Jews Talk Racial Justice - S2E9: The Sea Never Parted
QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW
In the first of two Passover-themed shows, April shares her epiphany that despite a resonance between the story of the Israelites leaving mitzrayim (Egypt, the narrow place) and the emancipation of enslaved Africans in the U.S., the two stories diverge in important and significant ways.
CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of slavery, enslavement, and violence against Black people and passing reference to sexual assault.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
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Both April and Tracie open the episode by sharing their excitement and connection with Pesach, a holiday which is deeply connected to each of their own Jewish journeys. How do you personally relate to the themes of Pesach?
April shares an epiphany she had about the oft-compared narratives of the Jewish being freed from enslavement in Mitzrayim and Black Americans and their experience being freed from enslavement; that the “sea never parted” for Black Americans. How does this land with you?
Tracie shares that in her reflection to April’s epiphany, she asked herself what it would have looked like for the Jews to stay in mitzrayim after being free. She answered her own question - that it would look like being Black in America. What comes up for you when she says this? What new realizations and connections does it help you make?
April and Tracie remind us that in Pesach narrative, right before the Sea parts, the oppressors change their minds, and in the moment in the Jewish narrative, the Sea parts and the Jews escape their oppressors. For Black folks, the mythic equivalent never happened and there was no escape from their oppressor. What has been the lasting impact of this?
April uses radical imagination to imagine what freedom would have looked like for enslaved Black people in America after emancipation. Using radical imagination, what could it look like for a future where there is freedom and justice for Black Americans?
Tracie corrects herself to use “enslaved person” when talking about the experience of Black Americans and reminds us of the power of language. Is this the first time you’ve heard this correction and frame? Why is it important to center a person’s humanity?
Tracie shares that she had internalized the belief that the generation who was freed from Mitzrayim was not worthy of entering the Promised Land but that April’s reframing of the 40 years of wandering as a needed healing process helped unlock and hold a fullness that she didn’t know she needed. How does April’s reframe sit with you?
INSIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE
“There’s often correlations between freedom achieved in the exodus from Egypt and freedom achieved from the exodus of slavery in the United States. But the big epiphany I had a few years back was Black people are still in Mizrayim.”
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?
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