Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep 51: The Other 50%
QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW
In this week’s episode, we talk about how we often forget that Jewish leaders in the civil rights movement who are lauded today were not universally supported in their time. We often pretend their detractors did not exist, and yet, they are in fact still here in our communities pushing back against our current reckoning with racial justice.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Tracie introduces an unfortunate truth that we as a community often forget about the other 50% of our community that did not support now revered Jewish leaders within the civil rights movement. What do you know about the Jewish community’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement? Is it the full picture? Where can you learn more? How did the community react to the Rabbi Lieberman’s of their own?
April names the pushback to progress that she has experienced in our current Jewish community. What are the ways you’ve observed it within your own? What were the changes that were made that elicited the pushback?
April and Tracie explain that it is important to first name and notice the pattern of this “other 50%”. What are specific instances you thought about earlier and knowing what you know now, what dynamics were at play?
Tracie names how the Jewish community can at times “rest on our laurels” in that we have been on the right side of history before, so we are good. Have you observed this reaction? Have you had it? When it comes up in the future, how can you challenge this narrative?
April and Tracie use a more current example of Colin Kapernick and the reaction to his kneeling during the anthem. Think back on his journey and how did your community react? How has it changed? How has your reaction changed?
Tracie reminds us that the good/bad binary often keeps us from moving forward and facing the truth about racism. How does it feel when you sit with both truths that Tracie names about being racist and anti-racist?
April names that a lot of this work involves doing some of our “shadow work” as a community and talking through the trauma of the past. What is some of your own and your community’s work around the trauma of antisemitism that needs to be moved through?
Tracie and April discuss how the internal work needed to do this is in line with the work of Elul and other mindfulness practices. What are some of the practices you can do purposefully and intentionally?
INSIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE
“Just rooted in my experience as a Jew of color, I noticed that when an organization or a group of
people within our community is making substantial progress, there’s often an invisible force that keeps the group from being able to make good on its commitments for racial justice. For a lot of organizations throughout the Jewish community, this can manifest in terms of pushback from members of lay leadership, from members of the board of directors. This can also be pushback from members of a broader network of folks… It is not universal that all people in our community do this, but I notice this at key moments where powerful decisions are made or when progress has already been made, and it gets undone suddenly. And the pattern is that there’s a lack of transparency and honesty, and the reasons that are given don’t really make sense and they’re often very hurtful to any number of people who have spent years helping a community reach that point.”
“Part of whiteness’s power has been that for decades and even today in a lot of ways is that it operates invisibly and it’s quite powerful and transformative just to start to name and notice.”
“The fact of the matter is, because of the way that oppression works through systems and structures and culture, a person can be racist and anti-racist in the same hour, or minute by minute.”
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?
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