I think that you are conflating multiple issues here; I perceive you as saying we should not be trying to be antiracist. As Jews we both have to live with our own experience of discrimination and advocate for others who have been marginalized. Whether that's Muslim Afghan refugees or black Americans, it's part of our tradition to say that we were slaves in Egypt and we will speak out against enslavement and other forms of oppression.
I agree that much of the antiracism work in American is Christian based. As it should be because there was a tie between rationalizing enslavement and the Church. However, there is impactful work being done by the Seattle Federation JCRC and synagogues that is not based on Christian theory.
We have benefitted greatly by the opportunity in America, first to live free from pogroms, and other forms of oppression. We then benefitted from equal opportunity programs as a "model minority" that was less offensive to the Christian majority than black and Indigenous people. By every measure of health and wealth, there is still significant racism in America. I feel compelled to try and fix that because of my Judaism. I would also like to address it in Jewish ways. I appreciate and am learning from the work that URJ, Seattle Federation, ADL, the Holocaust Center and others are doing. If we want to call me "woke", I won't love it, but I'll keep working for equity.
I found your article very disturbing and I'm not sure that I'm even able to call out all the ways that it bothered me. This was just a start.
I think that you are conflating multiple issues here; I perceive you as saying we should not be trying to be antiracist. As Jews we both have to live with our own experience of discrimination and advocate for others who have been marginalized. Whether that's Muslim Afghan refugees or black Americans, it's part of our tradition to say that we were slaves in Egypt and we will speak out against enslavement and other forms of oppression.
I agree that much of the antiracism work in American is Christian based. As it should be because there was a tie between rationalizing enslavement and the Church. However, there is impactful work being done by the Seattle Federation JCRC and synagogues that is not based on Christian theory.
We have benefitted greatly by the opportunity in America, first to live free from pogroms, and other forms of oppression. We then benefitted from equal opportunity programs as a "model minority" that was less offensive to the Christian majority than black and Indigenous people. By every measure of health and wealth, there is still significant racism in America. I feel compelled to try and fix that because of my Judaism. I would also like to address it in Jewish ways. I appreciate and am learning from the work that URJ, Seattle Federation, ADL, the Holocaust Center and others are doing. If we want to call me "woke", I won't love it, but I'll keep working for equity.
I found your article very disturbing and I'm not sure that I'm even able to call out all the ways that it bothered me. This was just a start.
Linda