By Deborah Gardner, Special to The Jewish Sound
Against all odds, the struggle prevailed. A miracle followed something terrible.
Is this the story of Hanukkah or the story of the Black Lives Matter movement? It’s both, said Jews in Seattle and around the country who on the first night of Hanukkah held demonstrations and actions protesting patterns of white police officers killing African-Americans — including Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice — and of grand juries refusing to indict the officers involved.
Tuesday evening, I joined Seattle’s Jewish Day of Action to End Police Violence, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Participants lit candles, dedicating the year’s first Hanukkah light to the memory of Michael Brown, and said Mourner’s Kaddish for those killed by police in 2014. Carrying menorahs and signs reading “Another Jew For Racial Justice” and “Black Lives Matter,” a crowd of about 75 people walked from Pacific Place to Westlake Center. Candles flickered in an atmosphere simultaneously somber and celebratory, reflecting both anger over police killings and inspiration from a national movement that has flourished in response.
Holding this event on the first night of Hanukkah felt poignant for many. Wendy Somerson, a founding member of Seattle’s JVP chapter who co-organized the action, explained, “I think people were just really excited to be able to celebrate Hanukkah this way, to come out on the first night and to celebrate in community and with other Jewish folks — but also really having a message, too. We talked about rededication as the theme of Hanukkah, and the ways we can rededicate ourselves to racial justice.”
Participant Sarah Brickman agreed. “This idea of [having it on] Hanukkah really resonated for me because Hanukkah is the holiday where we celebrate the miracle that arises out of the violence, the miracle that arises out of cultural destruction,” she said. “I think that’s what I see happening in the country right now…people waking up and the massive amount of action that’s been happening; it is a kind of miracle.”
There seemed a particular symbolism to holding this on the first night of Hanukkah, the solitary light of which will grow eightfold during the holiday. Several participants voiced hope that the Black Lives Matter movement would continue growing, and that holding the action at the beginning of Hanukkah would remind participants of the importance of continued involvement.
“You have to nurture the flame and keep the flame alive,” Brickman said. “It’s really easy for us to forget about it after we get outraged and we go to protests…. I don’t want that to happen this time.”
“This is the beginning of Hanukkah, but it’s also the beginning of making ourselves visible as Jewish folks in this struggle,” said Somerson.
Jewish ideas and values inspired many of those present, even if the action was, as Somerson explained, less about a Jewish message or Jewish demands than about supporting the demands and priorities coming from Ferguson Action, the Black Lives Matter movement, and black communities in Seattle.
“I think it is absolutely a Jewish value to stand up for social justice and racial justice,” Somerson noted, adding that tikkun olam includes healing from racial violence and racism. She cited the Talmudic concept that every person represents a whole world, and thus killing a person — or saving a life — means killing or saving a whole world.
Beyond inspiring action, the event also felt like an opportunity to build bridges within the Jewish community — including between Jews who may disagree strongly about other issues — over the shared goal of fighting racism. JVP describes itself as “a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights.”
Because of JVP’s anti-racist mission, Somerson felt joining the U.S. movement made sense. But JVP’s work is usually focused on the Israel–Palestine conflict, and is not without controversy in parts of the Jewish community due to outspoken critiques of Israel’s government. While JVP’s organizing of the event may have been a deterrent for some and a draw for others, Somerson observed that “for the first time I’ve seen synagogues posting our event, and they usually won’t post our events when they’re about Palestine. So I think this moment of standing up for racial justice is one that can bring us all together and that we can start finding ways to disagree and still work against racism, including the racism in Israel.”
Jewish involvement in this movement isn’t just about solidarity, given that of course the Jewish community encompasses both white Jews and Jews of color. The shared message is that black lives matter but, as Somerson described, “Some of us who are white are here in solidarity, and some who aren’t are here because it’s their families who are being targeted.”
For Brickman, participating was about recognizing her own privilege in a racist system.
“As a white Jew,” she said, “it’s important for me to stand up and think about how I do benefit from this racist system and the ways that it’s something that I am complicit in unless I am doing everything I can to stop it and try to fight against it.”
Somerson echoes Brickman’s sentiment when considering next steps. The focus, she says, is to support black leadership and the demands from the movements, stand up for racial justice, and refuse to be silent and complicit. What’s at stake is bigger than a holiday season or an upcoming new year.
But it may be more inspirational too. As the event drew to a close, participant Jax Hermer reflected, “I’m here because it’s a beautiful opportunity…to connect with community and recognize that all of our liberation is bound together.”
For now, Hanukkah serves as a reminder that racial justice shouldn’t take a miracle.
Very sorry to see that The Jewish Sound provides space for the propaganda of the radical left-wing anti=-Zionist Jewish Voices for Peace. Jewish Voices for Peace is neither: not a Jewish voice in terms of commitment to Jewish principle and certainly not for peace. In fact, its ultimate objective is the delegitimization and, ultimately, the destruction of the State of Israel by whatever means. It allies itself with Israel’s enemies.
It’s a tiny group of vociferous individuals unrepresentative of the broader Jewish community. It is unfortunate that The Jewish Sound buys into the argument that beause JVP has Jewish members it should be recognized as a legitimate “Jewish” perspective. The members may be Hebrew ethnically, but “Jewish” in terms of Jewish principle is another question entirely. Shame on you.
It is because of this nonsense that I discontinued my subscription to The Jewish Transcript after many years of being a subscriber.