I first met Dr. Frank Romano in New York in 2022 when he attended a show by La Familia Repertory Theatre in which one of my plays was produced.
Dr. Romano was there also promoting his play "Bonhoeffer - Last Days" about German dissident theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis for opposing the I KNOW NOTHING stance of the German Lutheran Church and assisting a number of Jews to escape Nazi Germany.
Dr. Romano’s passionate opus was not seen by me, in that I had to fly home before the run. But I would have gone. I helped him publicize it.
At La Familia’s post-show fiesta, he shared a number of events about his life. I was there speaking Spanish and wearing a hamsa, so it seemed appropriate to relate to me that he was an Italian-American Sephardic Jew and had been married to a Mexican-American Crypto-Jewish woman for many years and had a wonderful family with her.
He explained that, as an attorney specializing in international law, many years ago he had gone to Israel on business, and had encountered a number of Palestinian children without food. He took them something to eat, and when the Israelis told him to stop, he said, basically, Crap On You, so they threw him in prison.
This was the beginning of Dr. Romano's multi-decade campaign against the Israeli establishment for their mistreatment of Palestinians. Once the current war broke out, Dr. Romano began campaigning against it, and joined the Global Sumud Flotilla of modest-sized pleasure craft carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
He has been reporting on their journey for some time on social media and giving interviews all over the place, some of which I have re-posted on Facebook.
Today, on the first day of the American government shutdown, Israeli forces intervened and tossed all members of the flotilla in jail. In the words of Ephrat Livni and Liam Stack in the New York Times on October 1, 2025, “The Israeli foreign ministry had said on Wednesday night that ‘several’ vessels had been safely stopped and that the passengers were being transferred to an Israeli port.'
We are not apprised of the fate of the boxes of macaroni.
Let’s hope for the speedy release of Dr. Romano and other idealistic people who are risking their lives to maintain international awareness of the plight of Palestinians.
Having grown up in the barrio, it annoys me to see middle-class people rush into survivalist situations. As we used to say, “They got choo-choos there. They choo choo in the front and they choo choo in the back."
Being a hopeful seafarer, I have also been concerned this whole time about the lack of life jackets on flotilla members. In the Puget Sound, with a water temperature of 45 degrees, a fall overboard is almost always fatal, and many things can happen to vessels, especially with inexperienced sailors.
It may be that the Israelis are only partially wrong in getting a bunch of newbies off the water. They may not prevail in the face of weather conditions outside of the range of small vessels vis-a-vis lots of people on them, pirates of various types that are always hanging around in those parts of the world, or just a bit too much wine.
Trump is not likely to favor their cause but that of the Israeli hardliners. Perhaps Dr. Romano’s adopted homeland of France can write a strongly worded letter and get flotilla members onto airplanes to more reasonable places for the bourgeoisie.
At the same time, NICE NIGHT FOR IT.
https://globalsumudflotilla.org/
