Racism and Antisemitism: Parallel and Intertwining Strategies to Divide
We will look at the histories of racism and antisemitism in America, examine their origins, what their functions are, and some implications for activism and for the Jewish community today. One aspect will be examining the development of whiteness, how the identification with whiteness limits who we are, and the particular relationship of white Jews to whiteness; as well as some of the history of the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities. The workshop will be both didactic and experiential.
This event is made possible with the generous support of Susan Levine. Donations are always appreciated; tickets are free.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling is the Director of the Reflection and Renewal Process at POWER a faith-based community organizing group that is part of the Faith in Action Network (PICO). He came to POWER from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he founded and directed the Social Justice Organizing Program for 10 years. Prior to that, he was the Executive Vice- President of Jewish Funds for Justice (now Bend the Arc). Earlier he was the Executive Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. Before attending rabbinical school, he was a community organizer in Boston.
He was a co-founder of Shomrei Adamah, the first U.S. Jewish environmental organization and of T'ruah: A Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. He serves on the boards of The Faith and Politics Institute, The Shalom Center and Faith in Action. He has served on the boards of numerous national and international NGO's. He helped create and was part of the leadership team of Green Justice Philadelphia that successfully stopped the development of a new oil terminal in the Port of Philadelphia in 2016. Rabbi Liebling is part of a Faith in Action Training Team that leads workshops on Racism, Antisemitism, and Christian Hegemony and leads workshops on these issues in other venues. He and Lynne Iser, his wife, lead workshops and retreats on The Work That Reconnects developed by Buddhist scholar, deep ecologist, and activist Joanna Macy. Their family was the subject of the award-winning documentary, Praying with Lior.
Here is a link to an article of Rabbi Mordechai’s on antisemitism http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/history-and-update-antisemitism