Three Jews were among several demonstrators arrested by Burlington Police on April 28 for attempting to deliver care packages to immigrants detained and agents stationed at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) district office there.

Josh Model of Lexington, Rebecca Tabasky of Groton and her sister, Ella Tabasky of Brunswick, Maine, were part of an interfaith group organized by Quakers from Maine to bring baskets of food, flowers, personal hygiene products and letters to the unmarked building opposite the Burlington Mall.

“We were trying to show care for the detainees,” Model said. “And also, we had a package of food and a letter for the ICE agents, because participating in the system is kind of harmful for them, too.”

At around 9:45 a.m., several of the group of 50 activists knocked on the door of the ICE office at 1000 District Ave. to deliver the care packages. After being denied entrance and having their packages refused by agents, the activists were arrested by Burlington police half an hour later.

Burlington Police said 11 demonstrators were charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace and released. They said those arrested should expect to receive a summons by mail to appear in Woburn District Court at a later date.

Seeing the experience of immigrants detained by ICE resonated with Model. “In the midst of all that’s going on, and with my own Jewish background as the grandchild of refugees, it really spoke to me. I felt this real empathetic response of, ‘What can I do?’” he said.

Model’s grandmother, Josephine, was a newlywed in Germany just after Kristallnacht. “They knew things were getting pretty bad,” he said. Model’s grandfather “had gotten out to the United States before, and was able to get her travel papers out, in the nick of time.”

His family’s experience has given him “more sensitive antennae” when it comes to immigrants and refugees. The important thing, he said, was “being able to participate in this action where you’re bringing food, you’re making that same gesture of care, but when asked to leave, you’re saying, ‘No, I want to make this delivery.’

“This type of action makes the people who are there know that people are paying attention, that they’re cared for.”

The Tabaskys come from Malden, and on both sides of their family are refugees from Ukraine and Lithuania.

“My Jewish heritage is very much a part of how I live my life, how I want to show up in the world, and the standards by which I try to seek justice and care for everybody,” Rebecca said.

She was also motivated by her family’s experience as refugees from the Nazis.

“I’m the daughter of a Holocaust educator, so I grew up under the auspices of ‘never again.’ I very firmly believe that ‘never again’ is for everyone,” she said. “I see very direct connections between what’s happening now and what we as Jewish people have been subjected to over time, not just in the Holocaust, but in many contexts.”

“I want to be that neighbor,” she says. “I don’t think that I, as a Jewish person right now, am under a great authoritarian threat in the same way that our immigrant and Black and brown neighbors are. I carry with me a lot of privilege, and so want to be able to use that privilege in whatever ways I can, and always keep it in the context of broader struggles and solidarity movements. So that brought me to this action.”

Tabasky draws “very strong connections” between the struggles of immigrants and minorities in the U.S. and those of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Her family’s conservatism on this issue mystifies her.

“I have always thought my family to be very progressive in many ways, but on the issue of Palestine and ICE – and the idea of what detention is, or concentration camps are – there seems to be this exceptionalism that does not ring true to my understanding of Jewish identity and obligation.”

Model is a frequent participant in the Wednesday “Bearing Witness” demonstrations held at the ICE facility in Burlington, as well. According to Cindy Rowe, head of JALSA (Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action), one of the groups organizing those weekly protests, as many as 700 people a week demonstrate there.

Those protests started in April 2025. More recently, in September 2025, between 50 and 100 people started demonstrating at Hanscom Field on Fridays. Three times a week, ICE flights leave that Bedford airport to send detained immigrants out of state.

Rowe believes the demonstrations help make ICE’s local actions more visible, which may lead to more opposition among the population at large. “We’re trying to raise awareness of what’s going on in people’s backyards,” she said. Θ

Contact reporter Brett M. Rhyne at brett@jewishjournal.org.