Illustration by Meghan Sim

On Oct. 17, the U.S.-backed Israeli military bombed the U.N.-affiliated Abu Hussein school located in Northern Gaza’s Jabalia, killing 28 Palestinians, many of them children. This was a targeted attack and not an isolated incident, as 85% of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. In Gaza, there are no universities left standing. The systematic targeting of schools and shelters is part of broader campaigns of scholasticide and genocide. As students at an American based university, we have an obligation to call out and dismantle our institution’s complicity in genocidal weapons manufacturing and ties with the U.S.-Israeli war machine.

Israel’s systematic eradication of education does not stop Palestinians from continuing to care for and learn from each other; from the rich educational pursuits of the Palestinian refugee camps after the 1948 Nakba, to the widespread popular education of the Intifada, or the Palestinian schoolteachers who continue to hold classes amid ongoing terror.

Our education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a privilege, something that should never be taken for granted. Understanding this privilege means understanding how the school is funded by the atrocities of the US-Israeli war machine. The Crown family, blood-stained donors to (S)AIC, accumulate their wealth from their partial ownership of General Dynamics, a weapons manufacturing company which directly profits off of genocide by selling the 2,000 pound bombs used frequently by the Israeli military to bomb Gaza, among other weapons and surveillance technology. SAIC is also investing our endowment back into General Dynamics, and a Crown family member sits on both our museum’s Board of Trustees and our school’s Board of Governors.

As students and artists who value accountability, empathy, and equity, we must demand justice. We must refuse to complacently benefit from enrollment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago without challenging the structures and institutions that make us complicit in apartheid, occupation, and genocide. We must build communities on our campus that pursue radical education and institutional accountability on students’ terms.

On Sept. 13, we, SAIC’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, held our first community Shabbat. As a ritual of rest, Shabbat allows us to reflect and to renew our commitment to each other and the world around us.

In Maggie Daley park, sitting around picnic blankets filled with new and old friends, Jews and non-Jews alike congregated to reflect on the violent present and share our dreams of  a safer future: olam haba, the world to come. As the sun set, we lit the Shabbat candles and blessed the challah, our hands extending in a chain around the group so that each one of us was physically connected. In a time where, rest, relaxation, and the presence of community are immense privileges, our gratitude for moments like these deeply moves us to act, to struggle toward an olam haba for all people.

Our Judaism fuels our collective grieving, educating, and organizing. Many of us are descendants of people who survived genocide, ethnic cleansing, and persecution for their identities. Our ancestors instilled in us a vital teaching: that to be silent in the face of oppression is to be complicit, and we as Jewish people must actively combat complicity in genocide.

We raise our voices to remind our community that it is not just the U.S. government that funds and benefits from war crimes against Palestinians, it is also our own institution. Furthermore, SAIC is not only complicit in violence globally, but also against its own students — last May, dozens of students were arrested, brutalized, and injured, some hospitalized, by police called and authorized by our own institution. We loudly call for the Art Institute of Chicago and SAIC to disclose and divest: divest from the U.S.-Israeli war machine, divest from the Crown family, divest from weapons manufacturing, divest from companies and donors that fund and profit from apartheid and genocide.

As JVP SAIC, we hope to create a space where Judaism can flourish beyond Zionism, where we embrace the diasporic, multicultural, and rich traditions that embody our Judaism and our values. We hope to combat the institutional narrative conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, which undermines and reduces our Jewish identities. We hope to join and grow a network of solidarity and action within our community.

We are calling out to our campus community to join us in raising the volume of our advocacy in any way possible. In your classes and studios, make art that challenges the status quo, art that strives for liberation. At your workplace and in your free time, take risks that may activate, educate, and inspire others to take a stand. Right now, send an email to our president and provost demanding divestment. From this point on, give this and any struggle against oppression your time, energy, and dedication.

Join us in imagining and creating a better world together.

For more information on our future events or to get involved, find us on Instagram, @jvpsaic.