photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
A demonstrator holds pennies, a symbol for war profiteering, and 
ice cubes, a symbol for Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
(ICE), at the ritual tashlich protest in Healdsburg, 20 September, 2025.

Members and supporters of Sonoma County's Jewish Voice for Peace chapter gathered in Healdsburg over the weekend, calling for an end to the conflict in Gaza and a halt to ICE enforcement raids at home.

Saturday morning's ceremony started outside the General Dynamics office on Grove Street in Healdsburg.

General Dynamics is a private company that produces, at its Texas plant, the 2,000 pound bombs used by the Israeli Air Force for assaults on Gaza.

Jewish Voice for Peace protestors said they hope to bring attention to the powerful weapon manufacturer's local ties.

After marching to Healdsburg's downtown square, the small gathering performed a ritual tashlich.

That's a Jewish new year ceremony - casting off symbolic sins before the celebration of Rosh Hashanah.

Rinat Abastado said the demonstrators chose to throw two things into the fountain waters.

"The pennies, they represent the war profiteering," Abastado said. "The ice, represents ICE."

At General Dynamics' site in Healdsburg, the company manufactures missile flight control components - including for the submarine-launched Trident 5. That's according to a General Dynamics online brochure.

General Dynamics isn't the only major weapons maker with a local footprint .

Virginia-based drone maker AeroVironment operates a manufacturing facility in Petaluma, having acquired Petaluma-based drone maker Arcturus in 2021.

AeroVironment manufactures a variety or military surveillance drones and loitering munitions - flying bombs - which can remain in flight above a combat zone for over 40 minutes before delivering a lethal strike.

Israel requested 200 of the attack drones from the US government in 2023.