On Human Rights Day, 70 Jewish Communities Start Confronting Racism
NOTE: This post was co-written by Rabbi Ellen Lippmann and Rabbi Michael Rothbaum, on behalf of Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
December 10 is International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights in 1947. To mark the occasion, 70 Jewish communities are beginning a year’s exploration of racism in the United States and Canada, organized by T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Why?
Because it’s become clear that our Jewish obligation to pursue justice demands that we confront racism directly and consistently. Therefore we must acknowledge the painful truth that racism is an ever-present reality in our society and in Jewish communities.
So this year, 70 rabbis, cantors and their communities pledge to go beyond T’ruah’s prior Human Rights Shabbat, a one-time event, and spend at least a year exploring the realities of racism:
For 400 years, brutal, pervasive, structural racism has been the leading desecration of human rights on the North American continent. It cannot be addressed only through street protest or legislative advocacy, though both are essential; it needs deep internal reflection on what it means to be white people, white Jews, in a racist society.
