(JTA) — Four years ago, the Movement for Black Lives put out a platform that, among a long list of detailed policy recommendations, accused Israel of genocide. Several major Jewish organizations expressed their outrage and put out statements condemning the platform. On Friday, the Movement for Black Lives convened… Read more »
Tagged Black Lives Matter
Reform movement gets $600,000 grant to support racial justice and improve diversity
(JTA) — The Reform movement has received a $600,000 multi-year grant to support racial equity, inclusion and diversity work. The Union for Reform Judaism said Wednesday that it had received funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to fight racism and back inclusion across its institutions. Reform is the largest… Read more »
After George Floyd, Jewish institutions consider their own shortcomings on race
When the protests over the police killing of George Floyd spread throughout the United States this spring, the moment served as a wakeup call not just for the country but for American Jews. Very quickly, leading Jewish institutions realized that the issue of racial justice wasn’t just about how… Read more »
Portland-area rabbis call on Department of Homeland Security to withdraw federal agents
(JTA) — Seven rabbis from the Portland, Oregon, area are pushing back against the Department of Homeland Security’s covert activity against protesters in their city. Portland has been the site of protests against racial inequality and police brutality for the past 50 nights, in the wake of the death… Read more »
What Hank Greenberg’s friendship with Jackie Robinson can teach us today
NEW YORK (JTA) — Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Zach Banner posted a video late last week in response to Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson’s anti-Semitic screed against Jews. After describing his horror at the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Banner preached that as important as the work of Black… Read more »
Tucson group joins over 400 Jewish groups and synagogues on letter supporting Black Lives Matter
(JTA) — More than 400 Jewish organizations and synagogues in the United States — including Tucson Jews for Justice — have signed on to a letter that asserts “unequivocally: Black Lives Matter.” The joint letter was an initiative of a diverse group of Jewish activists from across a range… Read more »
Pride Month isn’t the focus for LGBTQ Jews this year
(JTA) — Rick Landman still remembers how nervous he felt. Just 18, he had traveled to downtown Manhattan from his parents’ home in Queens for a march to mark the one-year anniversary of the violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar — an event that had kicked… Read more »
Amid a national reckoning over race, Jews are embracing Juneteenth
(JTA) — After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring delayed the launch of the website for TribeHerald, a new media company for Jews of color, founders Yitz Jordan and Rabbi Shais Rishon settled on a perfect alternative: the evening of June 18. After all, it would be… Read more »
How this iconic Yiddish song became an anthem for Black Americans
This story originally appeared on Kveller. What makes one person tick is totally subjective, but science confirms that people are hard-wired to respond to music. It lifts our moods, eases pain and triggers powerful emotions. Some songs become so popular that they transcend their original meaning. Take “I’ve Been… Read more »
Jewish community stands up for racial justice
The Southern Arizona Jewish community has joined communities across the globe in expressing outrage at the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. And it is grappling with how best to support the struggle for racial justice. On June… Read more »
Stop using Israel as an excuse not to support Black Lives Matter
This story originally appeared on Alma. Take a moment and remember where you were when you first heard about the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. I was in Tel Aviv getting ready to go to the movies after Havdalah. I didn’t end up going —… Read more »
ANALYSIS The false choice between Zionism and feminism
NEW YORK (JTA) — Two weeks ago the Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour started a fundraising campaign to help restore the graves at a St. Louis-area Jewish cemetery damaged by vandalism. The Jewish community there and across the country generally welcomed the effort — wildly successful, as it turned… Read more »
In linking Black Lives Matter with Palestinian cause, Miami lawmaker riles pro-Israel activists
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pro-Israel activists in the Miami area plan to protest a Florida state senator active in the Black Lives Matter movement who visited the West Bank as the guest of a group that backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Organizers of the protest against Dwight Bullard said… Read more »
Marking Tisha b’Av during a long, hot summer
(JTA) — As the fast day of Tisha b‘Av approaches, the summer heat and humidity is rising. That got me thinking: Does the solemn day have the stuff to raise our consciousness as well? Tisha b‘Av — this year it begins on the evening of Saturday, August 13 — marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples,… Read more »
Author of Black Lives Matter position on Israel defends ‘genocide’ claim
NEW YORK (JTA) — The co-author of the Black Lives Matter platform passage accusing Israel of “genocide” defended the term, saying Israel’s actions fit in its wider definition. Ben Ndugga-Kabuye co-authored the statement along with Rachel Gilmer, the former board member of a Zionist youth group. Ndugga-Kabuye told JTA… Read more »
Not just anti-Semitism: ADL boss seeks to broaden group’s reach
NEW YORK (JTA) — For more than a century, the Anti-Defamation League has been known as a group that combats anti-Semitism. But one year after taking the group’s helm, Jonathan Greenblatt wants it to focus on more than just the Jews. Greenblatt’s predecessor as ADL national director, Abraham Foxman,… Read more »
Op-Ed: Like Dr. King, American Jews should defend black lives – and Israel
NEW YORK (JTA) — Over the past two years, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” has embedded itself into the consciousness — and conscience — of America. The hashtag #BlackLives Matter emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and quickly became… Read more »
Op-Ed: Worried about intersectionality? Oppose the Israeli occupation
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (JTA) — David Bernstein, the new president of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, wrote in JTA last week about an important phenomenon impacting campus activism and debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: intersectionality. Bernstein observed that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, has been… Read more »