Karahan Tepe wasn’t in our itinerary. We’d been told the site — approximately 11,000 years old and only 3% excavated — was closed for the digging season. But over lunch some phone calls had been made, a few requests put in, and late in the day we found ourselves winding through the shepherds and field fires of the Turkish countryside.
As our van pulled up to the dark hill, the archaeologists were hard-to-see figures, ants moving dirt about in the dusk. By the end of our steep ascent, the workers had laid down their trowels and wheelbarrows and left us, all alone, unguarded, on one of the oldest archaeological sites known to man.
And here is my dad, touching stuff.
I said he’s touching door frames, but I’m technically wrong. Our guide, Mehmet, points out that these were actually vertical entrances to the buildings, which were dug down into the hill. He calls them portals. We won’t be able to touch the portals at Göbekli Tepe, which have been spirited away to the Sanliurfa Archaeological Museum. It feels like it should be illegal to touch them now. What if we damage what we touch? What if we could destroy what 11,000 years of rest could not? My dad’s fingers brush the limestone. My mom photographs him. I sneakily crouch down and touch the stone portal behind me.
What is my dad feeling? It must be what I’m feeling: awe.
In the cavernous space of Karahan Tepe, below us, a neolithic statue awaits its own trip to the museum. His face is soft, he is naked, his ribs protrude from his side like a skeleton. Mehmet says he represents the dead.
II. “If a city is set on a height”
These ominous prognostications are from a famous set of Akkadian omens, written in the Old Babylonian Period, 3,500 years ago. The list is named after its first line: Šumma Alu Ina Mēlê Šakin / If a city is set on a height.
My professor who introduced me to Šumma Alu always thought it was funny. All cities in Mesopotamia, he said, were built on a height. The height was usually a hill, partly the result of building in mud brick on top of previously destroyed mud brick cities. It wasn’t just a strategic decision to give a city a good vantage point. It was also the very human impulse to stay where we are familiar. To build on top of our own past.
Karahan Tepe, Göbekli Tepe: the Tepe means “hill.” We visit Mardin, a city clinging to the side of a mountain. A Neo-Assyrian text describes the road to get there — to Mardiānê — before 500 BCE. Clearly 2,500 years of setting itself on a height hasn’t destroyed Mardin yet, but I’ve read my Šumma Alu: a city whose top rises into the sky like a mountain peak, that city will turn to rubble.
I’ve always subscribed to the interpretation that all cities are built on a height, all cities will fall to ruin. No state of flourishing is forever. The very nature of growth is to end in death. What am I looking for here, in this ancient place, in January 2025 when it feels like the world around me is ending?
III. Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe is an alien spacecraft surrounded by the sage and taupe of the undulating hills. Its protective cover is a silvery white discus, hiding the sunken buildings beneath. The visitor circumnavigates the space, looking down into the past. When the glaciers of the last ice age melted, they started their melt here. Plants grew, animals came, and our very human animal selves followed.
Our attention is drawn to the T-shaped pillars that would have held up its roof. Over 3 meters high, they initially look blank, but a closer look reveals more: they have thin limbs carved on their sides, limbs that end in fingers that brush against a belt around the midriff of the column, an animal fur carved on the thin front of the anthropomorphic pillar.
These pillars are giant people. They have no face, no head. A hunter-gatherer standing at its base would only have to imagine the giant’s face was hidden by the roof above.
At the Archaeological Museum back in Sanliurfa, a full-scale replica allows our whole family to walk into the oldest temple ever discovered. To feel the height of its peopled pillars, to imagine how the hunter-gatherer ancestors of the fertile crescent experienced the sacred.
How would they have felt? They must have felt what I do: awe.
I have to admit that this is what I was searching for. I have to think that this also is what my father was searching for when he made this request.
IV. The Tigris
Later, we drink tea by the River Tigris and I feel surrounded by ghosts. Even as I Shazam some Kurdish protest music, I can feel my dad and I itching for the same thing. As our group goes to leave, we sneak around the corner of our tea-slash-hookah bar to clamber over damp tufts of grass. We aren’t allowed back here, I complain loudly, my heartbeat racing, as I follow quickly behind him. Says who? The person who is definitely about to shout at us.
My shoes are soaked by the time we reach the reeds that announce the edge of the water. Mesopotamia — Greek for “between rivers” — the birthplace of agriculture, the birthplace of cities, the birthplace of the world I live in. The edge of one of those rivers, now, tantalizingly within reach. We can see it. Neither of us have exactly said what we’re looking for, but I feel it bubbling up in my chest even now: I want to touch it. I want to touch it.
I don’t speak Turkish, so I can’t tell you what the man is shouting. But he is shouting. At that moment, his shouting is kind of beside the point — the river is too low, the bank too high. We’d have to jump into the flowing river to get what we want.
The man is shouting, I say, already calling my dad to come back. How do we know he’s shouting at us? My dad is still eyeing up the riverbank, calculating. It’s fairly straightforward: Because he’s pointing at us and shouting? A beat passes, the shouting continues. It’s too far, dad. He says, maybe, but he comes back with me all the same.
We’re disappointed, but I think I understand: when you accept that everything ends, when you feel the rise and fall of people and places within you, you become a small part of a much larger picture. There is no promised land, no future utopia. Each city falls and another is built in its place.
You have only your own city, your own time, your own moment to live in.
Whether you succeed, or you fail, this city too will fall to ruin. Be released from legacy, be free of the burden of the future or the past. These cities too will become the rubble of other foundations.
You only matter here, now, in your moment, in your time, in your city. Be free, be well, do good. I hold this with me, even now, when it sometimes feels like the end of days.
After our defeat at the Tigris, my dad and I retreat to the city of Diyarbakir, its intimidating walls rising high on the hill it was set on.
Needle Drop: “Keçe Kurdan/Kurt Kizi” by Aynur Doğan
Patriot Front Stickers in Providence
In the immediate days after the inauguration, Patriot Front stickers were spotted on Smith Street near the Capitol. This is consistent with the national trend of emboldened far right gangs acting out in the wake of the new administration.
As always, if you encounter any far right stickers, please cover or remove them. Please do not post pictures on social media of incendiary propaganda. The far right partially relies on the backlash generated by their materials to proliferate through the Internet; sharing images of their materials, even for rage clicks, is still participating in the dissemination of their content. However, we do encourage you to reach out to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Tip Line, Steve Ahlquist [ed: our beloved] and / or our tip line at [email protected] if you do find right-wing ephemera out and about.
News Round-Up: Local
FBI agents raid a building in Providence; a Central Falls judge resigns. What we know. (Katie Mulvaney for The Providence Journal, January 23, 2025)
“If Not for This, I’d Be Freezing to Death” (Thomas Birmingham for The Nation, January 24, 2025)
Johnston elected officials hide behind fire codes and police to prevent access to a public meeting (Steve Ahlquist, January 30, 2025)
The RI House passed a resolution congratulating President Trump. The RI Senate voted theirs down. (Steve Ahlquist, January 31, 2025)
Where We Are Now
A Disease of Affluence (Toby Buckle for Liberal Currents, November 20, 2024)
We failed to stop the rise of fascism. What comes next? (Robert Evans in Shatter Zone, January 20, 2025)
A Brutal Beginning: Orienting Ourselves Amid the Shock and Awe (Kelly Hayes in Organizing My Thoughts, January 21, 2025)
You Do Not Flee a Storm (Margaret Killjoy in Birds Before the Storm, January 22, 2025)
