Since I don't happen to have any artifacts from my family's time in Lithuania, I have made my artifact page about my Zadie instead.
This page is all about my Zadie: an avid protester and activist. He was arrested dozens of times for his antics and won every single case. Some of the causes that he was involved in were jury nullification, legalization of marijuana, and the right to protest in public spaces. The cause that most impassioned him towards the end of his life was jury nullification. Jury nullification is the idea in which jurors have an obligation to ignore a judge’s legal instructions if they deem the law inappropriate. A way that he fought for this was by standing outside of the courthouse and handing out pamphlets explaining jury nullification, with a sign labeled “jury info”. He handed these out to the general public, hoping that jurors would be amongst the crowd. The judges and prosecutors didn’t like this, so he was arrested multiple times for disturbing the peace, contempt of court, and jury tampering. He defended himself successfully and all charges were eventually dropped. He was pretty epic. I am incredibly proud of having such an amazing and brave person in my family.
My Zadie protesting the illegality of marijuana
My Zadie holding one of the pamphlets he would regularly hand out
My Zadie being confronted by the police whilst handing out pamphlets
If you would like to read his obituary by the New York Times, click here.