JTA — Dozens of US left-wing rabbis were arrested Tuesday morning after staging a protest at the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, calling for aid in Gaza and an end to what they called the Israeli government’s “blockade” of the enclave.

The arrests came a day after eight rabbis were arrested at a separate demonstration in New York City, in a sign of surging Jewish concern about the condition of Gazan civilians.

In Washington, the group of 27 rabbis affiliated with the advocacy group Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza entered Thune’s office at around 11:10 a.m. Tuesday morning, and displayed banners reading “Rabbis say: Protect Life!” and “Rabbis say: Stop the Blockade.”

The demonstration called to mind some of the US protests by rabbis and other Jews in favor of a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that took place regularly in the war’s first year, and some of the rabbis arrested were involved in those protests as well. But it comes as calls for an end to the war and relief for Gazan civilians grow more mainstream, amid a hunger crisis that has captured headlines around the world.

Over the past two months, over 23,500 American Jews, including over 750 rabbis and over 100 Jewish congregations, synagogues and organizations, have signed a statement titled “Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza.” More than 1,000 rabbis worldwide

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