6 | JULY 2 • 2020 

H

abitually in response 
to racial tensions, 
American Jews will 
pridefully retell our part in the 
founding of the NAACP and 
reminisce about 
the staunch ally-
ship during the 
fight for Civil 
Rights. Fifty-
five years after a 
promise of equal 
rights, we see 
more marches 
and protests 
demanding justice and equal-
ity. The most popular move-
ment of today is Black Lives 
Matter.
When Soviet Jews needed our 
help, we acted. We didn’
t dis-
tract by saying “all lives matter.
” 

It is the same today: a spot-
light has shone on Black lives. 
We are called on to place focus 
toward changing the system 
that has greatly disadvan-
taged and threatened Black, 
Indigenous and people of color. 
The systems in place that 
have created this disparity 
began with the European colo-
nization of America, and with 
African and African American 
enslavement throughout the 
17th, 18th and 19th centuries, 
then mass incarceration and Jim 
Crow Laws, and presents itself 
today in a number of institu-
tionalized racist practices and 
policies like in housing and loan 
discrimination, disproportion-
ate arrest and conviction rates 
in the justice system, unfair 

education funding and voter 
suppression, just to name a few.
As a white-passing Ashkenazi 
Jew, I stand at an interesting 
intersection — I’
m a person 
of generational trauma and a 
victim of white supremacy on 
one hand, and a person who is 
afforded white privilege on the 
other. Many of you are like me 
in this regard. 
White privilege is my ability 
to speak to you about race and 
not be seen as self-seeking. It 
is also the fact that I don’
t have 
to prepare or warn my children 
that they will be viewed as less 
than fully American or profiled 
as violent, threatening or sus-
picious — just because of the 
color of their skin.
Today’
s discourse demands 

we actually recognize race in 
order to eradicate the bigotry 
and prejudice that surround it. 
As uncomfortable as it is, begin 
to understand your own racial 
biases and prejudices because 
once you gain this self-aware-
ness you can work to diminish 
them. Embrace this work 
because it will shape a better 
future not only for our Black 
family and friends, but also for 
the future of American Judaism 
— one more naturally inclu-
sive of Jews of color — more 
representative of the entire Am 
Yisrael.
Some of you have said: “I 
am not a racist, but Black Lives 
Matter doesn’
t care about me.
”
When one large, diverse, fluid 
movement with an overarch-

essay
Treat Yourself to a Hartman Summer in Detroit

Views

O

ut of crisis comes 
opportunity. At the 
Shalom Hartman 
Institute, we are proud that 500 
rabbis, community leaders, 
students and pro-
fessionals come 
together at our 
Jerusalem campus 
each summer for 
serious Jewish 
study to address 
the greatest issues 
and ideas of our 
day. This summer, due to the 
pandemic, we sadly cannot 
gather in Jerusalem. Though the 
campus is closed, the Hartman 
Beit Midrash (study hall) is now 
open to the world — and free. 
More than 3,000 rabbis, com-
munity leaders, students and 
Jewish professionals are already 
registered to join online for 
our new summer initiative, All 

Together Now: Jewish Ideas for 
This Moment, taking place now 
through July 23. 
Our Detroit Jewish com-
munity can take advantage of 
this because it means we can 
all attend. Twenty of our local 
Jewish lay leaders, in partner-
ship with the JCRC/ACJ, have 
spent the last nine months 
studying with faculty members 
from the Hartman Institute. 
They discussed issues of par-
ticularism and universalism, 
anti-Semitism, nationalism, 
notions of Jewish peoplehood 
and more. They read articles, 
books and texts that challenged 
their thinking. They were 
excited to spend 10 days this 
summer in Jerusalem as part 
of a culminating experience 
through Hartman’
s Community 
Leadership Program. 
They are moving forward 

with their course of study, albeit 
online, and the new arrange-
ment means you can join them. 
Hartman sessions are educa-
tionally challenging, but they 
are also delightful, and the more 
people from Detroit who attend, 
the stronger and better informed 
our community will be. 
The Hartman Institute is 
uniquely positioned to share 
important ideas and convene 
conversations. Hartman’
s 
month-long series of seminars, 
lectures, electives and cultural 
events will include discussions 
surrounding the challenges the 
Jewish community faces locally 
and abroad in the face of threats 
to justice, changes in nation-
alism and, of course, the novel 
coronavirus. 
Speakers will address Israeli 
politics (annexation, coalition 
and more), Israeli culture (poet-

ry, music and more) and Jewish 
angles on American culture, 
morality, spirituality and peo-
plehood. There are hundreds 
of impactful choices filled with 
ideas for us to apply to our own 
lives. 
I hope that the wider Detroit 
Jewish community will join me, 
our local lay and profession-
al leaders from Detroit, and 
others around the world as we 
engage in a summer filled with 
Hartman Torah — a summer 
that will surely offer restoration, 
comfort, the opportunity to 
wrestle with ideas and challeng-
ing topics. I hope to “see” you 
there. 
Registration information can 
be found at shalomhartman.
org. 

Rebecca Starr is Midwest Manager of 

the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Rebecca 
Starr

guest column
Be an Anti-Racist

Ariana 
Mentzel

continued on page 10

