By Ronda Cooperstein, Co-Coordinator of the WBW Baltimore Chapter, September 25, 2025

The newly formed Baltimore Chapter of World BEYOND War has been very busy these past months, focusing on the genocide and ethnic cleansing taking place in the West Bank and Gaza.

We regularly visit the Baltimore office of Congressman Johnny Olszewski, Foreign Affairs Committee, to lobby for him to support House Bill 3565 to block the bombs to Israel. We regularly email and deliver in person evidence of the daily crimes being committed with U.S. weapons and our tax dollars. We have, to date, succeeded in having him draft two letters to the State Department, one about the emergency need for humanitarian aid to Gaza and the other about the ongoing assassinations of journalists. We are in the process of lobbying hard for an in-person meeting with him to discuss the West Bank and Gaza. Because he is on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we will continue to pressure him on a regular basis, and have actively and successfully encouraged other constituents to do so as well.

Every week, at the corners of Park Heights and Slade Avenue, next to two major synagogues, we hold a vigil and information sharing event. We are often accosted by hostile supporters of Israel’s war against Palestinians but remain steadfast and are able to reach out to members of the Jewish and black communities with some success. As a Jewish woman who lives in this neighborhood, I feel strongly that sharing the message of World BEYOND War in this area is necessary. We have between 8 and 20 attendees on the corner each week.

On September 16th, we hosted an educational event featuring a community member just back from a West Bank trip with the International Solidarity Movement. Protective presence is needed now more than ever as the oppression of Palestinians becomes more and more unbearable. We will encourage local activists to join a protective presence trip by sharing the information provided to us.

On October 27th, we will be hosting the Israeli American scholar, Omer Bartov. He will be speaking at a private event we organized with local rabbis and will be speaking that evening at the North Baltimore Mennonite Church.

Meanwhile, we continue to work on bringing more members into our chapter.

For more information, please contact WBW.Baltimore@proton.me.

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