3 minute read
Jewish mom Mandy Gonzalez
News and Jewish Community Update
jewishcentralmass.org
WE ALL HAVE A LEGACY. HAVE YOU SHARED YOURS?
Things I’ve done since March:
• I’ve stopped calling it “social distancing.” I’m calling it “physical distancing” because I’m trying very hard to stay “socially close” to family and friends. • I’ve started weekly date nights with my husband and other couples via Zoom. • I’ve planted a garden. • I’ve donated to the local food pantry. • I’ve bought gift certificates to all my favorite restaurants.
• I’ve attended Shabbat via Zoom.
• I donated to my favorite Jewish camp under the Harold Grinspoon Foundation matching program, All Together Now. The HGF is matching up to $10 Million of gifts made to participating Jewish overnight camps affiliated with the JCamp 180 program. • I took my children to a Black Lives Matter rally and reached out to my friends of color to affirm that I am an ally.
LEAH SHULDINER
All of these actions are part of my legacy. My legacy giving is just a small piece of who I am and of what I have to share. Send me an email at legacy@jfcm.org to tell me about what you have been doing since March. I’d love it if you would share your story with me.
WE ALL HAVE A LEGACY. HAVE YOU SHARED YOURS?
Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance
The Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance (WBJA) is a partnership of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and the Worcester chapter of the NAACP. It was formed in 2017 in order to strengthen the historic relationship between our communities. Since its inception the WBJA has sponsored several cultural events, including two Black-Jewish concerts, a screening of a documentary film, and a Unity Seder.
More recently the Alliance issued the following statement condemning the killing of George Floyd and calling for systemic change in our institutions to bring justice and fair treatment to all in our society.
STATEMENT FROM THE WORCESTER BLACK-JEWISH ALLIANCE REGARDING THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD
The Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance condemns the brutal murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman who was abetted by three other policemen.
The Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance, a partnership of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and the Worcester chapter of the NAACP, was founded in 2016. It was formed because Jews and African Americans have much in common, particularly that we have both known slavery, oppression and discrimination.
The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who marched alongside King from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In this moment of American history, in the aftermath of the tragic killing of George Floyd, we recall Heschel’s words: “The opposite of good is not evil; the opposite of good is indifference. In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”
We, all of us, are not guilty, but we are responsible. We are responsible to raise our voices in pain and anger and protest to bring positive changes to a system that is rife with racism and injustice—in our schools, in our economy, in our government, and in a system of justice which is laden with injustice.
In 1963 Rabbi Heschel spoke at a National Conference on Race and Religion, where he referred to the biblical story of the Exodus as “the first conference on race and religion.” And there, at that first conference, Heschel said, “The main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The Exodus began,” asserted Heschel, “but is far from having been completed.”
In 1963, while imprisoned in Birmingham, AL as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations, Dr. King wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
The death of George Floyd is another tragic reminder that our nation’s admirable aspiration of “freedom and justice for all” remains beyond our grasp. There remains a wide chasm between the ideals upon which our country was founded and the realities of injustice and oppression that remain unresolved. Good people of all faiths and backgrounds must unite to work together to continue writing that Exodus story, so that all our citizens can enjoy the freedom and justice of America’s promise.
