Stay the Course

Additional resources

 

We’ve gathered some resources that will keep the learning going in your community. We will periodically post webinars, podcasts, videos, articles and what reading lists that can be used for text studies in your Tzedek groups. Let us know how you used them!

Holiday Resources that Reflect The Multitudes

Beyond Juneteenth

Updated Haggadah for Juneteeth for 5783!

  • Judaism Unbound: Beyond the Count- Ilana Kaufman & Ari Kelman

    Ilana Kaufman is the Executive Director of the Jews Of Color Initiative, which recently commissioned a study entitled Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color. Ari Y. Kelman was a member of the research team that conducted the study. The two of them join Dan and Lex for a conversation about this new study, and how we might apply its findings to American-Jewish life, now and in the future.

    Certain parts of this episode reference particular parts of the study, and it may be helpful to have the study open on your computer as you listen. You can access the full study by clicking here.

    Listen Here

  • Judaism Unbound: The Jewish-Asian Film Project

    LUNAR: The Jewish Asian Film Project, cultivates connection, belonging and visibility for Asian American Jews through authentic multimedia storytelling and intersectional community programming. Jenni Rudolph, LUNAR's Executive Creative Director, and Gen Xia Ye Slosberg, LUNAR's Executive Producer, join Dan and Lex to explore the origin and first season of LUNAR. They also offer a sneak preview of season 2, to be released on October 6th, 2021 (just a few days after this podcast episode's release!).

    Listen Here

  • Judaism Unbound: The Power of Should

    Ginna Green and Lynn Harris, co-hosts of A Bintel Brief, explore their evolution from an advice column from over 100 years ago to an oral podcast. They also consider the value of one of the scariest words, in Jewish communities and in our broader society, “should.”

    Listen Here
Judaism Unbound Episode 232: Why the Uncounted Count- Ilana Kaufman

Judaism Unbound Episode 232: Why the Uncounted Count- Ilana Kaufman

[1] Learn more about Ilana Kaufman here, and learn more about the work of the Jews of Color Initiative at JewsOfColorInitiative.org.

[2] Kaufman references the 2019 study Counting Inconsistencies: An Analysis of American Jewish Population Studies, with a Focus on Jews of Color. Access it by clicking here.

[3] See Ilana Kaufman’s 2015 Eli Talk, entitled Racism in the Jewish Community: The Uncomfortable Truth, by clicking the video on the right.

[4] Kaufman closes the episode by referencing a number of partner-organizations working to empower and celebrate Jews of Color. Learn more about them at this link.

Judaism Unbound Episode 233: The Torah of Jews of Color- Arielle Korman and Mira Rivera

Judaism Unbound Episode 233: The Torah of Jews of Color- Arielle Korman and Mira Rivera

[1] Learn more about Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy at Ammud.org. Check out Arielle Korman’s bio here, and Mira Rivera’s here.

[2] Listen in to previous episodes in this ongoing series, spotlighting organizations empowering Jews of Color, by clicking on any of the following links: Episode 231: A JCC for JOCs (Jews of Color) - Yitz Jordan, Episode 232: Why the Uncounted Count - Ilana Kaufman (more episodes to come in the next few weeks).

[3] Learn more about Bend The Arc’s Selah Leadership Program (and its cohorts specifically designed for Jews of Color), which played an influential role in the story of Ammud, by clicking here.

[4] For a recent article looking at Ammud’s work, along with the work of many other organizations, see a recent JTA piece by Josefin Dolsten, entitled “Jewish communities are finally paying attention to Jews of color. Here’s the long road to how they got there.”

Judaism Unbound Episode 33: JewAsian- Helen Kim and Noah Leavitt

Judaism Unbound Episode 33: JewAsian- Helen Kim and Noah Leavitt

Whitman College's Helen Kim and Noah Leavitt (Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Students, respectively), join Judaism Unbound for an episode on their book, entitled JewAsian. [1] The book discards the idea that provides an in-depth exploration of two important groups of people: couples made up of one Jewish partner and one Asian partner (the Asian individuals may or may not be Jewish themselves) and the children of such relationships. Kim and Leavitt discuss their findings with co-hosts Dan and Lex, along with a wide variety of related topics as they relate to the ever-shifting landscape of contemporary American Judaism.

 
 

The doll test

The "doll test" is a psychological experiment designed in the 1940s in the USA to test the degree of marginalization felt by African American children caused by prejudice, discrimination and racial segregation. These implicit bias tests show just how young we are when we start breathing the ‘smog.’

 
 

Click the image to access the podcast.

 


Love Thy Neighbor

Thirty years ago, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, a car accident set off four days of unrest. Two people died. Dozens were injured. Hundreds were arrested. In this Pineapple Street Studios series, journalist Collier Meyerson explores what came to be known as the “Crown Heights Riot.” It’s a story about immigration, New York City’s first Black mayor, the rise of Rudy Giuliani, and the Lubavitch Jewish and Caribbean-American communities sitting at the center of it all. To Meyerson, the Crown Heights Riot can help us unlock and understand so many of our modern dilemmas: from police violence and racism to the persistence of antisemitism.

