opinions & letters
Jewish Community Needs to Do a
Better Job of Including Black Jews
KeSean L. Johnson
M any liberal Jews can openly quote Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel and speak of
him as the guide for their social justice
philosophies. But do they apply those words?
Heschel’s approach to Torah gave life to the idea
that all of the words in religious truth can be found
everywhere that truth exists, and those spaces were
divinely prepared so no faith had control over them.

This ideology allowed him to see people for their
divine purpose.

is my job, I’d imagine that Heschel would welcome
me in with open arms. I don’t think, however, that he
would be proud of my treatment in the community.

In many of the Jewish spaces in which I belong,
there is a focus on inclusion and diversity for people
of color, with my ethnicity as an American Descendant
of Slavery being at the end of the list of consideration.

We discuss immigrant and refugee rights, but we
never talk about how this will impact Black American
communities — one could argue that it is because
the tradition is to gentrify those same communities
so who cares. We talk about training and developing
emerging leaders in the community — so long as those
I’m a hit at events where we need to talk about Black
suffering long enough for someone who feels like a
savior to “piggyback off me” and share their story.

At the time of his arrival in America, Black America
was 99% American Descendants of Slavery. He studied
the history of his adopted country, learning about
Black grief and that many were not afforded basic
rights and protections under the law. He realized that
as a Jewish man in America, he was free to live his life
because of his proximity to white America. While he
may have faced some discrimination, he understood
that the American Descendants of Slavery had no
rights. He listened to the Black Americans with whom
he surrounded himself and made known to them his
job as a Jew was tikkun olam (repairing the world).

As a Black American Jewish man who is an American
Descendant of Slavery who believes that tikkun olam
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leaders are not Black males. We teach tolerance and
increasing sensitivity to other marginalized groups
while microaggressions toward me and my family, of
being mistaken for the intern, caretaker or security
go ignored.

I have been in leadership positions in the private
and public sectors. I have had leadership training
in both sectors. I have successfully helped a group
of about 64 people between the ages of 18-27
go to a war zone to provide communications and
returned them to their loved ones safely, with a 99.7%
reliability rate at their backs. I was even sponsored
to do a Jewish leadership course, where I inevitably
taught a class in diversity, equity, inclusion and
I didn’t like it.

I thought it
was meh.

9 %
11% I liked it.

36% 20%
I loved it.

KeSean Johnson ethnically identifies as an American
Descendant of Slavery. He is the founder of the Hip
Hop Party for Change and an Emmy Award-winning
film producer.

letters Florida Law Misrepresented
I was appalled by Rabbi Benjamin David’s false
statements (“Assault on LGBTQ Rights Must be
Countered,” May 25) about Florida’s laws that have
been passed concerning sexual education taught
in schools and other sexual practices such as drag
shows. The “Don’t Say Gay" bill never mentioned gay or
even implied gay sex. It spelled out that sex cannot
be taught in school to third graders or younger —
nothing at all about heterosexual sex being right
or vice versa. Total distorted misinformation. As for
public drag shows, the laws are pertaining to minors
attending the shows.

Please don’t refer to me as homophobic as I
support all individual rights. I am just tired of lies used
to make a point or support causes. ■
Morris Zelikovsky, Aventura, Florida
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accessibility to this group of future and current Jewish
community leaders.

However, I make a great decoration for groups
and organizations. I tend to be pictured at all Jewish
events, added to websites, given faux titles of inclusion
that are taken away when I inquire about the actual
inclusivity and repair work being done. The same
places that use me as their performative poster child
of their inclusive environment are also the ones who
do not speak up when I am called “aggressive” in an
email that starts with “Hey Team.” Similarly, I’m a hit at
events where we need to talk about Black suffering
long enough for someone who feels like a savior to
“piggyback off me” and share their story. But why
can I not lead an agency in Jewish Baltimore? If your
answer is that it may have something to do with me
being Black, then that sounds about white! ■
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