T orah P ortion
The Question of Unity
BY RABBI JANINE JANKOVITZ
PARSHAT BESHALACH
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has
spent a great deal of time over
the past few months speaking
on the topic of unity. His
message is clear; these past four
years have divided our country
more than ever before and his
intended mission in office will
be to mend our broken country
and bring us together once
again. I have heard from many
people this shared hope.

As a rabbi, I generally
believe in the power of mending
disagreements and working
toward healing. I have witnessed
the miraculous transformation
this kind of healing can have on
a person, on a family and on a
community. But there is also a counter-
argument to the call for unity.

Should the Democratic Party
be responsible for mending the
past four years that were led
by an unhinged, narcissistic
bully? The former president was
supported by a party that
ensured he was able to get into
the Oval Office and remain
there for four years. They
were cowards or, even worse,
JCRC Continued from Page 10
One of her first major respon-
sibilities was coordinating a
response to the anti-Semitic
memes shared by Minister
Rodney Muhammad, presi-
dent of the local chapter of the
NAACP, on Facebook in July.

She organized an interfaith panel
discussion with leaders from
Philadelphia’s Black and Jewish
communities and members of
the Concerned Clergy Coalition
of Greater Philadelphia to
discuss the incident and identify
paths forward.

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unbothered by his divisive
rantings and dangerous disre-
gard for truth. Every person
who turned a blind eye or
answered “no comment” over
the past four years is respon-
sible for what culminated in
the storming of our nation’s
Capitol and the death of five
people. Why should the newly
elected administration spend
its first year in office trying
to mend our nation’s sense of
unity when surely their time
is more needed to fix the
problems that have resulted
due to the last administration’s
refusal to take responsibility?
Unity is not something we
can achieve without addressing
the reasons for the disruption.

Until we fix the desperate
situation we find ourselves in
today we can’t move forward
as one unit. We are desperate
for help — help for growing
unemployment and
the widening gap between the
haves and have-nots; for the
disenfranchised students who,
without the safety net families
of more means have, are falling
further and further behind in
school; and for a mass vacci-
nation program and mask
mandates. These concerns are a
part of Biden’s plan, so why not
just focus on those enormous
tasks? Calls for unity put an unjust
onus on disenfranchised and
vulnerable people. How can
we ask the people who have
suffered the most over the
last four years to work toward
forgiving and uniting with
their oppressors? How can we
ask Jews who witnessed images
of rioters proudly wearing
T-shirts with slogans such as
“Camp Auschwitz” and “Six
Million Wasn’t Enough” to
understand their oppressors?
How can we ask those who
have lost their family members
and friends to this pandemic
due to gross political negli-
gence to understand? How can
we ask Black and brown people
who have suffered the most
under the hands of a milita-
rized police force, who have
witnessed their loved ones
killed at the hands of police
to forgive? How can we ask
women and LGBTQ+ people to
forgive those who try to remove
their rights and threaten their
safety? This week in Beshalach we
read the epic moment of our
people’s liberation from slavery.

Pharaoh has a change of heart
and sends his army after the
Israelites. The Sea of Reeds
opens and once the Israelites
cross over dry land, G-d closes
the waters over the Egyptians.

When the people see what has
happened they rejoice. Our
tradition teaches that at this
moment the ministering angels
wished to join in with the
Israelites and sing their song
of freedom but G-d rebukes
the angels, saying, “The works
of My hands are drowning in
the sea and you would utter
song in My presence?” Just as
we spill our wine at the seder
for each of the 10 plagues, we
are taught that the destruction
of life is no celebration, even
when it seems to us that the
victims deserve it.

However, this doesn’t mean
we are commanded to forgive
our oppressors. G-d never
commands the Israelites to
forgive the Egyptians for the
hundreds of years of slavery.

Instead, G-d commands that
we remember that we were
once strangers in the land of
Egypt. Remember that we were
once slaves oppressed by the
hands of a powerful pharaoh.

Remember our suffering so that
we may never, ever become like
our oppressors, even when we
finally have the power to do so.

Instead of asking for us to
unify with those who sought to
destroy us, let us move forward
remembering what oppression
feels like. Let us instead spend
our energy and resources
fighting for more justice for
those who remain oppressed.

The fight for justice is not over
with the change of adminis-
tration. The very fact that our
civil liberties are up for debate
every four years shows how
broken our country’s political
system is.

May we remember always
that we were once strangers, and
may we vow that we will never
become like our oppressors. l
She said Muhammad’s
actions hurt many minority
communities in addition to
the Jewish community because
he promoted ideas rooted in
white supremacy, and people
were eager to come together to
strengthen relationships.

“It was definitely a test,” she
said, “but it also was a way
for me to learn and to really
understand the resilience, the
strength, of these commu-
nity partnerships that already
existed, that people already had
done so much work on, and
also how helpful it was to build
new ones to move forward.”
As director, one of Frank’s
first priorities is to embark on a
virtual “listening tour” of 25 to
30 minority groups and activists
in the Philadelphia area to learn
more about the challenges they
are facing, the projects they are
working on and the areas they
could use support. She intends
to use what she hears to create a
new set of strategic imperatives
for JCRC.

Her plans include building
community relationships to
tackle local issues like food
insecurity and education
disparities, along with broader
issues like dismantling white
supremacy. Supporting Jews
of color, educating commu-
nities about their history and
increasing their representation
in Jewish leadership, is also
high on the agenda.

“Strengthening Jewish
communal engagement with
[non-Jewish] Black communi-
ties is really one of our most
top priorities, especially after
the summer that we all just
experienced,” Frank said, refer-
ring to the national protests
that erupted in response to the
killing of George Floyd. “JCRC
can and should play a pivotal
role in educating our Jewish
communities about racism,
setting local priorities and
mobilizing our communities
to action.”
Jewish Federation Board
Co-chair Gail Norry said
Frank, who lives in Philadelphia
with her husband and dog, will
continue to use her relation-
ships to lead the organization
forward. “She is going to do a fabulous
job of not just building commu-
nity but building bridges,” she
said. l
JEWISH EXPONENT
Rabbi Janine Jankovitz is the rabbi
of Congregation Beth El-Ner Tamid
in Broomall and grew up in the
Philadelphia suburbs. The Board of
Rabbis is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary
for the Jewish Exponent. The
opinions expressed in this column
are the author’s own and do not
reflect the view of the Board of
Rabbis. spanzer@jewishexponent.com;
215-832-0729 JANUARY 28, 2021
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