Category: Events

During the season of holy days of Jewish Passover, Christian Holy Week, and upcoming Muslim Ramadan and Buddhist Hanamatsuri;
we invite your presence virtually to pray with us for the closing of the first ten detention centers.

Interwoven with music and prayers, we will have testimonies from immigrants who experienced detention and faith leaders from some of the ten sites we are pushing to close.

Together we call for the liberation of those still held captive.

We invite the national interfaith community and all those impacted by our immigration and incarceration systems to come together as we deliver this message from the faith community to President Biden and his administration.

This event was organized by:

• Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
• American Friends Service Committee
• Church World Service
• Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
• Detention Watch Network

Have You Signed the Faith Letter for Liberation?
National Faith Letter urging Congress and the Biden administration to end the contracts and close the first ten (#FirstTen) detention centers. This would move our nation in the direction towards humane treatment and effective community alternatives to detention.
FAITH LETTER HERE

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=774526533444109

March 19, 2021

This month, we celebrate both International Women’s Day and Pesach (Passover).

Join us to hear testimonies from women impacted by the systems of prison and immigration detention, as women are the largest growing incarcerated population.

Come listen to a retelling of the freedom-from-bondage message of Passover and the roles women play in liberation interpreted by Rabbi Katie Mizrahi and Rabbi Mychal Copeland.

Join us to learn how you can be take part in advocacy and action to support immigrants and free others who are not yet free. None of us are free until all of us are free.
Let us work together to build a society that upholds equity, fairness, and justice.

It is our hope that Gabby Solano (pictured above) will be able to speak with us in person at the vigil. In just two weeks, Gabby, a 48-year old immigrant and domestic violence survivor, is scheduled to be released from the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, CA after serving a 20 years and earning a commutation and parole. Her family is waiting to welcome her home. Unfortunately, ICE has placed a hold on Gabby and is seeking to send her to ICE detention and deport her to Mexico, a country she left as a baby. Please take action to ask Governor Newsom to use his power to protect immigrant survivors and not allow CDCR to transfer her to ICE custody. To take action, see: bit.ly/FreeGabbyToolkit

Co-hosts of this month’s vigil:

• Or Shalom Jewish Community
• Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
• Young Women’s Freedom Center
• California Coalition of Women Prisoners
• Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

Join us on Feb 12th, for our interfaith vigil, Reparations as a Spiritual Practice. We will reflect on the Japanese American experience of seeking and achieving reparations. Together we will uplift the call for reparations for other communities, including Indigenous and African Americans.
Our monthly interfaith vigil honors the Japanese American Day of Remembrance. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced removal and incarceration of some 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast. 
Thirty years after the closing of the camps, Japanese Americans launched a campaign calling for the redress for restitution, which resulted in a financial compensation of $20,000 per person, an apology by Congress acknowledging the wrong, and funds to establish an educational trust fund.
Join us in honoring Japanese American Day of Remembrance and the larger call for reparations for other communities!

Speakers include: Reverend Deborah Lee, Reverend Grace Suzuki, Jeff Matsuoka, Coke Tani. Satsuki Ina, Riki Eijima, Chizu Omori, Joyce Nakamura, Julie Yumi Hatta, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Reverend Myrna Bernadel-Huey. Music provided by: Francis Wong

Co-hosted by: Buena Vista United Methodist Church, Pine United Methodist Church, Berkeley Buddhist Temple, San Francisco Bay Area Day of Remembrance Committee, Sycamore Congregational Church, Tsuru for Solidarity.