Who Is Jessica Rosenberg? Rabbi Who Heckled Joe Biden

While President Joe Biden was speaking in Northfield, Minnesota, about his economic agenda and its impacts on agriculture, he was heckled from the audience about his administration's stance on the ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas.

Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg interrupted his speech to say: "Mr. president, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now." The remark was met with derisive murmurs and cries of "get out." Rosenberg was removed from the event.

Since around 1,500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants staged a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, around 1,400 Israelis have died, including many civilians. Israel has launched an air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip which, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, has taken 8,805 Palestinian lives to date.

"I think we need a pause. A pause means giv[ing] time to get the prisoners out," Biden responded to Rosenburg's statement, adding that he understood the demonstrator's emotions and supported a two-state solution, but that it was an "incredibly complicated" situation.

During his remarks at Dutch Creek Farm on Wednesday, Biden said: "The loss of every innocent life is a tragedy. We grieve for those deaths and continue to grieve for the Israeli children and mothers who [were] brutally slaughtered by Hamas terrorists—and also continue to hold in our hearts the hundreds of families of loved ones, including small children and elderly grandparents, including American citizens, being held hostage."

Though there have been a growing number of voices calling for a ceasefire in the conflict, including in the U.S. and U.K., Western leaders have instead been pushing for "humanitarian pauses"—a cessation of hostilities for short periods to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza unimpeded and for civilians to seek refuge. Israel has refused to commit to a ceasefire.

While some say Israel's offensive on Gaza is tantamount to collectively punishing Palestinians there for the actions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in October, others argue that a ceasefire would leave Hamas—which has openly called for civilians to remain in harm's way—in power, and Israel open to another attack in the future.

Israel has been accused of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals and escape routes, but it argues that Hamas often uses them as bases of operations to maximize the loss of life from Israeli attacks.

Rosenberg was identified as the heckler by Jewish Voice for Peace, a progressive, anti-Zionist organization which supports the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement and which Rosenberg has been linked to as an organization she has "served and learned from."

Jewish Voice for Peace has been criticized by other Jewish groups for its past actions. The Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate watchdog, described it as "a radical anti-Israel activist group" that has at times created "a hostile environment for many progressive Jews"—a characterization Jewish Voice for Peace has previously denied.

It claimed in October that around 80 of its activists were arrested during pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the U.S.

"I became a rabbi to be a steward of a 3,000-year-old tradition that, at its core, reflects the understanding that all life is sacred," Rosenberg told Newsweek in a statement provided by Jewish Voice for Peace. "That's why I interrupted Biden to demand a ceasefire and that's what I'm going to keep fighting for."

According to various biographies of Rosenberg, she currently resides in south Minneapolis, Minnesota, having been raised in Philadelphia. She is a rabbi with the progressive reconstructionist Jewish movement and became ordained in 2018.

Rosenberg has been described as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and in 2020 wrote a handbook on "trauma, healing and resistance" for Jewish leaders and activists.

Update 11/06/23, 3:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Jessica Rosenberg.