By Elizabeth Mehler
Boston University News Service
On Feb. 21, fifth-grade students from Boston Workers Circle teamed up with activist organizations, Families for Justice as Healing and T’ruah, to rally at the Mass. State House in support of a five-year prison and jail moratorium.
Bill HD.523, titled ‘An Act Establishing a Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium,’ would impose a five-year halt on the construction of new prisons and jails in Massachusetts if passed.
Boston Workers Circle Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice has Shule, a jewish cultural Sunday school for children. Every year, the fifth-grade Shule class partners with other activist organizations to protest an issue, inspired by the history of Jewish immigrants who organized mutual aid and advocated for the needs of the most vulnerable.
This year, Boston Workers Circle partnered with Families for Justice as Healing, an advocacy group working to end the incarceration of women and girls in Massachusetts. It also collaborated with T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, a religious organization dedicated to advancing the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality and justice.
With more than 40 people in attendance, students, families and supporters led chants, speeches and a student play to demonstrate their support of the bill.
Boston Workers Circle students said in their Sunday classes leading up to the rally they learned about solidarity, mutual aid and the Jewish concept ‘tikkun olam,’ that encourages people to make the world a better place.
10-year-old Boston Workers Circle student and class spokesperson Fiona Hertzberg said the bill is important because incarceration can have a negative effect on people.
“I think that it’s important because I don’t like prisons. I think they kind of destroy the world and when people go to prisons, they feel thrown away, or kind of discarded,” Hertzberg said.
10-year-old Boston Workers Circle class spokesperson Charlotte Deutchman said she hopes this rally sends a message to the community that there are options other than prison.
“We want them to understand that it’s not going to help people just to put them in prison. We can help them in other ways and use the money on other things,” Deutchman said.
10-year-old Boston Workers Circle class spokesperson Lucy Ruvenstein agreed with this sentiment.
“We want them to use money for better things, like making more houses for lower prices,” Ruvenstein said.
Micheala Caplan, a member of T’ruah, said the bill will demonstrate how grassroot work has a more positive impact on the community than incarceration.
“Where we put our money is what we prioritize as a Commonwealth, and so we think that a five year pause in new prison construction can allow the grassroots work our partners are doing in their own communities to address through positive incarceration,” Caplan said. “Five years will let the results of that work come to light.”
Caplan also said that the student involvement in the rally demonstrates the continuous cycle of incarceration.
“I think it goes to show that this issue affects everyone,” Caplain said. “It really means that we’re expecting people who are children today to become incarcerated tomorrow. So these kids are talking about breaking that cycle.”
Maggie Tang, the parent of a Boston Workers Circle student, said that involving children in the rally teaches them how to use their voice.
“I think by bringing them here, they’re learning a certain way to make change in the world and use their voices for good,” Tang said.
Angie Jefferson, formerly incarcerated for 31 years, spoke at the rally about her experience.
“There’s a lot of women in [prison] that don’t have any type of support. That’s why, when I came home, I said, ‘this is going to be a mission of mine. I am going to be the support for them’,” Jefferson said. “ I know that we’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go, and with all of us together in this fight…we are going to get it done.”
11-year-old Boston Workers Circle class spokesperson Maya Belding said this rally is about promoting the values they’ve learned about in class.
Belding said: “We learned about tikkun olam, which means to make the world a better place, and that’s what we’re trying to do here today.”
