The Jewish Movement for Uyghur Freedom is an “international and multi-denominational Jewish movement seeking to inspire Jewish communities around the world to take action against the Chinese government’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in the Xinjiang/East Turkestan region.”

I am working closely with the founder of JMUF, Harvard undergraduate Tzofiya Bookstein, who is also a founding member of Embodying Peace, a Student Coordinator of the Human Rights Working Group of Harvard’s Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights (EMR), and the vice-chairman of the Harvard Hillel Tikkun Olam program. Tzofiya lives up to her Hebrew name - the watchman.

At the suggestion of Harvard President Larry Bacow, I approached Mark Elliott, the Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History at Harvard University, where he is Vice Provost for International Affairs. He introduced JMUF’s inaugural event, focusing on Uyghur Poetry.

I have joined the Advisory Board of JMUF, together with Uyghur academics, human rights activists, poets, and a former political prisoner. One specific project I am engaged in is a Jewish/Muslim multi-faith seder dedicated to the situation of the Uyghur.