Jewish fast for Gaza will begin on Westminster Bridge to mark holy day of Yom Kippur

Jewish peace campaigners have been preparing a Fast for Gaza for the 2025 holy day of Yom Kippur. This will begin on Westminster Bridge tonight at 6pm and then move to gather outside parliament.

A Yom Kippur act of solidarity

As the Canary previously reported, Jewish Peaceniks UK wanted to express their “horror and outrage” over Israel’s genocide in Gaza with a public fast on Yom Kippur, which is an opportunity to “reflect on the past year” and “put things right”. The day of atonement is “the most sacred and solemn day in the Jewish calendar”.

The older Jewish women of conscience from Jewish Peaceniks have planned the event together with Jewish Anti Zionist Action – a cross-generational group of Jewish people. And they’ve called on other Jewish people to join them. They have already assembled:

a cross section of Jewish men and women, many of whom are descendants of Holocaust survivors deeply disturbed at the horrific irony of a genocide being perpetrated ‘in our name’ by a Jewish state.

In a statement, they explained what will happen, saying:

At dusk, a large gathering of Jews will line up on Westminster bridge to symbolically cast Israel’s sins of genocide into the Thames. They will then process to the location for the fast, in front of Parliament. The lighting of memorial candles at 6.30 pm will mark the beginning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish Calendar when we fast for 25 hours and consider our misdeeds over the past year. This will be followed by the cantorial chanting of the opening Hebrew prayers followed by a silent vigil.

They added:

Israel is currently committing the grotesque misdeed of starving an entire population. We are therefore dedicating our fast on this Yom Kippur to the starving population of Gaza.

Through their action, they explained, they hope to:

draw attention to the powerful and growing Jewish opposition to the actions of a Jewish state against the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand immediate action: stop the enforced starvation of Gaza, stop the genocide.

A growing movement of Jewish people saying ‘not in our name!’

The fast will continue on 2 October and “some people will be staying overnight”. As Carolyn Gelenter, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said:

We will be doing our own version of the Yom Kippur Day of Atonement service, including something called a Tashlich, where we name our sins over the year and cast breadcrumbs into a body of water (the Thames) from Westminster Bridge before moving outside parliament.

She insisted that:

Many Jews coming to this event have foregone going to synagogue in order to show their opposition to Israel’s genocide on this most auspicious of Jewish holy days.

And she added:

There is a growing movement of Jews who will attend synagogue dressed in black instead of white to show their opposition to what’s happening in Gaza.

She also asserted:

we, as anti-Zionist Jews, are extremely distressed about the genocide being committed in our name. We are also concerned about the rise in real anti-semitism as a result of the conflation of Judaism and Zionism and by publicising this event you can show that there is no one kind of Jew and that many of us do not support Zionism or Israel’s actions.

During Israel’s genocide, and before, countless Jewish voices around the world have also insisted on a religious duty to fight for peace and oppose the apartheid state’s crimes against the Palestinian people. This includes some voices inside Israel itself.