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Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Completes Project on Jews and Race
T he Center for Jewish Ethics, part of the
Wyncote-based Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College, completed its Race,
Religion and American Jews project last
month. The project was designed to
increase scholarship on the relation-
ship between Jewish peoples, race
and racism and disseminate curricula to
Jewish educators and adults.

Race, Religion and American Jews was
launched in 2021 thanks to a $199,850
grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities as part of its American
Rescue Plan. That $87.8 million grant
program assists 300 cultural institutions
in maintaining or expanding program-
ming and staffi ng that may have been
impacted by the pandemic.

“The ultimate goal is to use the
resources of Jewish history, Jewish tradi-
tion and Jewish community to combat
racism,” said Rabbi Mira Wasserman,
director of the Center for Jewish Ethics
and a senior adviser of the project.

Research from the 11 fellows can be
found at Jewsandrace.com and covers
topics from “Countering White Nationalism
and Antisemitism” to “Responding to
Racial Microaggressions.” Each topic
contains a lesson plan, curricula for adult
and youth education programs and video
lessons from the topic’s scholar.

“Our fi rst goal was just to gain a better
understanding of all of the ways that
race and Jewishness inform each other,”
Wasserman said. “The second goal,
though, was to not leave that new research
that we were sparking in academic spaces,
but to bring it into Jewish communal
spaces that we can all learn from.”
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MAY 4, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Members of Reconstructing Judaism, including Rabbi Sandra Lawson
(left), at Reckoning Together: A Reconstructionist Pilgrimage for Racial
Justice RRC’s next step with the project is
connecting with Jewish organizations
interested in using the online materials.

Though the impetus for the program
was the 2020 murder of George Floyd,
rising white supremacy and censorship
of Black history in schools have made
educating on race even more import-
ant, according to Rabbi Sandra Lawson,
Reconstructing Judaism’s inaugural
director of racial diversity, equity and
inclusion and a senior adviser for Race,
Religion and American Jews.

“I don’t think anyone, when we started
this project, thought that we’d be at a
stage in our country where politicians
would be trying to remove books and
courses and AP courses on queer issues
or race issues or anything that gives a
more nuanced, rounded perspective of
our history,” Lawson said.

Though racism pervades Jewish
spaces, there’s been a cultural shift
in Jews wanting to learn more about
race and racism. There have been more
conversations about Jews of color in
predominantly white Jewish spaces.

White Jews are beginning to understand
the diff erent experiences that Jews of
color face. Providing an accessible curricu-
lum to curious Jews is an important step in
eff orts to combat racism, Lawson argued.

Conversations about the intersec-
tions of Judaism and race go beyond
American history and racism.

Devin Naar, an associate profes-
sor of history and Jewish studies at
the University of Washington, studied
how Ashkenazi Judaism became the
dominant Jewish culture in America
and the negative implications this has
on Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from
non-Eastern European backgrounds.

“I’m trying to reimagine how we under-
stand the American Jewish history and
think through American Jewish history
beyond the kinds of geographies and
cultures that we generally associated
with American Jewishness — beyond
Eastern Europe, beyond Yiddish, beyond
gefi lte fi sh — to think about what other
aspects or expressions of Jewish culture,
identity, language, religious practices
have been part of the American Jewish
experience,” Naar said.

While in American spaces, Sephardic
or Mizrahi Jews, hailing from the Iberian
Peninsula and North Africa, respectively,
may be considered white, in Jewish
spaces, those same people may be racial-
ized diff erently. Naar hopes to open up
broader conversations about what race is,
in and out of the American context.

Race, Religion and American Jews is
one piece of Reconstructing Judaism’s
undertaking to fi ght racism. In January,
the Reconstructionist movement passed
a resolution committing to reparations for
Black and Indigenous people. In March,
Reconstructing Judaism completed
a second pilgrimage to the American
South to learn about anti-Black racism. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Reconstructing Judaism/Rachel Forth
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer



A Taste of israel
Connecting to Jewish Heritage
As May begins, so does Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM). This is a time when Jews across the country can
honor their unique connections to their culture: from music to traditions and, of course, food.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia will pay homage to all of these expressions of heritage as well as the
Jewish people’s collective connection to the State of Israel at the A Taste of Israel Festival on Sunday, May 7, from 1:00
p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Saligman Campus in Wynnewood.

During this family-friendly afternoon, there will be an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to experience the
creations by five-time James Beard Foundation Award-Winning Chef Michael Solomonov along with other top local
chefs. The cultural festival will also feature activities, crafts and performances by the renowned a cappella group Six13.

The festival is a culmination of the Jewish Federation’s Israel 75 events this spring to celebrate this milestone
achievement as well as the beauty and diversity of the people who live there.

Here’s a taste of how some of our A Taste of Israel Festival leadership connect to their Jewish heritage:
“I connect to my Jewish heritage through my children. Seeing our sons, Max
and Ari, being actively involved in Hillel and at Chabad in college, and then
being accepted into the Onward Israel program this summer shows me that
our Jewish identity and legacy will continue on through the next generation.”
Alan Lasdon
“I connect with my Jewish heritage daily by trying to live and practice
the three moral principles of justice, healing the world and acts of loving-
kindness. As I go about my day, I’m cognizant of these principles, try to live
by them, and act as a role model for my two college-age sons so that they,
too, will live by these Jewish values and pass them on to the next generation.”
Cari Lasdon
“I connect with my Jewish heritage in many ways, including,
celebrating the Jewish holidays and Shabbat every week,
going on our recent family trip to Israel, sending my children
to Jewish schools, or being involved with Jewish nonprofit
organizations that ground me in Jewish communal work.”
Shelby Zitelman
“I connect with my Jewish heritage through
spending time with my family. Judaism and tradition
are incredibly important, and some of my favorite
memories are at cousins’ b’nei mitzvot, Passover
Seders at my grandparents, Chanukkah at my Great
Aunt’s, amongst countless other occasions.”
Alex Freedman
Ready to enjoy A Taste of Israel? Join the
Jewish Federation’s festival on May 7 at
israel75.jewishphilly.org/festival JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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