I am Jewish, and I love being Jewish. As a Jewish person, I believe deeply in Palestinian liberation, in safety through solidarity, and that I cannot be free and safe unless Palestinians are free and safe. None of us is free until all of us are free.
As Emily Gorcenski taught me: If you can’t be safe, be powerful.
We build power through community organizing and collective action.
I am deeply grateful to each of you who are out there organizing each other in the midst of many current crises, and building power together through collective action. Protests. Petitions. Encampments. Thank you.
As a Jewish person, as a college professor, as an antifascist community organizer, I’ve been asking myself, how can I contribute? What is my role right now, this summer, in our collective process of building power for liberation?
As Veronica Fitzhugh taught me: Bring your best gifts to the struggle.
I wrote a note on my fridge years ago with a list of my best gifts: Writing, teaching, organizing, dancing. I included research on the list because I was applying to jobs that included research, and I got one (as a psychology professor) and, just this year, got approved for tenure and promotion (effective July 1). I’m now shifting out of years on the tenure track, shifting into “what’s next?” – thinking about how I can regroup my energy, my gifts, to bring to the current struggle.
I’m straddled across two communities, in Boston and Charlottesville, and being part time in each restricts me from getting deeply involved in local community organizing. So, I want to offer myself as a resource to others, in my communities and elsewhere, whether you feel brand new to organizing or if you’ve been in it for a while and could use a boost!
I’m open to a variety of formats: individual conversations; informal group conversations; ask-me-anythings; work sessions with a specific organizing team with specific goals and decision-making processes; teach-ins; educational workshops to share knowledge and skills that folks can use in their own ways in their own organizing; etc.
Here are some things I’d be interested in connecting around. If there are other conversations you’d like to have with me, please let me know!
- Bringing more people into our movements! Strategies for welcoming folks, bringing people in, getting them connected, building teams and networks of people taking on roles and taking action together. Building out team structures, fostering relationships, sharing responsibilities, communicating…
- Activist coalition building, navigating inter-activist tensions, relational cultures, group agreements, and unity principles
- Media strategy, messaging, and storytelling
- Campaign structure, infrastructure, strategy, and tactics
- Protest health, safety, strategy, and tactics (singing!)
- Morale, mental health, self-care, and community care (dancing!)
- Leadership! How does taking on leadership feel for you? What does leadership even mean within broad mass movements for liberation? Do you wonder how you even became a leader in the first place? Do you feel isolated, worried, criticized? Do you feel frantic about how much you’re trying to get done? Do you yearn for better support and accountability structures?
- Antifascism, antifascist praxis, debunking fascist lies, and the interconnectedness of liberation struggles
- Antisemitism, the false weaponization of antisemitism, resisting antisemitism through and in solidarity with Palestinians, what does the U.S. have to do with Israel, and how is all of this connected to Christian Zionism…
- Organizing Jewish solidarity with Palestinians, and organizing white folks against racism
- Sex ed, gender, sexuality, consent, sexual violence prevention and response
- You tell me! How can I help?
You can email me at marbeit (at) suffolk (dot) edu – or if you have my number feel free to reach out directly. I have limited capacity, as we all do, of course, so I will update and adapt this offer as needed depending on how the summer goes.
Solidarity and love. So much love.
