By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / July 1, 2025
Two remarkable advocates for peace and justice in Austin, Texas, have passed on. In 2014, I posted to The Rag Blog in 2014 that featured Bernice Hecker and her work with the Interfaith Community for Palestinian Rights. For over a decade, at Bernice’s invitation, I participated in a women’s discussion group at her home. Jere Locke directed the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition in the 80s, a coalition well known to those of us active in Latin American solidarity. In recent years, Jere focused on climate change and climate justice. Both of these individuals were leaders known for their passion, their ability to reach out to younger generations, and their fierce love of community.
In this post, I am sharing their stories, taken from events that celebrated their lives. Rest in Power, Bernice and Jere!
Bernice (Batya) Hecker
November 13, 1935 – June 6, 2025
Bernice Hecker passed away on June 6, 2025, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 89. She was born Bernice Varjick on November 13, 1935 in New York City.
A lifelong learner and intellectual, Bernice earned a B.S. in Physics (CUNY), followed by an M.A. in Mathematics (CUNY), and another in Linguistics (UT-Austin). At the age of 71, she completed her Ph.D. in Linguistics in 2007.
Form 1960 to 1962, Bernice lived on Kibbutz Urim in Israel. After returning to New York City, she came in contact with people having a different perspective and began to understand the Palestinian situation. In Austin, she was a founding member of Interfaith Community for Palestinian Rights, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition. She was a pioneer in the second wave feminist movement and worked against the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She also loved music, especially singing and playing her drum.
Professionally, Bernice worked for many years as a computer programmer, later becoming a programmer analyst/systems analyst for the Texas Comptroller’s Office. She also dedicated time to teaching English as a Second Language through Manos de Cristo. She was a member of Mensa.
She was preceded in death by her sister, Binki Segal; her parents, Bessie and Steve Varjick, by her hands, Howard Hecker (Tzvi), and Ran Moran.
She will be greatly missed by her son, Orrin Hecker; Binki’s husband, Frankie Segal; Orrin’s step-mother, Barbara Larson, her nephew, Shai Segal, and her nieces, Sharona Beck, Yifat Smordin, and Ophira Shwartzfield, as well as many friends.
Jere Locke: A Life Well Lived
Jere Locke was born on August 20, 1944, to Katherine and John Locke at Ft. Still Oklahoma, and died peacefully at home in Austin, Texas, on May 22, 2025, surrounded by his loving family. Jere’s life was one of purpose and meaning devoted to working for peace and justice
A graduate of St. Thomas High School in Houston, Jere continued his education at the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1966 from the University of Texas at Austin. Jere subsequently earned a master’s degree in family counseling from Antioch University in Seattle, Washington.
In 1967, Jere joined the Peace Corps and was posted to Kenya where he was known for speaking great Swahili, loving to talk and eat, and enjoying track workouts with the excellent Nandi runners. This experience was foundational for his life of service. Throughout his life, he worked on many peace and justice issues.
Jere served as Director of the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition in the 1980s. He also co-led the Austin-based Central American Peace Initiative’s efforts to cut off U.S. military aid to El Salvador and the Nicaragua Contras to promote peace. With others he convinced the City of Austin to end its investments in apartheid South Africa. After the first Gulf War in the 1990s, Jere worked to lift sanctions that were crippling Iraq and making it hard for children who had suffered radiation poisoning from bombings to get healthcare. While co-sponsoring a forum on childcare in Austin, Jere met his lifelong partner, Gale.
In 2002, Jere founded and directed Texas Harambe (Swahili for “Let’s all pull together”). In addition to funding a school in Vietnam for children with special needs due to Agent Orange, Texas Harambe helped tortured Burmese Democracy Workers obtain trauma counseling. Harambe also assisted Thai environmentalists to protect the Mekong River.
After attending the 2007 UN Climate Conference in Bali, Indonesia, Jere dedicated the remaining years of his life to raising awareness about humanity’s urgent need to respond to the climate crisis. Under Jere’s leadership, Texas Harambe ran a Climate Emergency Campaign advocating large-scale climate legislation. Desiring to secure a future for his children and grandchildren, in 2009 Jere joined Alyssa Burgin in founding the Texas Drought Project. In the second decade of the 2000s, Jere, Alyssa, and Joshua Wallis conducted Drought Project campaigns seeking to give Texans an understanding of the impact of changing weather and climate patterns.
Jere will be greatly missed by his lifelong partner, Gale, his sons, Tristan and Sundaram (Suny); daughter-in-law, Jessica; granddaughters, Isadora (Izzy) and Emilia (Emmie); siblings Stephen, Martha, Mary, and Sarah; sister-in-law, Carolyn; and stepsiblings, Margaret and Max.
