Supplied with crayons, a megaphone, and hand-painted cardboard signs, close to a dozen fifth graders formed a picket line in front of the State House Sunday, Feb. 23, in support of a five-year jail moratorium.
“Hey hey, ho ho, building prisons has got to go!” the young protesters chanted on top of the State House steps. Their parents and teachers proudly filmed them.
The young activists are the fifth-grade class of the Boston Workers Circle Center for Culture and Social Justice, a progressive Jewish nonprofit community organization.
The protest is a collaboration between BWC, T’ruah, a rabbinic social justice organization, and Families for Justice as Healing, an abolitionist movement that advocates for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Alongside the protest on Sunday, the groups have been working with local representatives to pass a bill to stop the construction of prisons for five years in Massachusetts, specifically focusing on state plans to build a new $50 million women’s prison.
“We want to make sure that people have equal rights and that they’re treated well,” fifth-grader Fiona Hertzberg said to The Beacon.
The social justice organization was founded in the early 20th century by Jewish immigrants who combined their secular socialist ideologies with Jewish values of compassion and social justice. For the past 20 years, the organization has been teaching students about labor movements, civil rights, and feminist values, and how they intersect with Jewish values.
“[Values like] Tshuva—the ability of people to return to the best part of themselves—[are important] and that’s something that happens in community, not in isolation and punishment,” said Michaela Caplan, a senior organizer in T’ruah.
Throughout the academic year, the fifth graders meet with community members and advocacy groups to learn about the yearly chosen topic. This year, their class met with Mallory Hanora, a co-director of Families for Justice as Healing and an Emerson alum.
“When I came to have a conversation with the kids I asked what it is that keeps communities safe and healthy. Zero children answered ‘jail or prison,’” she said to The Beacon. “One amazing kid answered ‘glasses,’ recognizing that his whole family wears glasses … For me, this was about health care.”
The children formed a line on the State House steps and rallied the crowd with chants and speeches that advocated for community healing over punishment. At one point, the young demonstrators performed a short play on things that are “better to invest in” over prisons.
In the play, they interacted with the audience and asked, “Is this what we want?” pointing at a cardboard image of a prison. The crowd shouted in disapproval. The fifth-graders then held hand-painted signs that covered topics ranging from mutual aid to increased jobs, and healthcare. After asking the question again, the small crowd of parents and teachers roared in agreement.
“We learned about how unfair people are being treated and we talked about what the community needs and what [is being done],” fifth-grader Lucy Rubenstein said to the Beacon.
Another young student, Charlotte Deotchman, explained the connection between social justice and Judaism.
“Jews have been treated unfairly in the past, and we don’t want anyone to be treated unfairly too,” she said.
Hanora said the effort to pass the moratorium will reduce the prison population and encourage community healing.
“My kid asked why we put people in cages,” Hanora said. “We can listen to children about what keeps us safe, and be focused on making those investments, rather than expanding our criminal punishment system.”
