AMA: Rafael Shimunov, Jewish left activist, radio host

[u/rafternoon]

Hey Reddit and r/JewsOfConscience, I'm Rafael Shimunov.

I'm a Jewish left activist who is active with JVP, IfNotNow and JFREJ. I'm the co-host of Beyond The Pale: Radio’s Home for the Jewish Left on NY’s WBAI 99.5FM. I'm a creative activist and founder of ArtvWar, a mostly anonymous group who uses art to create cultural interventions. I also cofounded The Jewish Vote, an electoral project of JFREJ in NYC who helped elected leaders like Jamaal Bowman and many other progressives.

I arrived to the US with my parents as a HIAS child refugee from Soviet-dominated Uzbekistan. I'm a Bukharian Jew, one of Central Asia’s many minority ethnic groups who have largely settled in Queens NYC. You may have first found me when I went viral after Ellen DeGeneres’ lawyers tried to censor my criticism of her support of disgraced former President George Bush on Twitter. Or my installing an illegal exhibit in the Whitney Museum to protest its leader’s manufacturing of chemical explosives sold to Trump’s border patrol. If you were around during Trump's Muslim ban, you may have been one of the 12 million on my livestream during the JFK Airport protests against it, which I filmed from the airport me and my family arrived in as refugees.

I've also worked to successfully help organize with Queens residents against building an Amazon headquarters for their ties to ICE, militarization of police, racism, labor and small business abuse. I've worked professionally and personally supporting movements and orgs winning $15 minimum wage, going after the crime of Guantanamo Bay, Stop and Frisk, and more.

I grew up in the projects aka public housing. My parents did all the stereotypical immigrant jobs you can imagine until my father became an architect and my mother a nurse and I began to go from poverty to the middle class. My parents learned English watching Star Trek with me. That influenced me a lot. And my secret past is working in advertising. For the bad guys. Man that was bad. My not so secret and proud past was being a warehouse worker and bicycle mechanic for Toys R Us, where I learned more about life than almost anywhere.

Find me on X, BlueSky, Instagram.

And the radio show on WBAI 99.5FM NY, X and Instagram. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and a bunch of other apps.

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[u/douglasstoll]

Thanks for doing this. What types of direct action do you think would be most effective?

[u/rafternoon → u/douglasstoll]

So I've been documenting a lot of the major actions for over 10 years. Photos, videos, livestreams. I've helped organize some. I think they're all important because each one offers people just coming into activism a first stop. Something they're nervous to do but think they can do. So we have to always keep in mind that these actions aren't just for a direct pay off, but to begin to bring people in on a path. To become more skilled in non violent resistance, and braver. To build networks for resilience and to even prepare their loves and families and even jobs and bosses (if applicable) for how to support them or manage.

I also think we don't do enough actions that impact people's money. While all these tactics grow our movements, and build skill, community and resilience... few of them scare power because few of them threaten their money. We must begin to make it economically costly to genocide, to pollute our water, food and air, cage and execute people, and abuse our labor.

[u/douglasstoll → u/rafternoon]

thank you very much. I feel like the only move left is a general strike or prepare for the slide to barbarism.

[u/rafternoon → u/douglasstoll]

General strike is my love language. And a lot has to be prepared for that as we know.