Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 83: Beyond the Brisket: Creating a Liberatory Passover Practice

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As we approach Passover 5782, we’re thinking about the tension inherent in commemorating a moment of acute urgency with practices that require a lot of time, intention, and planning. The Passover story contains multiple moments when our ancestors and predecessors displayed both faith and radical imagination, but when ritual becomes rigid, it can limit beliefs and imagination. April and Tracie investigate how we can use the Passover holiday, ritual, and greater awareness, to nurture and apply our own radical imagination toward liberation.

Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 82: Showing up for justice when life gets hard (LIVE)

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This week, we’re bringing you our conversation from our live event on March 23. If we’re being real here (which we ALWAYS are), we know that many of us (especially in the Jewish community) are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and hurt by the state of the world. April and Tracie (and a couple of amazing community members!) give us some helpful framings and tips for processing and moving through our hurt, process our emotions, and get through to the other side. And spoiler alert: you don’t have to suffer in order to powerfully show up for justice!

Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 58: We are the Product of our Ancestor’s choices

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In this week’s episode, April shares more about her ongoing exploration around her Indigenous, Cherokee heritage and the impact a healing workshop had on her desire to live and embody this aspect of her identity. Tracie and April use this exploration to reflect on the ways in which we are the products of our ancestors’ choices to survive the oppressions they faced.

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Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 57: The Shmita Year, the Year of Release

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In our current pandemic-, racism-, and climate-change-ravaged times, April and Tracie talk about the Shmita Year, or Sabbatical Year, which we just began at Rosh Hashanah. How does one live out the values of the Shmita year when most of us are no longer working as farmers in the fields? They discuss how we can use this particular moment to lean into its themes, reconnect with the Earth, and find greater balance in what we endeavor to control and what we allow to happen organically.

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The Messiness of Spring

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But the true reason why I love Spring is because it is messy, and it teaches me that I can be messy too as I grow. Maybe you have never thought about Spring as messy, so think about it; for every warm, glorious blue sky Spring day, there are ones of cold and rain, even snow!

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The Sea Never Parted for Black Folks in America

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Just like Twitty, I’ve had my own recent epiphany about Pesach. While the narratives between Jews and Black folks enslaved in American chattel slavery have often been , there is a crucial difference. For Black folks in America, the sea never parted. They were never able to escape their enslavers and oppressors nor the systems of enslavement and oppression that have held them hostage. So this year, as we move out of the Pesach season, I think that it is important to acknowledge this reality in our work and in future Seders until freedom is actually achieved for all people, and especially for Black, Indigenous, and other folks of the Global Majority. Until slavery and it’s offspring have been uprooted in America, none of us are free.

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Tracie's Torah Takeaway: Parsha Va-yikra (Lev 1:1 - 5:26)

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Several years ago, I decided to move to a fully vegetarian (actually ovo-pescatarian) diet because of my empathy for animals. I saw too much of humans (and dogs) in the cattle and even the chickens whose bodies had formed my meals to continue to consume them. That backdrop of my life choices makes this week’s parsha particularly unpleasant for me to read. The Adonai of Va-Yikra is a big fan of barbeque. The scent of burning animal flesh is pleasing to this Adonai. Indeed, in Lev 3:16 we read “All the fat is Adonai’s.” The phrase “dash the blood against all sides of the altar,” or versions of it is repeated again and again in parsha Va-Yikra.

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How I Come Home to Myself: Meditation and Mindfulness

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I felt so peaceful and grounded afterward, and the effects of those 5 minutes lasted a week.

I remember 4 days later, another student ran into me in the quad and just kept on walking. BOOM! I remember him plowing into me, and as my body was pushed backward from the impact, it was an unexpected surreal experience for me. It was like the moment was happening in. slow. motion. in. my. mind. I remember thinking, "This is when I would normally feel very angry…but I'm not…. more accurately, I feel like I have a choice about whether or not I will choose to feel angry or not… ?!?!?! ...Whoa... This is amazing!”

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