Spiritual Activism Source Sheet by Rabbi Dana Benson Based on a source sheet by Rabbi Alexander M. Kress

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א. (From: Voices of Jews of Color: A Discussion Guide: (URJ .1

This moment represents a boiling point, the result of years upon years of systemic racism and oppressive forces that have marginalized, murdered, and destroyed the lives of Black and Brown .

Right now, our Reform Jewish community has been given a gift: The gift of the voices of three Reform Jews of Color – Evan Traylor, Deitra Reiser, and Yolanda Savage-Narva – can help us not only to process the trauma of the moment and ground us in the historical of racial in the United States, but also to hold ourselves accountable for a call to change, repair, and disruption.

Guidelines for Conversations About Racial Justice

Here are some general guidelines for congregational and communal conversations after hearing the voices of Jews of Color who are part of our community.

1. Don’t let white emotions dominate spaces. In Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, authors Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun explain that often, dominant groups take up a lot of space to emote, intellectualize, and seek comfort. In the process, they can cause unintentional harm – even while trying to do the exact opposite. 2. Listen, sit with your discomfort, and take action. When given the gift of multiracial or cross-racial dialogue, white Jews can practice taking up less space and internalize the messages and calls to action that have been offered by Jews of Color. 3. Process feelings in an affinity space. Affinity spaces allow Jews of Color to process and grieve and allows a space for white people to ask questions without causing further harm to people of Color.

ב. ?Carl Stern: What made the Vietnam War a religious issue .2

Rabbi Heschel: Of course it's a religious issue, for what does demand of us primarily? Justice and . What does He condemn above all? Murder, killing innocent people. How can I pray when I have on my conscience the awareness that I am co-responsible for the death of innocent people in Vietnam? In a free society, some are guilty, all are responsible. 1972 NBC Interview with Carl Stern

ג. This is the decision which we have to make: whether our life is to be a pursuit of pleasure or an .3 engagement for service. The world cannot remain a vacuum. Unless we make it an altar to God, it is invaded by demons. This is no time for neutrality. We Jews cannot remain aloof or indifferent. We, too, are either ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 75

ד. The opposite of freedom is not determinism, but hardness of heart. Freedom presupposes openness .4 of heart, of mind, of eye and ear.

According to Hegel, the history of the world is none other than the progress of the of freedom. With some qualification one might say in the of the prophets that the history of the world with which they dealt was none other than the progress of the condition of hardness of heart.

Freedom is not a natural disposition, but God's precious gift to man. Those in whom viciousness becomes second nature, those in whom brutality is linked with haughtiness, forfeit their ability and therefore their right to receive that gift. Hardening of the heart is the suspension of freedom. The Prophets, p. 243

ה. There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered .5 poor, to prevent the desecration of the and the violation of our dream of honesty.

The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible. Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 224-225

ו. ?Why should religious, the essence of which is of God, put such stress on justice for man .6 Does not the preoccupation with morality tend to divest of immediate devotion to God? Why should a worldly like justice be so important to the Holy of Israel? Did not the prophets overrate the wroth of justice?

Perhaps the answer lies here: righteousness is not just a value; it is God's part of human life, God's stake in human history. Perhaps it is because the suffering of man is a blot upon God's conscience; because it is in relations between man and man that God is at stake. Or is it simply because the infamy of a wicked act is infinitely greater than we are able to imagine? People act as they please, doing what is vile, abusing the weak, not realizing that they are fighting God, affronting the divine, or that the oppression of man is a humiliation of God. He who oppresses a poor man insults his Maker He who is kind to the needy honors God. Proverbs 14:31; cf. 17:5 The is done. The greater masterpiece still undone, still in the process of being created, is history...It is within the realm of history that man is charged with God's mission.

Justice is not an ancient custom, a human convention, a value, but a transcendent demand, freighted with divine concern. It is not only a relationship between man and man, it is an act involving God, a divine need. The Prophets, p. 252-253

ז. The greatness of that Selma march continues to reverberate because it was not simply a political .7 event, but an extraordinary moral and religious event as well. For my father, the march was a deeply spiritual occasion. When he came home, he said, "I felt my legs were praying." His only regret, he later wrote, was that "Jewish religious institutions have again missed a great opportunity, namely, to interpret a Civil Rights movement in terms of Judaism. The vast number of Jews participating actively in it are totally unaware of what the movement means in terms of the prophetic traditions." Susannah Heschel, Intro to The Prophets

ח. Mayors issue curfews. Governors rattle their sabers. The National Guard arrives to protect" .8 property and police. Where was the National Guard when you faced violent police officers, violent white terrorists, the violence of racial health disparities, the violence of COVID-19—all the racist power and policy and ideas that kept the black experience in the American nightmare for 400 years?"

- Ibram X Kendi, "The American Nightmare"

ט. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel .9 is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods.

י. Strangled by Police: Psalm of Protest 17 .10 A psalm of protest, In memory of George Floyd, Sung at the gates of justice, When black men are strangled in the streets, When power is abused and jails overflow, When the voiceless are forgotten and minorities misused. Open, you gates! Open to the cries of those murdered, jailed or harassed For being black, For being a person of color, For being homeless, indigent, destitute or unwanted, The detained, the hounded, The pursued and the persecuted, Those who are killed while being restrained. Open, you gates! Let righteousness flow forth as living waters, And truth flow forth as healing balm, To still the hand of violence and hatred, To cure the heart of bigotry and racism, To herald fairness and equality, And bring justice to this land. © 2020 Alden Solovy

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