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Juneteenth Continued from Page 1
Gordon Granger announcing
the emancipation of enslaved
people in Texas, the most
isolated of the southern states
and therefore slowest to
emancipate enslaved peoples.

This declaration, which took
place on June 19, 1865, came
almost 2½ years after Abraham
Lincoln gave the Emancipation
Proclamation, declaring the
end of slavery in the south.

The first Juneteenth celebration
took place in 1866.

Frazier wears many hats.

They are a student at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College and rabbinic intern at
Kol Tzedek synagogue in West
Philadelphia, and as a member
of the Black Jewish Liberation
Collective, have worked
alongside Jews for Racial
and Economic Justice for the
past three years to create a
Juneteenth seder for Black Jews
around the country.

The Juneteenth seder
Frazier organizes is similar to
a Passover one: There are bless-
ings, candle-lightings and the
telling of the story of liberation
from oppression.

Among the familiar rituals,
Frazier incorporates new ones,
such as the telling of ances-
tral stories, starting with the
attendee with the oldest story.

“It’s not just the telling of
the story of Juneteenth, but the
telling of family and ancestral
story, which is really powerful,
particularly for a group of
people who have had our
stories stolen,” Frazier said.

For other Jews, Juneteenth
rituals look different.

Jared Jackson, founder and
executive director of Jews in
All Hues, an advocacy group
for Jews of color, has spent the
past five Juneteenths spending
time with his child, finding
intentional time to go to the
park, toss a Frisbee around and
find joyful moments.

Ideally, Jackson said, June
should be a month of “contin-
uous celebration,” as it’s not
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Lewis Gordon
Courtesy of Lewis Gordon
Moreover, Black Americans
have celebrated Juneteenth for
more than 150 years.

Many white Americans (and
many white Jewish Americans)
are only now learning about
the holiday. As Juneteenth
makes its way into broader
popular culture, it runs the
risk of being commercialized
or diluted.

In the face of this, Gordon
suggested that his celebra-
tions remain for him and his
community. “There’s no such thing as
I hope that as people either learn about Juneteenth, or they start
celebrating Juneteenth, that they become more aware of just how ... we
actually don’t have genuine and real liberation. And I hope that people
are able to, through this holiday, to see that.”
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
KOACH BARUCH FRAZIER
just the month for observing
Juneteenth, but also for
celebrating LGBT Pride Month
and Black Music Appreciation
month. The intersection of these
holidays also serves as a
reminder that oftentimes
the intersection of holidays
also provides opportunities
to highlight intersections in
identities. “There’s no such thing as
a Jew who’s only a Jew,” said
Lewis Gordon, a professor
and head of the philosophy
department at the University
of Connecticut, where he also
holds an appointment in Jewish
studies. “Jews are always Jews
plus.” To Jackson, his identity as
a Black person and a Jew are
inseparable: “So as long as I’ve
lived as a Jew, I’ve lived as a
Black person.”
In the case of Juneteenth
celebrations, Frazier is able
to synthesize the meaning of
Juneteenth with their Jewish
practice of marking time.

“The rabbis gave us such
something that cannot be
co-opted,” Gordon said. “It’s
what the rest of us who see
these historical markers, these
events, these commemora-
tions, it’s what we bring to
them.” Like many Jewish holidays,
Juneteenth is the mingling of
joy and grief, past and present,
ancestors and those around
this year’s table.

It’s an opportunity to reflect
and grow, for those who observe
Juneteenth and those just now
educating themselves about it.

“I hope that as people either
learn about Juneteenth, or they
start celebrating Juneteenth,
that they become more aware
of just how ... we actually don’t
have genuine and real libera-
tion,” Frazier said. “And I hope
that people are able to, through
this holiday, to see that.” l
great spiritual technology,”
Frazier said.

While Jews mark the passage
of time weekly on Shabbat, the
changing of the seasons with
Sukkot and Passover, Frazier
uses the rituals they have culti-
vated for Juneteenth as a way
of denoting not only the efforts
of ancestors to pursue libera-
tion, but also in reflecting on
the devastation of slavery: why
it took so long for enslaved
people in Galveston, Texas, to
hear of their emancipation,
why anti-Black racism is still
so pervasive today.

Current racism is one of
the reasons why Jackson’s
Juneteenth practices, though
a time for ritual and joy, are
subdued. “There’s a thought process,
you know, like if we celebrate
this too hard or too soft, will
it disappear? Or will there
be another ‘whitelash’ or
something like that?” Jackson
said, referencing the portman-
teau of “white” and “backlash,”
coined by CNN commentator
Van Jones.

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