Why and how Multiracial Sinai began.
Racial Equity Project.
Responses to events.
By now we have all heard the term “antiracist” but what does it mean to you and for our Temple Sinai community? The Multiracial Sinai Committee (MRS) has been working towards guiding Temple Sinai in being affirmatively antiracist since 2018. Members of MRS and other congregants gathered on November 11 in conversation about what it means to be antiracist in our own lives, and what each of us can do to advance the goal of making Temple Sinai an antiracist congregation.
On Tuesday, May 17, 2022 Temple Sinai, the Davis Center and Multiracial Sinai sponsored an engaging and important program called Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color. More than 75 people from 7 area congregations gathered at Temple Sinai to learn from Ilana Kaufman, Executive Director of the Jews of Color Initiative, about the multiracial reality of the Jewish people, how systems of inequality are perpetuated in our own Jewish spaces, and opportunities for powerful intervention.
Described by participants as “provocative and mind-expanding,” we were called to action – to transform our houses of worship into antiracist communities, places of belonging where all Jews of Color are able to bring their whole selves even to primarily White Jewish spaces.
Temple Sinai leaders Deitra Reiser, Dora Chen and Anthony Murphy engaged participants through a candid and provocative conversation with Ilana Kaufman about their experiences in Jewish spaces and their aspirations for more open spaces of belonging that reflect our multiracial Jewish world.
Ms. Kaufman summoned all attendees to support the leadership of Jews of Color and initiatives and organizations led by Jews of Color, and to shift Jewish organizational leadership to reflect the multiracial diversity of American Jews.
The program was sponsored by the following congregations, in partnership with Temple Sinai: Adas Israel Congregation, Sixth & I, Temple Emanuel, Temple Micah, Temple Shalom, and Washington Hebrew Congregation.
Read the report from the Jews of Color Initiative: Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color
Below you will find links to the videos of the series, a blog post about Reparations and some wonderful resources about Reparations.
Resources:
General watching/listening/reading:
Sermons:
Books:
Here are actions you can take now, including contact information. There is also a list of readings on racial justice, multiracial Jewish community, being antiracist, and talking with children about race and racism.