H eadlines
Mummers Return in 2022, Embrace Change
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
OVER JACK COHEN’S 45
years as a Mummer, he’s seen
the Mummers Parade undergo
a whole host of changes, and
this year is no different.

Associated with an amalga-
mation of European cultures
dating to the 17th century,
the parade is a hallmark of
Philadelphia’s New Year’s
celebrations, a symbol of
masquerade and Philadelphia’s
cheeky spirit since it was first
inaugurated by the city in 1901.

But like most other institu-
tions, it’s had to weather the
pandemic and reckon with past
and present systemic racism
and discrimination.

“Everybody recognizes that
we have a lot of work to do,”
Cohen said. He believes these
changes are for the better.

The Mummers Parade has
a checkered past of costumes
and acts crossing boundaries
into racism, antisemitism
and transphobia. In 1964, the
Jewish Community Relations
Council of Greater Philadelphia
denounced blackface at the
parade. The Philadelphia
NAACP at the time filed a
8 DECEMBER 23, 2021
In 2018, the Quaker City String Band consulted with JCRC of Greater
Philadelphia about a culturally sensitive performance of “Fiddler on the
Roof.” Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
petition in court against black-
face use, JCRC of Greater
Philadelphia Director Jason
Holtzman said.

In 2016, the Anti-Defamation
League Philadelphia wrote
a letter to the Philadelphia
Mummers String
Band Association, the Mummers
parent organization, in response
to continued bigotry carried
out by a small minority of club
members. “We also urged the Mummers
Association to reject bigotry
and set some common-sense
policies, including screening for
hateful content and educating
members about bias,” ADL
Philadelphia Interim Regional
Director Robin Burstein said.

That same year, parade
organizers initiated sensitivity
training for the Mummers.

Opening a dialogue among
Mummers on cultural sensi-
tivity was helpful, Holtzman
said. In 2018, the Quaker City
String Band approached JCRC
about wanting to perform
a parody of “Fiddler on the
Roof” for its parade act. JCRC
consulted on appropriate
costumes and phrases the club
could or couldn’t use.

“Even having to admit that
they wanted to be culturally
sensitive, and having them
admit that they’re a bit ignorant
on these issues ... that’s a win
in and of itself,” Holtzman said.

However, in 2020, in lieu
of a parade, a small group of
Mummers created a Facebook
page organizing a protest
against Philadelphia Mayor
Jim Kenney, who canceled the
Broad Street celebration due to
the pandemic. The Facebook
page featured images of the
Star of David and cartoon frogs
bearing resemblance to Pepe
the Frog, a meme used by white
supremacist Richard Spencer.

The ADL condemned the
Facebook page, and Mummers
leadership distanced themselves
from the protest.

For the 2022 parade, sensi-
tivity training for all Mummers
is mandatory by the city.

According to Philadelphia
Parks and Recreation officials,
this year’s training consisted of
sessions on cultural appropria-
tion, rules of satire and LGBTQ
cultural competence — all from
the 2016 training — in addition
to an added bias awareness
JEWISH EXPONENT
Mummer Ed Cox of the Golden Sunrise club, of which Jack Cohen is
president Jewish Exponent archives
training and requirement to
have all themes for the parade
pre-approved by the city.

According to Cohen — the
president of the association’s
Fancy division and Golden
Sunrise club — Mummers have
been receptive to the training.

He organized a viewing of the
training videos with Golden
Sunrise at its South Philly
clubhouse. “There’s not been any pushback,
which is what I expected,” Cohen
said. “This is one of the ways that
we educate ourselves. So it’s not a
bad thing — we never look at it as
a bad thing.”
He said acts of bigotry
are conducted by only a vast
minority of Mummers.

Cohen considered Golden
Sunrise to be diverse compared
to other Mummers clubs. Most
of the members are women —
for most of its history, only men
were allowed to participate in
the parade. The club board has
a handful of Jews and people of
color as well, he said.

Golden Sunrise has an
open-door policy, when it comes
to new members, Cohen said,
and not just because the club
touts a diverse demographic
and openness to change. It’s
necessary to the club’s survival.

“Whether they’re a Mummer
club or whether they’re a
bowling league, people have
had trouble attracting new
members,” Cohen said.

Golden Sunrise is part of
the Mummers’ Fancy category,
one of four in the parade. The
club has been the only one
in its category since 2015. In
the 1990s, the Mummers
String Band Association was
composed of 27 clubs; it now
consists of 14 clubs and 10,000
members, Cohen said.

COVID hasn’t helped atten-
dance either. This year’s parade,
complete with masking, is
scaled back from 40 acts to 25.

