At MIT, students, including many Jewish students, have set up tents and a camp outside Kresge Auditorium, declaring they will remain until MIT divest of investments in support of Israel.
After the arrest of over 100 student protesters at Columbia University, in mid-April, campuses across America have been disrupted by a wave of pro-Palestinan supporters demanding a cease-fire and calling on their schools to divest from any companies with ties to Israel. The protests have disrupted campus life for many, especially Jewish students, who have expressed both concern and fear over a rapidly spreading tide of anti-semitism. However, at MIT, one of the many colleges whose students have joined in solidarity with their peers at other schools, the protesters are a combination of Palestinian and Jewish students, many of the latter calling for a cease fire and expressing anger over the civilian casualties in Gaza.
MIT students, like students at other Boston area schools, including Emerson and Tufts, have set up tents and a camp in the middle of campus, refusing to leave until their demands for divesting are met.
MIT’s protests coincided with Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Israeilites deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Among the most important concepts in the Passover ceremony is responsibility: because Jews understand what it means to be oppressed, they are responsible for being empathetic and concerned with the rights of others – strangers, the homeless, the impoverished, and at MIT the Palestinians in Gaza.
In that spirit, the coalition of protesting students – Palestinian, Jewish, Black, white – held a Seder – blessings, stories, songs and food – telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt.
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Edward Boches
Edward Boches is a Boston and Cape Cod - based documentary photographer.
Interested in how photography can connect us, help us understand each other, and inspire empathy, Boches has photographed such diverse communities as inner-city boxers, former gang members, Black Lives Matter activists, transgender men and women, pro-life and pro-choice advocates, shellfishermen, and homeless writers. He makes it a point to meet and photograph at least one stranger every day.
His work has shown in museums and galleries that include the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester; the Bronx Documentary Center in New York City; the Cambridge Association for the Arts; the Plymouth Center for the Arts; the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont; the Providence Center for the Photographic Arts; and in Boston at both the Bromfield Gallery (online) and Panopticon Gallery.
Boches’s work has also been distributed internationally by the Associated Press and has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Sun Magazine, Zeke Magazine and the Provincetown Independent, where he is a regular contributor.
In 2021 and 2022, he received multiple grants for public art installations for his community based project Postcards from Allston. The project advocates for small businesses, raises money for local arts initiatives, and calls attention to how gentrification disrupts communities and affects the artists who reside there.
MIT Jews for Ceasefire and other pro-Palestinian protesters gather to mark the second night of Passover with a Community Seder at the MIT Scientists Against Genocide Encampment. Students shared Passover rituals, songs, and prayers and joined together in community to understand how Jewish values inform and compel Jewish participation in the fight against both Israel’s genocide and the fight against all forms of oppression.
MIT Jews for Ceasefire and other pro-Palestinian protesters gather to mark the second night of Passover with a Community Seder at the MIT Scientists Against Genocide Encampment. Students shared Passover rituals, songs, and prayers and joined together in community to understand how Jewish values inform and compel Jewish participation in the fight against both Israel’s genocide and the fight against all forms of oppression.
After the arrest of over 100 student protesters at Columbia University, in mid-April, campuses across America have been disrupted by a wave of pro-Palestinan supporters demanding a cease-fire and calling on their schools to divest from any companies with ties to Israel. The protests have disrupted campus life for many, especially Jewish students, who have expressed both concern and fear over a rapidly spreading tide of anti-semitism. However, at MIT, one of the many colleges whose students have joined in solidarity with their peers at other schools, the protesters are a combination of Palestinian and Jewish students, many of the latter calling for a cease fire and expressing anger over the civilian casualties in Gaza.
MIT students, like students at other Boston area schools, including Emerson and Tufts, have set up tents and a camp in the middle of campus, refusing to leave until their demands for divesting are met.
MIT’s protests coincided with Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Israeilites deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Among the most important concepts in the Passover ceremony is responsibility: because Jews understand what it means to be oppressed, they are responsible for being empathetic and concerned with the rights of others – strangers, the homeless, the impoverished, and at MIT the Palestinians in Gaza.
In that spirit, the coalition of protesting students – Palestinian, Jewish, Black, white – held a Seder – blessings, stories, songs and food – telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt.
Edward Boches is a Boston and Cape Cod - based documentary photographer.
Interested in how photography can connect us, help us understand each other, and inspire empathy, Boches has photographed such diverse communities as inner-city boxers, former gang members, Black Lives Matter activists, transgender men and women, pro-life and pro-choice advocates, shellfishermen, and homeless writers. He makes it a point to meet and photograph at least one stranger every day.
His work has shown in museums and galleries that include the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester; the Bronx Documentary Center in New York City; the Cambridge Association for the Arts; the Plymouth Center for the Arts; the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont; the Providence Center for the Photographic Arts; and in Boston at both the Bromfield Gallery (online) and Panopticon Gallery.
Boches’s work has also been distributed internationally by the Associated Press and has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Sun Magazine, Zeke Magazine and the Provincetown Independent, where he is a regular contributor.
In 2021 and 2022, he received multiple grants for public art installations for his community based project Postcards from Allston. The project advocates for small businesses, raises money for local arts initiatives, and calls attention to how gentrification disrupts communities and affects the artists who reside there.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
At MIT, students, including many Jewish students, have set up tents and a camp outside Kresge Auditorium, declaring they will remain until MIT divest of investments in support of Israel.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
The reflection of a passerby and student tents in the windows of a building on the MIT campus. Students have set up camp in the middle of campus, not far from the Hillel Center for Jewish students. Jewish students have expressed concern for their safety despite the peaceful protests.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A student wearing a keffiyeh does homework from her tent on the MIT campus.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A student wearing a tallit and yarmulke prepares the seder table.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A marshall wearing an orange vest talks with protestors. MIT police have so far left students alone. Student marshalls, however, along with legal observers, remain on site to offer protection and document any illegal treatment of protestors.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
Two students behind a Palestinian flag watch the start of the Passover ceremony.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A student carries a flag through the camp.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A clergyman and a student share a conversation about the protests. While reaction from many corners has been critical of students, the protests at MIT have attracted a diverse group – students of all faiths, faculty, clergy, media and other supporting parties.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A sign outside one of the tents at the MIT camp.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A reporter from the Boston Globe (left) holds a Haggadah, the traditional book that includes the order of the seder, stories, explanations, blessings and songs for the Passover celebration. This Haggadah was written to include references to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A student prepares afikoman, is a substitute for the Passover sacrifice; the afikoman is the last thing eaten at the Passover meal.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
Why is tonight different from all other nights is the question asked by the youngest at the seder table. At this seder, the question took on new meaning as students expressed concerns for those suffering in Gaza.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
Given so many non Jews at this seder, the Haggadah, written by arrested Jewish students and Barnard and Columbia, explained much of the tradition to those unfamiliar with it.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
Students hosts begin the Passover ceremony.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A student explains the symbolism of the Passover food: A roasted shank bone, or in this case a beet (same color as blood) represents the Pescah sacrifice, an egg represents spring and the circle of life, bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery, haroset (an applesauce-like mixture with wine, nuts, apples, etc.) represents the mortar used by slaves to build buildings.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
Standing room only on the second night of Passover at MIT student protestors campsite.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A Palestinian flag adorns a vase of roses. In the background a student takes time to attend to school work.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States
A lone student sits behind barriers set up by the MIT police. Initially the barriers were erected to keep Harvard students from joining their MIT comrades. But it appears anyone is free to come or go whether part of the MIT community or not.
Edward Boches | A Gaza Liberation Seder at MIT | United States