During their first semester as a student at the university, music education major Benjamin Kronenberg walked past the Taylor Hall parking lot, the site where four students lost their lives, every single morning on the way out of their dorm room to class. Every time they opened their dorm room window they saw the peace-sign rocks on Blanket Hill. All reminders of the price student activists paid in the face of state violence in 1970. 

Today, Kronenberg is at the center of grassroots weekly protests in support of the liberation of Palestine, which they say are inspired by the spirits of those who came before them. 

Every Friday at 5 p.m., Kronenberg, a co-organizer of the protests, along with other activists, bring signs to the gazebo in downtown Kent, where they protest for a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war against Palestinians in Gaza.

In the few weeks since the protests began with only a few people, Kronenberg said their numbers have already reached over twenty. 

The protest’s inception came at the United Church of Christ (Kent UCC), where Kronenberg is a section-leader in the church’s choir. Though they are Jewish, they said the church is home to many people of different faiths. 

They, along with a colleague, Jennifer Case, decided to plan the protest after they noticed the inaction of Kent UCC, which has historically taken a stand on humanitarian issues. In a protest during church, Kronenberg stood during a choir song wearing a shirt with the words, “Not in Our Name, Jews Say Ceasefire Now,” on it. 

Case, who is in the process of obtaining a theology degree, said their demonstration “began” her own action. 

“A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to preach at my church, and I asked why we aren’t in the streets holding Palestinians just as precious as Israelis,” she said. “There are thousands of innocent Palestinians being murdered by the Israeli army every single week.”

After, Case and Kronenberg worked together to organize the weekly protest, which is interfaith and attended by people from all walks of life demanding a ceasefire. 

“We are committed to resisting in peace for peace,” Case said. “This demonstration is led by a Jew and a Christian, and last week we had a Palestinian-American woman and her baby join us. We seek to be on the right side of history.”

Kronenberg said their faith, and their “Jewishness” is what has always motivated them and informed their activism. 

“I was raised with Jewish values, and I was raised to stick up for others and support others,” they said. “It’s always never again about the Shoah. If not us, who, if not now, when? And I’ve always considered my family and the people who share our culture to be some of the most progressively-minded people because it’s simply in our values.” 

Kronenberg said they consider the Israeli government’s actions to be genocidal.

In November 2023, a month after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the beginning of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the United Nations called for a ceasefire to “prevent the possibility of genocide.” Their calls were not met. 

In January, South Africa launched a case at the United Nations’ highest court arguing that Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel has refuted these allegations.  

“I think we all realize this is so much bigger than us, and when we say ‘never again,’ about the holocaust, about the Shoah, we mean that about any genocide, truly, and this is a genocide,” Kronenberg said. “And we stand up for our cousins who are going through something we went through too.”

They said the similarities between Judaism and Islam are something many ignore, and that these similarities are part of why so many Jews across the country stand in solidarity with Palestinians. 

“I consider the Palestinians, all Muslims, to be my cousins,” they said. “These are people who share so much with me culturally. I feel our cultures align, and our beliefs align so much. I think it is because of this similarity, along with our values, that cause us to speak up. And I think that’s why we see so many anti-Zionist Jews being unafraid to speak up about this.”

Kronenberg said they wish more people realized how this issue affects everyday Americans. 

“We’re all involved because our taxes go to this,” they said. “The United States is 100 percent complicit in this. Israel would not be able to do it alone fully, to the extent that they are doing it, without the United States.”

Kronenberg referenced the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobbying group, as another thread in this issue. Since 1990, AIPAC has given tens of millions of dollars to U.S. politicians. 

Among these, Kronenberg said, is Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, who has received $878,299 since 1990. 

“Our politicians, regardless of their party, democrats and republicans alike, sometimes democrats more often, are bought by this lobby,” they said.

Kronenberg said organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) and student protesters around the country inspire them in their own activist efforts. 

“The world is watching,” they said. “And that’s not just a bad thing. It’s not just a threat to ‘be on the right side of history,’ it’s a good thing that the world is watching. Because we’ve already seen people in Gaza reach out with pictures of them holding signs thanking organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, or the students at Columbia … Here they are holding up signs thanking us for speaking up for them, and I think that’s enough to keep us going.”

Leah Shepard is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].