During the High Holidays as we contemplate the meaning of being Jewish—individually and collectively—a number of us at Shomrei are involved in supporting immigrants in our community. While we reflect, we face an immense challenge in Montclair and throughout Essex County regarding how to respond to the detention and deportation of our neighbors, people who include a manicurist, a pastry chef, construction workers, and restaurant service workers. (more…)
The brutality at Delaney Detention Center continues. Inhumane conditions include inedible food that has worms, is frozen, or moldy; sleep deprivations; beatings. Extreme medical neglect has resulted in a third man, Jose Chajon-Raxon, from Guatemala, dying at Delaney Hall during the last week of July. The two men who died earlier this year due to medical emergencies are Edwin López Cornejo, age 39, and Jean Wilson Brutus, age 41. Please reflect on these names as you read “Destruction,” a poem written after observing Tisha B’Av at Delaney Hall on July 22, 2026. Included at the poem’s end is a link to a Montclair Local article about the circumstances under which these three men died.
DESTRUCTION
The first time I observe Tisha B’Av is outside thick gray brick
walls of a concentration camp. Some call it Delaney Hall. I call
it savagery. Inside, nine hundred neighbors remain locked
in cages. Voiceless children cry for their parents, their friends,
their beds. Outside, we chant psalms and prayers in Hebrew.
A white van races into Delaney. How many more silenced tonight?
Beneath floodlights and air that chokes, we offer our final prayers.
One by one, we rise. Arm in arm, we walk to the locked metal gates
outside the prison. We sing in Spanish—language of the new diaspora.
We will sing until nine hundred voiceless songs sing free. We will sing
until our voices rise together, we’ll sing down the walls everywhere.
Our voices their mourning.
Our voices their weapon.
Ours is their Tisha B’Av.
Judith L Antelman, July 2026
Read the article from the Montclair times: Third Person Detained At Delaney Hall Dies, DHS Confirms
We joined well over 100 people including Shomrei members Sarah Cortez and Greg Charak, in observing Tisha B’Av services outside Delaney Hall, the Newark prison operated by ICE to detain immigrants—in most cases illegally. The observance was sponsored by synagogues throughout Essex, Bergen, and Hudson Counties. We gathered on a cool summer night to stand for people from other communities who now endure their own tragedy, and are thus prohibited from standing and gathering with their communities and families. (more…)
We gathered to write Passover poems for our Haggadot. Two writing prompts were given. We wrote and read our poems aloud. And in the space of an hour, we shared verse, memories, even some tears. (more…)
editor’s note: on the evening of Dec 29, 2019, the wider Jewish community including area synagogues and Chabad of Montclair, as well as interfaith allies gathered for the lighting of the communal Hanukkiah as an act of solidarity in light of recent attacks on Jews.
RESILIENCE
By Judith Antelman
on a corner in December
in the cold in the rain
we light one candle
we remember
with community & family
with strangers & friends (more…)
