Please sign. Help getting more signatures...! Divestment movement breakthrough
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Watch our brief
video of the
TIAA-CREF meeting.
Aaron Levitt and others on
TIAA-CREF success.
Dear xxxx,
Wow!
I'm writing you from New York City where I just
got back from the TIAA-CREF annual meeting
and I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the experience.
TIAA-CREF is one the largest retirement
funds in the world, and it holds investments in companies that profit
from the Israeli occupation.
I can't tell you what it meant to have so many
people at the TIAA-CREF meeting asking them to do better. 15,300
people to be exact. Each one had signed a petition or
a postcard, or secured hundreds of postcards in their own community
asking the fund to divest from the Israeli occupation. And you know
what? That made all the difference --- to us, and to the leadership of
TIAA-CREF.
But happened
was extraordinary. First 5, then 10, then 14 people, then more
got up, one after another, to speak from the heart about why TIAA CREF
must not profit from Israel's occupation. These people weren't just JVP
members, but included TIAA-CREF shareholders attending the meeting for
entirely different reasons, who were spontaneously moved to speak in
support of our campaign. Onward, P.S. At
the meeting, TIAA-CREF's corporate leadership announced they would be
meeting directly with Jewish Voice for Peace this morning, and so they
did. This is a very exciting step--and it's also just the beginning. We
still need you to sign our
petition and help us get more signatures, especially
from TIAA-CREF participants who are predominantly professors, teachers,
medical and nonprofit workers.
At the meeting, those who have retirement accounts
with the company can stand up and speak. We had a designated speaker
delivering the postcards to TIAA-CREF management, and we knew a few
other people, mostly professors and teachers, would get up and ask
that their money not be invested in companies that profit from
discrimination, death, and destruction, and push hope and peace ever
further away.
Not a single person spoke to defend Israel's
occupation. Not one. But we all know that will change, which is why we need
you now to join our call and help us grow the 15,300 to 25,000 and then
50,000.
In that meeting, the voice for justice, for full
equality, for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians,
dominated the room. So many inspiring and courageous JVP activists stood
up to say how TIAA-CREF was fueling death and destruction by literally
investing in it. To implore TIAA-CREF to find a new way.
During the meeting, we had the honor of delivering
the many stacks of petitions and postcards directly to the Chief
Financial Officer, and could feel the energy in the room change as the
TIAA-CREF executives saw how many people we were representing. The CEO of TIAA-CREF
announced they would be meeting with our campaign team tomorrow, and I
knew they were taking us seriously.
It was impossible for anyone in that room to not
have been affected by what they saw and heard. Just imagine - statement after statement opposing the
Israeli occupation were made in the boardroom of one of the largest
financial services companies in the world. The executive
managers and board members present listened attentively, respectfully.
We know the struggle will be long to actually get
TIAA-CREF to divest, but this is just the beginning. Our story is
already spreading across the world, with media coverage in US News and Report, Inside Higher
Ed, Israel's
Ha'aretz, Tablet
and the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency.
Please join our
call! We are already having an impact at 15,300 but want to grow to
50,000. Please sign our petition today.
Thank you for listening. I wish we could have
videotaped the statements of every person in that room-I promise you,
you would have been moved and inspired. But none of us who were there will ever forget it.
Aaron Levitt
Jewish Voice for Peace