Cohen has noticed more
Philadelphia transplants and
younger families taking interest
in the parade this year, however.

Among the new performers is
a group of Black drummers, a
decision that elicited skepticism
from some Mummers, Cohen
said. But it’s perhaps emblem-
atic of the future of the parade.

“I thought, you know ...

they’re not really Mummers,
but that didn’t matter ... It was
to showcase what they wanted
to showcase,” Cohen said.

“And isn’t that what it’s about
— celebrating the New Year
and not if you have too many
feathers on your costume?” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Hebron Strengthens Ties with Local Help
of the Judea and Samaria
Chamber of Commerce Ashraf
Jabari, with whom Fleisher has
shared glatt kosher Iftar meals
in Jabari’s home. Jabari agreed
to buy and set off a series of
fireworks for Fleisher’s daugh-
ter’s bat mitzvah.

Earlier this month, Fleisher
received a call from a teacher
in Israel hoping to bring her
students to the Cave of the
Patriarch and Matriarchs, but
who couldn’t afford transpor-
tation. Fleisher called the bus
company and paid the class’
bus fare.

Fleisher and Barrack met
through Melissa Jane Kronfeld,
founder of Passion for a
Purpose, a New York-based
social impact consultancy.

Kronfeld has worked with
Fleisher for three years, when
she made aliyah, and is inspired
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
YISHAI FLEISHER,
the international spokesperson
for the Jewish community
in Hebron, is working to
strengthen that city with the
help of Philadelphia-based
attorney and philanthropist
Jeffrey Barrack.

In late October, Barrack
met Fleisher and suggested
he erect a Chanukiah on top
of the city’s Beit Hadassah
Visitors Center and Museum.

Hebron, a city nestled in the
Judean Mountains in the West
Bank, is host to only 10,000
Jews among more than 200,000
Palestinians. The day after Barrack
suggested the idea, Fleisher
came back to him with a price
estimate from a local metal
shop. “And within three weeks,
we have this giant, gorgeous
Chanukiah at the very top of
all of Hebron,” Fleisher said.

Israel President Isaac
Herzog visited Hebron on
the first night of Chanukah
and lit the Chanukah candles
at the Cave of the Patriarchs
and Matriarchs. Fleisher said
there was “no question about
it” that Herzog would have
seen Fleisher and Barrack’s
Chanukiah. “Putting up that menorah
was a celebration of Jewish
life and coexistence in Judea,”
Barrack said.

But Fleisher’s job is more
than just putting up a
Chanukiah for the city’s Jewish
population. Since assuming
the position in 2015, Fleisher
has been responsible for
maintaining Jewish-Palestinian
relations in the city, advocating
for Hebron as a place of
profound Jewish import and
encouraging aliyah.

“My job is, on the one hand,
to push off some of the negative
imagery that is associated with
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM by his “doer” personality and
“endless capacity to find the
humor in any situation.”
“The end goal is to make
sure that there is a future for
Hebron where the world is
inspired by us the same way
they’re inspired by Jerusalem,
by the Kotel,” Kronfeld said.

Barrack hopes to further
Fleisher’s mission in the U.S.

He’s developing an Israel
mission trip called the No
Lines Tour to show Jews what
Jewish-Palestinian coexistence
looks like. Beta testing for the
trip will take place this spring.

“My hope is that many
people can get lit like a candle
from this trip,” Barrack said,
“and then come home and light
up our community.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
From left: Jeffrey Barrack and Yishai Fleisher in October
Courtesy of Jeffrey Barrack
Hebron,” Fleisher said. “There’s
Fleisher frequently interacts
a concerted effort to delegiti- with his Palestinian and Arab
mize Israel constantly, and we neighbors, including co-chair
all know that, but Hebron is
one of the main ways through
which that delegitimization
happens.” Hebron is home to the Cave
of the Patriarch and Matriarchs
— the tomb of Abraham, Jacob,
Isaac, Rebecca, Sarah and Leah
— making it the second-ho-
liest city to Jews behind only
Jerusalem. But its West Bank
location and the reputation of
terror attacks occurring there
has taken it off many Jews’
to-visit lists.

Fleisher and Barrack want
to change that narrative.

“In Judea and Samaria, there
Philadelphia-based is an amazing phenomenon philanthropist
Jeffrey Barrack
that most American Jews only and International Spokesperson
the Jewish Community In
see on a bumper sticker, and for Hebron
Yishai Fleisher erected a
that is coexistence,” Barrack Chanukiah which could be seen
throughout the city of Hebron
said. during Chanukah.

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