Jewish League for Peace-Lehigh Valley to hold event for Palestine at Bethlehem Rose Garden

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Members of Jewish League for Peace-Lehigh Valley will come together Saturday will allies across the region to hold a sunset ritual for Palestine.

The organization has announced it will hold a sunset Havdalah ritual, a transition from the rest of Shabbat to the work of liberation, at 7:15 p.m. May 31 in Bethlehem Rose Garden.

Havdalah serves as a ritual ceremony that marks the end of the Sabbath and the separation of the sacred and profane, using all the senses in the practice.

Participants bring an item — such as baby formula, medicine or an olive — which symbolizes the loss and struggles currently going on in Gaza, with a commitment to transform the collective grief into action.

Each person then places their item on a vigil table and gather around to share their stories, and discuss the transition from grief to action.

Members of JVP-Lehigh Valley will lead the group in songs of peace and liberation, read poems, recite prayers and proceed in a candlelight vigil around the garden.

Lehigh Valley residents are encouraged to congregate and grieve over the actions of the Israeli military within Gaza.

'An extraordinary opportunity'

The JLP-Lehigh Valley has stated the event is a call to action, as “the United States and Israeli governments, arm-in-arm, show through their policies that they deem Palestinian lives as disposable."

The group asserts that even defenders of Israel are becoming wary of support for the nation’s actions.

“We gather together tonight because in the face of such overwhelming loss and such heartless inaction from those in power, grief can become paralyzing," JVP-Lehigh Valley organizer Jeremy Zallen said.

"But sharing our grief together, mourning together, can give us the strength to recommit, to never give up, to move from grief to action, because until Palestinians are safe, no one is safe, until Palestine is free, nowhere is free.”