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