One Week After Colleyville

This will be the first Shabbat since the attack on the Colleyville synagogue, and Jews across the country are grappling with questions of how we can end antisemitism, and keep our communities safe.

At JCA, we grapple with these questions every day, and we wanted to share resources that will help you frame last week's tragedy, and provide insight into how we can end antisemitism and hate in all forms.

First, we want to share this article published last year in The Forge written by our Executive Director, Carin Mrotz, titled Fighting Antisemitism Is a Critical Piece of a Racial Justice Agenda. Carin breaks down how we must understand how  antisemitism works as part of the machinery of oppression that produces racism and Islamophobia, and how through organizing across lines of difference we can dismantle it.

If you want to learn more about how antisemitism functions in the United States, and how it fuels other forms of oppression, join us for our Antisemitism 101 workshop on Thursday, February 17th.

Next is A New Story of Safety in Pollen Midwest, also written by Carin and illustrated by JCA member Elana Schwartzman, which explores how the dominant narratives that arise after antisemitic attacks don't lead to outcomes that make us – and Black Jews and Jews of Color especially – safer, and opens space to imagine a different path towards community safety.

Finally, we leave you with this NPR interview with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi who was held hostage in the attack last week. Rabbi Cytron-Walker was asked if he would welcome a stranger into his synagogue again. Here is what he said:

Yes, I'm going to do the same kind of visual scan that I did. And I'm going to assume that even if they do not look like the stereotypical person who's going to come into a Jewish synagogue, I want them there. Whether they're somebody who's Jewish, who's coming in from another community or from our community, or whether they're not Jewish, and maybe they're exploring Judaism for the first time, or they just want to see what a Jewish service is all about because they're curious and they're asking, am I going to belong? And I want them to know that they are going to belong. Hospitality means the world.

We hope this Shabbat brings you peace and comfort, and may we work towards a safer world for all.