Justice, Justice: On the Jewish Obligation to Support Black Lives Matter
On Instagram the other day, as I encountered images of protest on streets both here in the States and abroad, I was drawn in by a powerful image. The post came from Maimonides Nutz, a multi-disciplinary artist who specializes in modernizing Jewish imagery. Among her work is a modified Hamsa with an extended middle finger and essays musing on the modern Jewish experience. This particular piece showed Hebrew text in flames reading “tzedek tzedek tirdoff”, or “Justice, you shall pursue Justice”. The quote itself comes from Deuteronomy and is a call to action regarding righteous pursual of an ethical Jewish life. Maimonides Nutz made merchandise of the design, proceeds of which went to bail funds throughout the United States. I bought a shirt. A few minutes later, I saw a design from adamkylometers, a teenaged artist that read, embedded in a magen david, “Tikkun Olam Means Black Lives Matter”. In the span of a few minutes, I saw the only images portraying Jewish support of Black Lives Matter protest from Jewish artists on Instagram. Not from leaders. Solidarity in the Jewish community with Black Lives Matter exists but is nowhere near as full-throated as it should be. I am calling for all members of the Jewish community to take a stand and say that Black Lives Matter.
The question of solidarity between the Black and Jewish communities is a thorny one. Many Jews of European descent benefit from white privilege, but also unconsciously and consciously, perpetuate the racist ills of the white ethnostate. This divide comes down to how we are of use to those in power. In the same way that white land and business owners historically value Black labor, white Jews are primarily valued for a perceived preternatural talent with money. By embracing the racist fallacy of the Jewish moneylender, white Jews in America embody the “model minority” trope, as we have been entrusted with the plundered fruits of Black labor.
Yet terror did not cease for young Jewish Americans in the 20th century. My parents, raised in the 1960s, recall incidents of having pennies thrown at them by other children on the playground. I, myself, a child of a new millennium, was asked more than once about the role of the Jews in Jesus’ killing and whether or not we have horns. Anti-Semitic acts are still frequently visited on us, such as the 2018 murder of congregants at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or the chants of “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. And that is to say nothing of the frequent acts of anti-Semitic violence and rhetoric from white nationalist groups in continental Europe.
So what is keeping Jews from banding with our Black siblings and forming a united front against hate? The answer is, again, white privilege. European Jews are afforded a liminal ethnic space with one foot in oppression and the other in success. Even in our friendly shuls, we tend to rely on Black labor in the form of security guards and shabbos goys. Somewhere, while we were being embraced by moderate whites for our talents, we lost the plot of our roots as a revolutionary people.
A mere two months ago, we as a community celebrated Passover, where we ruminate on and celebrate our rebellion and flight from the Pharaoh’s grip. Why is our community silent as our Black siblings are on the streets fighting for the same ideals? Allegations of anti-Semitism in the Black Lives Matter movement, which supports the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, are often cited. Yet to denounce a movement fighting for the end of American state-sanctioned violence because of its support of another movement is willfully ignorant at best and self-centered at worst. Adding fuel to this fire is the fact that the Israeli Defense Force has been consulted in 33 American states on policing tactics.
The state of Georgia has received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to subsidize these trainings, wherein IDF soldiers demonstrate to police officers the tactics they use to destroy Palestinians. The rubber bullets used by hyper-militarized police forces in protests are made by the same company, Combined Tactical Systems of Jamestown, PA, that supplies the IDF. Unmitigated support of Israel and its wartime tactics is implicit support of America’s brutal police state.
All of this is to say nothing of the casual racism that permeates our community. The erasure of Black Jewish voices in our culture is borne out of their perceived lack of authenticity. In my reform upbringing, my only contact with Black Judaism was through my shul’s brief fund drive for a group of Ethiopian Jews. My awareness of Black Jewish Americans, meanwhile, was outrageously stunted until recently. When Black Jews aren’t being ignored out of hand by our community, their dual outsiderness is fetishized by those good enough to listen. If you feel as I do that there is a lack of Black Jewish voices in the media, direct your reading to Michael W. Twitty (whose book Kosher Soul is due out later this year), Ma Nishtana, and Nylah Burton, to name a few.
Yet there is a history in America of twinned Black-Jewish survival and solidarity. In our cities, Black people and Jews coexisted on the same block at the turn of the last century, and these relationships spurred the next generation of Jewish Americans to march alongside SNCC and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the battle for civil rights in the 1960s. As a child, a family friend’s mother recounted to me her experiences registering young Black protestors to vote in the South and marching on Washington in August 1963. That planted a seed in my mind that solidarity between our community and the Black community was not only real but absolutely necessary. So what happened? What can we do to restore the strength of the bond between the Black and Jewish communities?
Tikkun olam loosely translates to “heal the world”. Tikkun olam means Black Lives Matter.
I call upon every rabbi, every cantor, and every president of a shul to open their doors as a safe haven for protestors being harassed by police. To do so is a mitzvah.
I call upon Jews, especially those with means, to interrogate the many ways that Judaism has become tied to white supremacy. We must redistribute our wealth into bail funds and therapy programs for Black youth. We must denounce harmful Jewish figures like Alan Dershowitz, the President’s golfing buddy and legal counsel and Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s vile immigration policy. American Jews must reject their embrace of the apartheid state known as Israel. We must also hold accountable Jews in power, like Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, who has tear-gassed protestors in his own city and has prioritized police budgets over social services to benefit Black youth.
We, as Jews, must learn from our history. We have stomached a lack of solidarity before, as in the 1991 Crown Heights riots, which left a neighborhood in flames and dead in both our community and in the Caribbean community. We, as an oppressed group that occupies a middle ground, have to be there for the Black community, in monetary support, in spiritual support, and in material support. We must honor the memories of those who fought back in May 1943 in the Warsaw ghetto by supporting the current uprising taking place on our streets.
I implore all Jews reading this to sit and deeply consider how we have helped to perpetuate the societal ills that are destroying Black lives.
We must affirm our Black siblings, Jewish and otherwise. We must listen to them. Be there for the Black community as they fight to free themselves from an oppressive state force.
When do we say dayenu? When do we say that enough is enough?
I compel you, the next time you say the Mourner’s Kaddish, to meditate on these names. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, David McAtee, James Scurlock, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott, Jerame Reid, Philip White, Sean Bell, Stephon Clark, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Aiyana Jones, Kimani Gray, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Miriam Carey, Philando Castile, Sharonda Singleton, Gavin Cato, Emmett Till, Tommy Yancey, Amadou Diallo, Jordan Baker, Nia Wilson, and Atatiana Jefferson.
Jews must stand up and say that Black Lives Matter.
