Jews and Juneteenth
Dear friends,
A conversion candidate asked me recently what to expect as a Black Jew in New York City. What, he implied, is the current state of the racism and exoticizing of African American Jews in Jewish America?
The first story that came to mind is a hard one. Yehudah Webster, an African American Jewish activist and leader, was returning a Torah scroll he had rented for a Bar Mitzvah that he led. He was attacked in Crown Heights by a group of Chassidic Jews who assumed he was stealing it. They surrounded his car and was saved when the police protected him and enabled him to escape.
The second story was less toxic, but still disturbing. It involved a Black woman who came for several months to an Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn. Each time she’d come she’d receive smiles and questions. People were curious how she learned about the synagogue, where she learned Hebrew. Some would comment that they were impressed with her proficiency in prayer. No one ever did anything especially offensive, but the line between curiosity and suspicion was always present. The questions never stopped, so she moved on to another community.
“I can’t think of one Jew of color I know who has not had a racist experience in the Jewish community.” Rabbi Sandra Lawson, a Jew of Color, was quoted in Haaretz saying. “Some are horrible, like being denied entry or being kicked out by law enforcement officers or security that act as gatekeepers. Or some are questioning why you’re here: ‘How come you’re Jewish?’”
The percentage of Jews of color in the overall Jewish American community is growing. Researchers have estimated that close to 1 in 7 American Jews are Jews of Color. That’s double what the estimates were ten years ago. If we’re going to provide a warm, loving spiritual home to Black Jews, we need to work quickly for change within the Jewish community.
As we come upon Juneteenth, we would do well to turn our attention to the challenges that American Jews of Color face even in progressive Jewish spaces, and what we can do to ease those challenges.
We should remember that there are around one million Jews of Color in this country, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone when one shows up at a synagogue, when he speaks Hebrew, when she knows the prayers, when they know more bible than many of us. We should remember that like the rest of us, Jews of Color come from a wide range of religious backgrounds. Some grew up in a traditional Jewish household, some in a secular home, some in a Christian or Muslim or a-religious environment and converted, others who have not converted. We should keep in mind that that African Jewry, with which many African American Jews are connected, includes some of our people's oldest Jewish communities, some of which carry on ancient traditions that most Jews no longer keep. We have a lot to learn about ourselves from many of them, and we’re here to welcome all who want to worship and be in community with us.
One thing communities like ours can do toward making Jews of Color feel welcome is to take an active role as allies in the movement for Black liberation. At the Shul we’ve done this in a number of ways this year. Here are two things you could do that build on the relationships we’ve built this year:
Last November I joined dozens of other local faith leaders in a public letter calling for shutting down the jail complex on Rikers Island. As you may know, 6 people have died there this year already, and 16 in 2021, in the custody of our city. The system we live in in this country is responsible for the conditions which drove many of them to find themselves there. The fact that we are incapable of keeping them safe as they wait for months and sometimes years at a time for their trials is a stain that we need to rid ourselves of fast. If you’d like to join this campaign you can register for the next meeting HERE. (and let us know if you’d like to represent the Shul there.)
A few weeks ago, our BLM chevrutah led the wonderful Shabbat inspired by Black Women’s Blueprint. Since then, we have been raising money for this wonderful organization. Thank you to all of you who have already contributed. The funds we raise will help build the organization’s new center for healing, reconciliation, and environmental and reproductive justice in upstate New York. There are still a few more days left in our drive, and we invite those of you who have not participated to join us.
This week I hung out with Alexander, a nine-month-old Black boy living in Greenwich Village with his white-presenting Jewish mother and white non-Jewish father. I pray that Alexander and all young Jews of Color will always feel free to embrace his Jewish tradition in whichever way he’d like it to manifest, that his embrace is always reciprocated, and that he experiences his faith world as a place to which he can always come home.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Misha