Kansas City Jewish Anti-War Activists Implore Congressman Cleaver

This week denizens of a local faith community shared their traditions and perspective with Kansas City's senior elected leader. 

We'll link to mainstream coverage further down in this post BUT we think this presser speaks more clearly than any reporter ever could . . . And TKC wanted to post this note if only to reflect the broad diversity of opinion in Kansas City regarding a conflict with global implications.

Check-it . . .  

80 Jews and allies hold Tashlich ritual-action near Rep. Cleaver's Kansas City office to protest Congressman's inaction as Israel’s genocide in Gaza intensifies

Calling for justice for Gaza, Jewish constituents of U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver with Jewish Voice for Peace KC, and allies, held a tashlich ritual-action Wednesday evening across the street from the Congressman’s District Office to demand he co-sponsor the Block the Bombs Act.

Kansas City, MO (September 24, 2025) —More than 80 Jews and allies with Jewish Voice for Peace Kansas City held a Tashlich ritual-action on Wednesday, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, speaking out against the U.S.-backed, Israeli genocide in Gaza happening in their name and calling on U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II to act to block the bombs.

"As a Jew, as an American, and as a human it is my moral responsibility to stand against the genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli government that is being funded with my tax dollars. I am sad and enraged, to still be here in 2025, urging Representative Emanuel Cleaver to do the right thing and stop arming Israel,” says Michael Wolfe, a leader with Jewish Voice for Peace Kansas City.

The group gathered across the street from Cleaver’s Kansas City District Office on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to demand the Congressman divest from death by co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act HR 3565, which would stop transfers of some of the worst weapons - bombs, tank rounds, artillery ammunition - Israel is using to destroy Gaza and attack, starve and displace its people.

Protesters in attendance sang, rallied and tossed oats into Brush Creek to symbolically repent for and release all that makes us complicit in genocide. Tashlich, which means “to cast off,”  is a Jewish ritual performed on the Jewish New Year. 

In this moment of collective and communal atonement, we hold that the U.S. government is responsible for collaborating in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, including the killing of at least 20,000 children. The 3-page Block the Bombs Act is a critical step toward stopping the flow of weapons to Israel, saving lives and resisting the increasingly authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. 

Yet on Labor Day, when organizers with JVP KC spoke with Cleaver on camera and asked him to co-sponsor the legislation, the congressman replied that he hadn’t read the bill and didn’t even know it had been introduced. This was the fourth time JVP KC had spoken with Cleaver or his office about the bill since it was introduced in June. The legislation now has 51 co-sponsors as of Sept. 24, including Rep. Jamie Raskin - a Jewish Member of Congress from Maryland - and most recently Reps. Jill Tokuda, Maxine Dexter, Melanie Stansbury, Teresa Leger Fernandez and Dwight Evans.

For two years, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza in the name of Jewish safety and using our tax dollars as Americans - a genocide confirmed on Sept. 17 by UN investigators. 

For 76 years, the Israeli government has created a state built on illegal occupation, apartheid, and Jewish supremacy. These High Holidays, we pray this new year sees the end of the genocide and ushers in a future of Palestinian freedom.

Jewish Voice for Peace KC invited Cleaver to the Tashlich, though staff said he is in D.C. We left an empty chair for him as a symbol of his absence on the Block the Bombs Act and still urge him to join us, his constituents, in saying, ‘Enough is enough.’  

Jewish Voice for Peace Kansas City is part of a coalition that is fighting Gov. Kehoe and the Missouri legislature’s illegal redrawing of Kansas City’s Congressional district under the direction of the authoritarian Trump regime. This blatant power grab is an unprecedented, unconstitutional scheme to rig Missouri's political system in favor of an elite few; all the more reason that Cleaver should use the power he has today to sign on to legislation that would block the flow of bombs to Israel. 

“The forces that want to throw away our voice and rip apart our communities here in Kansas City are the same ones that want to rip apart Palestinian communities in Gaza,” said Jack Goldstein, an organizer with JVP KC. “In that spirit, Cleaver is our representative in Congress. He can demonstrate that the people of Kansas City are with the people of Gaza and take action in the new year while he still has a chance.”
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Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Rosh Hashanah protest urges Kansas City Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to break with Israel over Gaza war

As part of the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Jews take part in a ritual aimed at casting off the previous year's sins. On Wednesday, an activist group that supports the liberation of Palestinians gathered to urge Democratic U.S. Rep.