Three short whistle blasts mean that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are nearby. Three long blasts signify that ICE is detaining someone.
A rabbi speaking at the “Jews Against ICE” demonstration Feb. 11 shared this technique, which has been used around the United States — in places such as in Minneapolis and Chicago — in protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
An estimated 400 rabbis, cantors and Jewish community members gathered in front of ICE headquarters in Washington, D.C., to demand “ICE out now.” At the protest, spearheaded by T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, speeches and songs were interspersed with the blowing of the shofar and whistles.
“The shofar is used [as] a wake-up, to tell us to see what’s happening in the world,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T’ruah. “It’s also the sound people would sound to alert the next town over about a danger. It’s also a sound of crying, sobbing.”
A record 73,000 people are detained in a national network of ICE detention centers as of mid-January, a 75% increase from just a year ago, according to a January report by the American Immigration Council. “At-large” arrests by law enforcement officers in U.S. communities have increased by 600% in Trump’s first nine months in office.
And people are unhappy.
‘Jews Against ICE’
Jacobs said the Feb. 11 protest was the largest all-Jewish demonstration against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. In her speech, she alluded to this week’s parshah, which twice states, “You should not oppress an immigrant.”
“The Jewish commitment to protecting people on the move is not new,” Jacobs said. “It’s as ancient as our earliest tradition. It’s right there in the Torah. Today, we are showing that we are not going anywhere, that the Jewish community always has and always will come out to advocate for all of our neighbors, including our immigrant neighbors.”
As of Jan. 26, ICE has occupied Minnesota for almost two months. Agents have broken down doors, arrested people in hospitals, tear gassed students, racially profiled and abducted people of color and threatened dissenters, according to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
The issue garnered national attention after two Minneapolis residents were fatally shot by officers in January as they attempted to defend their communities from ICE action. As of Feb. 12, the Trump administration announced that it’s withdrawing the surge of federal officers from Minnesota.
ICE is also operating close to home. Immigration arrests in D.C. peaked in August 2025, and more than 3,300 Marylanders were arrested by ICE from January to October 2025. More than half of them had no criminal charges, according to Deportation Data.
“What the administration is doing — the abduction and deportation of our neighbors — is antithetical to my and our Jewish values,” Jamie Beran, the CEO of Bend the Arc, told Washington Jewish Week. “It feels so important for the Jewish community to be showing up powerfully together, to say that we oppose these terrible policies.”
The afternoon was fraught with Torah-based symbolism. In addition to the collective blowing of shofarot, a speaker passed a large tallit — Jewish prayer shawl — overhead to represent the “sacred sanctuary” of Sarah’s tent in Genesis.
‘This Is an Emergency’
Shira Danan, T’ruah’s chief communications officer, said she initially expected maybe 100 rabbis and a few dozen community members to attend the protest. She was blown away by the sheer number of attendees.
“I think it really solidified for the Jewish community that this is our place in the movement,” Danan said. “Jews have always cared a lot about immigrants’ rights and immigrant justice, and in this moment, we are just showing that there’s this huge consensus in the Jewish community that this is our issue.”
“We’ve been horrified as ICE has invaded many of our cities and begun to kidnap our neighbors off the street,” Jacobs said. She added that the demonstration was especially timely given that Congress will soon vote on funding.
The “Jews Against ICE” protest concluded T’ruah’s 2026 National Jewish Clergy Convening in D.C., which began Feb. 9. Discussion topics included “fighting authoritarian governments,” protesting ICE detention centers and undermining the “federal takeover of cities.”
Attending clergy members came from across the U.S.: Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and other ICE hotspots.
“It’s clear that this is an emergency,” Jacobs said. “We wanted to take the opportunity of 140 rabbis being together for a couple of days, also to invite the rest of the Jewish community to say, ‘We’re gonna stand by ICE headquarters and make it clear that Jews are not gonna stand by while ICE takes away our neighbors.’”
Rabbi Caleb Brommer, a T’ruah member, traveled from his Ithaca, New York, home to attend the protest.
“This is really important,” Brommer told Washington Jewish Week. “This is a demonstration of the fact that there’s a broad Jewish consensus and rabbinic consensus against the actions of ICE, against many actions of the federal government, of the way the immigration crackdown is being carried out with indignity and impunity, and people are really outraged by it. People are really horrified by it.”
He noted that because many Jewish people have immigrant stories themselves, they “really feel like we have skin in the game.”
“We have a faith understanding that immigrants should be welcomed and not rejected, but also that no human being should be treated the way that many immigrants in this country and their communities are being treated,” said Brommer, who “frequently” discusses this issue with his congregants at Temple Beth-El in New York.
Danan hopes that clergy members will leave D.C. ready to replicate what they’ve learned “all over the country.”
“We want rabbis to bring their communities along with them, to talk about what’s happening from the bimah, on social media, and just to be moral voices,” Danan said.
