Lots of Drops, Lots of Buckets
Maxxe Albert-Deitch — September 15, 2025
Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent NJN's views and policy positions.
Yesterday, I spent a little over an hour standing outside of the White House, holding a camera in one hand and a cowbell in the other. The camera was to take photos and videos of the speakers I was there to hear from: friends, colleagues, the father of one of the hostages who is still believed to be alive in Gaza. The cowbell was to shake and make noise as we— the crowd—demanded an end to the ongoing war. There were hundreds of us, spread out in cities across the US—DC, New York, LA, San Francisco. We stood in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who continue to demand better of their own government, who have been marching in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Haifa for the better part of two years. We held up photos of Israeli and Palestinian children, challenging onlookers to look at their tiny, round faces, their eyes that already hold so much sadness.
Protesters outside the White House hold signs of Palestinian and Israeli children, September 14th, 2025.
I think of the millions of children whose childhoods will have been defined by war, and my heart cracks. I think of the thousands of children who won’t grow up at all, and it shatters. I don’t understand how anyone can see these children and think: yes, this war is just, let’s keep going.
But the war continues. So I keep helping organize protests. I keep imploring people to show up, to add their voices to the call, to demand better for this world we all must share, and in which the children who survive must grow up.
Each rally invitation that I send out garners a handful of variations on the same response: It’s just one rally in the US—what difference will it make? Isn’t it naïve to keep demanding a change we may never see? It’s just a drop in the bucket, so why keep trying?
I refuse to allow myself to become that jaded. I refuse to give up on the idea that humanity can do better and be better than we currently are. And with each protest, each crowd of fifty, or a hundred, or five hundred, or a thousand people renews my faith that I am not alone. My voice alone might just be a drop in the bucket, but many drops do eventually fill a bucket. So, I hold onto the hope that we’ll have enough buckets one day to wash clean the horrors of war and work towards building something new.
The metaphor grows a little thin here, so let me just say this: I cannot imagine, not for one second, facing the children in Israel and in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank whose images I hold up, who are enduring unspeakable violence, and telling them: No, this is actually it. It doesn’t get better, and I’m giving up on you. I just can’t try anymore.
And the protest movement keeps growing. Because it isn’t just one rally, and I’m not just one voice. I’m part of a multigenerational chorus that has grown and continues to grow every day. Yesterday’s protest was one of four that NJN was a part of this weekend, and one of the many more that NJN has hosted and cosponsored since the beginning of the war—so many that I’ve lost count. And with each one, I’ve spotted new signs, heard new voices, seen unfamiliar faces join the outskirts of the crowds.
Of course, hope is not enough. Peace, self-determination, and dignity don’t just magically happen if we stand still and hope for them. We must take action to protect these basic human freedoms. We must continue to stand up for the children whose faces and stories we carry, who cannot yet speak out for the future they will one day inherit and have to live in.
Protests might not be systemic change or military policies or declarations of human rights law. But they are something that we can do right now, and they are part of a larger push for change. They are a way that we can stand up for what we know is right. And I, for one, am heartened to see more people showing up each time.
Maxxe Albert-Deitch (she/her) joined Americans for Peace Now in the summer of 2022 after several years researching and working on archaeology projects in the field of conflict transformation in Israel and Palestine. Now, as Director of Programs for New Jewish Narrative, she is excited to use her digital media strategy expertise to help propel the organization forward. In 2024, Maxxe became the primary host of PeaceCast, the podcast dedicated to exploring issues and trends relating to peace and security for Israel.
Maxxe earned a Master’s degree in History from the College of William and Mary as well as Bachelor’s degrees in Art History, History, and Anthropology from Drew University. Outside of work, she can usually be found hiking with her dog, running marathons, or with her nose in a good book.
