Haverot/im —
Below you will find a picture of us, Rabbi David and Hazzan Harold, standing at the top of Beth Am Israel’s driveway beside our new Black Lives Matter banner. As the banner itself articulates, we are part of a coalition of ‘Lower Merion Faith Communities’ committed to ‘Stand Together Against Racism’. This same banner, or ones like it, now stand in front of many houses of worship in our township. We’re honored to stand together with our neighbors and friends of many faiths and traditions in the ongoing struggle against racial injustice in our society.
Please know that much of the organized American Jewish community has taken a similar position of support. Just last week, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly, offered these points:
- BlackLivesMatter is a broad-based idea linked to a wide range of institutions and leaders initiated by the Black community in its struggle to seek justice and to eliminate systemic racism. There is no one organization responsible for its thinking. Much as the Jewish community is extremely diverse (even our Conservative/Masorti movement is quite diverse!), that is also the case in the Black community. [See this analysis of the BLM movement from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) for more information.]
- Leaders in the Black community have spoken out forcefully against violence and antisemitism, and have been important allies to our own community in the face of the increase in antisemitism (including leaders who do not agree on all of our community’s positions).
- At this moment when many in the Black community are hurting, it’s important for us to express our presence and solidarity (including Black members of the Jewish community), just as other communities have stood with us, sometimes putting aside their own assumptions or differences, in the face of antisemitism.
In that spirit, the USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly joined hundreds of Jewish organizations and communities in signing a letter that appeared in the New York Times marking the 57th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington. That letter concluded with these words:
“The Black Lives Matter movement is the current day Civil Rights Movement in this country, and it is our best chance at equity and justice. By supporting this movement we can build a country that fulfills the promise of freedom, unity, and safety for all of us, no exceptions.”
Our banner means to convey that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors and friends in the pursuit of liberty and justice for all. We display it with humility and hope. Please reach out to any of us with questions or concerns. We look forward to the conversation.
L’shalom,
Rabbi David Ackerman
Hazzan Harold Messinger
Lori Dafilou
Leo Fuhrman
Phyllis Blumberg
