Hari Nef knew that she might be arrested when she showed up to protest outside the offices of New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand on Monday, April 13. “[Activist and whistleblower] Chelsea Manning hit me up about the action,” the model and actor says. “I actually heard that she didn’t expect me to join, much less put my body on the line and get arrested together. Now we’re sisters for life.”
Both Nef and Manning were part of a group of nearly 200 (actor Hannah Einbinder and author Molly Crabapple were also on hand) mobilized by a handful of organizations, including Jewish Elders for Palestinian Freedom and Jewish Voice for Peace. Wearing T-shirts that declared “Fund People Not Bombs,” their message to the New York lawmakers was to join other Democrats in opposing the sale of American weapons to Israel. Measures on this issue, led by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, have attracted growing Democratic support but not yet the votes of Schumer or Gillibrand. “This was a protest that aimed to send a message to vote against Trump’s intention to send $450 million worth of bombs in the immediate future to Israel for its continued war on Lebanon, war on Iran, and the genocide that is being carried out in Gaza,” Nef says. By the end of the afternoon, about half of the protesters were arrested by the NYPD.
While there, Nef, Einbinder, and Crabapple all “compared notes on our evolving relationship with Judaism and Jewish culture in the wake of October 7th,” says Nef. “I am Jewish. I was raised Jewish. I’m proud of my Jewish culture. I’m proud of my Jewish heritage. I am not a Zionist, and I oppose the settler-colonial project of Israel, the way it’s being carried out.”
Once it was established that the group wasn’t moving—and police intervention would be required—the reactions ranged. Nef said some people “went limp” and had to be carried out, but in general the sit-in fell in line with the history of peaceful protest.
“I was really on edge the day of,” Nef says. “But when we were sitting in the street and the automated voice came over to the intercom saying we would be arrested for disorderly conduct, I suddenly felt calm. I was surrounded by so many people who were willing to be arrested for the cause. I gained bravery from not only knowing but also seeing that I wasn’t alone.”
After being put in handcuffs, Nef says she spent around four hours in jail before she made bond and was released. She has a court date later this month. All in all, it was worth it, she says, though she acknowledges it’s a privilege to feel that way.
“What I participated in on Monday makes more sense to me and has given me a greater sense of agency than anything I’ve done all year,” she says, adding that she hopes anybody who is a citizen will consider joining in acts of peaceful protest. “I wasn’t protesting because I feel guilty as an American Jew. I did this because of what I know politically, what I’ve learned historically, and what I feel emotionally. I’m protesting because it’s what I believe is right, and it’s bigger than my Jewish identity.”
On Wednesday, the Senate voted on a Democratic proposal to block the continued war in Iran, which went down on party lines. (Only Senator John Fetterman joined the Republicans in voting against.) Next up was Sanders’s latest measure on the sale of arms to Israel, S.J. Res 32. In the end, 11 Democratic senators voted against, including Schumer and Gillibrand, and the measure failed.
A spokesperson for Schumer told Vogue: “Senator Schumer has made it clear: Trump’s reckless war against Iran is a disaster that needs to end immediately. The senator has led the charge to make the Senate vote four times on a war-powers resolution to stop this war, which the Republicans have blocked each and every time.” Gillibrand’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Both Jewish Voice for Peace and Nef have their sights set on the future. “It is becoming increasingly impossible for Congress to ignore our voices,” says Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voices for Peace. “There will be more votes to block weapons in the future, and we will continue to organize our mass base behind each of these, while also pushing for broader legislative vehicles to block weapons like the Block the Bombs Act in the House of Representatives.”
Nef is a bit more straightforward: “Take it to the street.”