 

Race: the power of an illusion

The division of the world's peoples into distinct groups - "red," "black," "white" or "yellow" peoples - has became so deeply imbedded in our psyches, so widely accepted, many would promptly dismiss as crazy any suggestion of its falsity. Yet, that's exactly what this provocative, new three-hour series by California Newsreel claims. Race - The Power of an Illusion questions the very idea of race as biology, suggesting that a belief in race is no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth.

Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.

Watch the trailer to the left and the link to the full documentary is in the title.

Looking Back at Jews and the Civil Rights Movement
with Dr. Jason Schulman

From the JTS Series: The Other in Jewish Text and Tradition

Download presentation slides
Download text only (for printing)

 

reading lists

adult reading

  • Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue by Terrence L. Johnson and Jacques Berlinerblau

  • Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

  • The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

  • The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

  • My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem

  • The Color of Love by Marra B. Gad

  • Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s by Marc Dollinger

  • How Jews Became White Folks & What That Says About Race in America by Karen Brodkin

  • The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America by Bruce D. Haynes

  • Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

  • Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi

  • The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

  • What Does It Mean to Be White?: Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin D’Angelo

  • White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo

parenting

for kids

  • The Very Best Sukkah: A Story From Uganda by Shoshana Nambi

  • The Secret Shofar of Barcelona by Jacqueline Dembar Greene

  • Falasha No More: An Ethiopian Jewish Child Comes Home by Arlene Kushner and Amy Kalina

  • My Name is Rachanim by Jonathan P. Kendall

  • Passover Around the World by Tami Lehman-Wilzig and Elizabeth Wolf

  • Hanukkah: Eight Lights Around the World by Susan Sussman

  • Osnat and Her Dove by Sigal Samuel and Naomi Samuel

  • Buen Shabbat by Sara Aroeste

  • A Key From Spain by Debbie Levy

  • The Cross by Day, Mezuzzah by Night by Deborah Spector Siegel

  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi

  • Baby Goes to Market by Atinuke

  • Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o

  • Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty

  • A Way With Wild Things by Larissa Theule

  • I Am Enough by Grace Byers

  • Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller

  • Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora

  • Saturday by Oge Mora

  • Once Upon a World: Cinderella by Chloe Perkins

  • Julian in a Mermaid by Jessica Love

  • Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman

  • Once Upon a World: Rapunzel by Chloe Perkins

articles

 

How Antisemitism Fuels White Nationalism

Antisemitism has been called the oldest hatred in the world. How does it adapt and why does it endure? SET THE WORLD ON FIRE is a virtual town hall on conspiracy theories that never die and ancient hatreds that harm us all. Learn more at https://www.pbs.org/wnet/exploring-hate/ “Conspiracy theories give people a way to think they’re responding to the real anxieties and suffering of our times but in misplacing accountability, they only serve to increase the danger.” – Racial Justice Activist Eric Ward Bringing new insights to urgent problems, Hari Sreenivasan, PBS NewsHour Weekend anchor and contributor to Amanpour and Company, moderates a conversation between racial justice activist Eric Ward, American University Professor Pamela Nadell, former Homeland Security analyst Daryl Johnson, and former white nationalist Derek Black.

The Largest study ever of jews of color. what did it find?

The Jews of Color Initiative published the findings of its "Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color" survey, the largest survey of Jews of Color to date. It found most of us experience discrimination, only half of us feel like we belong, and only a minority of us are converts. What does this mean for Jewish communities and Jewish institutions? Y-LOVE gives his take on this historic undertaking.

Lunar: THe asian Jewish film project

23 Asian American Jews examine identity through the lens of food. Through sharing memories of foods from our Asian and Jewish cultures, the LUNAR cast discusses Asian and Jewish food philosophies, intertwined food history, and the many possibilities (and limitations) of Jewish-Asian fusion food.

 

We Are Family: Rethinking Race in the Jewish Community | Rabbi Angela Buchdahl |Yom Kippur 5781/2020

"I'm suggesting that it is time to stop thinking of Jewish Peoplehood as a race. Instead, think of Jewish Peoplehood as a family."

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl's powerful and personal Yom Kippur sermon, "'We Jews Are Not a Race': A Rabbi of Color Speaks Personally on Yom Kippur," examines how Jews have evolved to include many people that don't necessarily "look Jewish."

 

Racism in the jewish community: the uncomfortable truth

The racial and ethnic makeup of America is changing, and with it the face of the American Jewish community; are our communal institutions equipped to deal with this change? In a powerful and personal talk, Ilana Kaufman makes the case for counting - and accounting for - all the Jewish people.

 

Intersectionality as a Jewish Practice

Yavilah McCoy speaks on "Intersectionality as a Jewish Practice" during Avodah's speaker series, Speak Torah to Power. Yavilah McCoy is the CEO of the international diversity consulting group, VISIONS Inc. in Boston. She is also the founder of Ayecha, one of the first nonprofit Jewish organizations to provide Jewish diversity education and advocacy for Jews of Color in the United States.

 

What Makes This Jew Different Than All Other Jews? Race, Difference, and Safety in Jewish Spaces

We are a people of questions, but perhaps certain types of questions directed at certain kinds of people diminish the safety of all of us. A modern liberal idea? MaNishtana thinks not; he explains that checking people at the door is not something we Jews can or should recognize as traditional.

Did you find these resources useful?