Jewish faith leaders have a long history of fighting for racial justice, says Deborah Miles, a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council and former executive director of UNC Asheville’s Center for Diversity Education. “One of the first images that comes to mind of the civil rights movement is Rabbi [Abraham Joshua] Heschel marching with Dr. [Martin Luther] King in Montgomery,” she says.
In Asheville, the Jewish community continues this legacy through its collaborations with organizations like Carolina Jews for Justice, the Racial Justice Coalition, CoThinkk and BeLoved Asheville.
In response to George Floyd’s killing, Miles is creating a four-part online series on historical and contemporary issues related to race relations within the Jewish community. The production, intended for local Jewish congregations, debuted its first session on July 28.
“We need to normalize the conversation,” Miles says. “We have to develop the language for it and put the language into practice.”
One key message that Miles examines in the series is how hate fuels hate. “Racism needs anti-Semitism; misogyny needs homophobia — all the oppressions are linked,” she says. “When folks are trying to tear people apart, they pit targets against each other. So rather than working in solidarity with each other, we work at cross-purposes. That’s part of how oppression works.”
One remedy, says Judy Leavitt of Carolina Jews for Justice, is building relationships with unlikely allies. “I’ve worked with people who are anti-Semitic,” she reveals. “And until they got to know me, they basically believed that I had horns on my head and that I had personally killed Christ.”
Another solution is educating and empowering the youth, says Rochelle Reich, executive director of Congregation Beth Israel in North Asheville. Shortly after Floyd’s death, Reich’s 13-year-old son, Logan, led the congregation’s weekly online youth service. Speaking on racial justice, Logan proclaimed:
“In Psalm 133, we read ‘how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.’ It doesn’t say ‘in tolerance.’ It doesn’t say ‘in disparity.’ It doesn’t say to dwell ‘in inequity.’ We must embrace the simple fact that the problems of one are the problems of all of us. And once we do, only then can we dwell in unity — and it will be good and it will be pleasant.”
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