Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in January, 2021. The first Zoom meeting to plan a new survey about Jews of color had Ilana Kaufman geeking out. “I was just…
Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in June, 2020. In the summer of 2010, Yitz Jordan, a hip-hop artist and activist, and Shais Rishon, an Orthodox rabbi and writer, attended…
No one should be shocked by what happened Wednesday in Washington. The mob that crashed into the Capitol building and carried the flaccid banners of white supremacy to the floor of the House did not suddenly start marching following President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. “If you’re at all surprised by what’s happening now,”…
Last Shabbat, when the news spread that Joe Biden had won, I breathed a sigh of relief. Along with my family and millions in the U.S. and the world over I felt that a massive burden had been lifted from our shoulders and that we could, therefore, breathe freely again. Then it struck me that…
The moment is seared in my memory: It’s 1990, and I’m carpooling to the University of Connecticut Storrs campus with my new best friend Adrienne, whose mother is Jewish and from Oslo, Norway, where I grew up. We are sitting at a light on Albany Avenue in Hartford, Conn., and I use the word schvartzes…
Two years ago, I visited the National Memorial to Truth & Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, had just opened the site two weeks before. As I watched other visitors walk around the large blocks, inscribed with the names of Black citizens lynched by white people, I was…
For as long as I can remember, being Jewish has been my primary identity. Once I came out in my early 40s, I embraced being gay as my second primary identity. I am proud to be both. Yet, why am I reluctant about being white? Growing up I never thought about this. You could count…
Over the past 48 hours, my social media outlets have blown up over recent anti-Semitic comments made by an Eagles footballer, DeSean Jackson. I have seen many of my white Jewish colleagues, students, friends and public leaders come out publicly denouncing and calling out the anti-Semitic comments. I am not here to defend the anti-Semitic…
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