Mayim Bialik Blasts ‘Absurd’ Yom Kippur Date For Racial Justice March
Mayim Bialik. Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Jewish actress Mayim Bialik called out the March for Racial Justice for taking place on Yom Kippur.
In a Facebook post Sunday, Bialik complained that the timing of the march against white supremacy, scheduled for Sept. 30 in Washington, D.C., excludes Jews, who traditionally spend Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, fasting and praying.
“anyone else think that’s absurd?,”she wrote in a mostly lowercase text. “i mean, it automatically excludes a distinct portion of people who historically have stood up for racial equality in enormous ways.”
Bialik, a star of “The Big Bang Theory” TV sitcom who publicly embraces her Jewish identity and practice, doubted that the scheduling was an oversight, saying “And trust me: it’s on every calendar they checked before setting the date.”
Earlier Sunday, March for Racial Justice organizers posted their own statement on Facebook in which they apologized for the “scheduling conflict” and voiced appreciation for the Jews’ history of progressive activism. They repeatedly singled out Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who famously marched alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
