9 Week Learning Challenge on Racial Justice and Antisemitism
All adult members of Rockdale are invited to take on a 9 week challenge to learn how race and antisemitism are connected through white supremacy, and what actions we can take at the individual, systemic, and advocacy levels around these issues. Participants will move at their own pace with an article to read or a video to watch each week, a live virtual training mid-way through provided by Bend the Arc, and a live virtual discussion at the end. This special program is sponsored by Rockdale Temple's Brotherhood and Justice Collaborative. All adults are welcome to participate and we encourage ongoing discussion with fellow congregants. The schedule will be as follows:
- Week of February 28: Learn about the connection between antisemitism, misogyny, and white supremacy, and how it shows up on the internet by listening this 27 minute NPR segment with Talia Lavin - https://www.npr.org/2020/11/04/931527391/white-supremacy-and-its-online-reach.
- Week of March 7: Learn about the historical connection between Jews and Blacks by watching this hour long American Jewish Archives recording - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAxNXYDjV5A.
- Week of March 14: Learn about how the history of racism is perpetuated today in the prison system by watching the movie "13th" on Netflix - https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741, and a discussion about the movie led by our local Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center and Jewish Community Relations Council - https://vimeo.com/493832532
- Live Virtual Training on March 21 at 2:00PM, by our local chapter of https://www.bendthearc.us. Through discussion, we will find the connection between antisemitism and white supremacy so that we can better fight it in our lives.
- Week of March 21: Learn about implicit bias and how it impacts our daily life by reading this Atlantic article - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/unconscious-bias-training/525405/ , and by taking at least one 20 minute Social Attitude Implicit Bias test here - https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ .
- Week of April 4: Watch this 20 minute Ted talk about the root of racial injustice and the issues with "fix-all" solutions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aCn72iXO9s.
- Week of April 11: Read about how to receive being "called out" so we can best understand how to communicate with each other - https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/05/allies-say-this-instead-defensive/.
- Week of April 18: Read about what effective advocacy looks like - https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/jan/12/effective-advocacy-101-how-to-bring-about-change-in-five-steps, and why advocacy is important to Reform Judaism - https://rac.org/advocacy-activism-why-advocacy-central-reform-judaism.
- April 25, 2:00PM: Racial Justice and Antisemitism Learn Challenge – Debrief and Wrap-up, Live on Zoom
All adult members are invited to join a discussion co-sponsored by Rockdale's Brotherhood and Justice Collaborative about how antisemitism and white supremacy show up in the world and in our lives - and how we can use advocacy to fight against these ills - as a close-out to our 9 week learning challenge. Whether or not you've been able to keep up with the content over the past weeks, please feel free to join Adult Education Committee Chair Linda Chatterjee and Justice Collaborative Co-Chair Justin Levy to discuss our learnings, understand the current realities, and learn about advocacy opportunities.
For the Zoom link information to be emailed to you, please fill out the form below:
