Rabbi Diana's Weekly Message

Dear Hevre,

We will require masks again inside KHN as the CDC has designated the risk of transmission of COVID in Bucks County as HIGH. There will not be an Oneg this evening since it may rain and we couldn’t have it outside. We will re-evaluate as we follow recommendations. There will continue to be Zoom access. 

Ideas can be powerful. Ideas can change lives. Ideas can also be dangerous, and can inspire some to take others' lives, or to put peoples’ lives at risk.

The murderer who set out to take Blacks lives in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo subscribes to the great replacement theory* a racist conspiracy theory that purports that white people are purposely [controlled by “elites”, often Jews] being replaced with BIPOC people, immigrants, migrants, Muslims, and refugees. Ideas such as these are inspiring white supremacists and other less extreme Americans. In the American conversation, one problem with replacement theory is that it disparages the social lives of American voters. Voters of color are singled out as “bad voters”. This conspiracy theory is also part of a long history of anti-Jewish sentiment that tends to link [whited] Jews** with some elite plot because we sit in a particular, unique position. We aren’t the targets in this case, but as those wrapped up in the narrative, and as a justice-loving people who ourselves are targeted, it is up to us to fight these insidious ideas.

Also in the public arena is the idea that life begins at conception, held by many on the Christian right, an idea which in theory wouldn’t hurt anybody but in practice puts women’s (and some non-binary and trans peoples’) lives in physical and/or emotional danger when they do not have access to abortion and are forced to maintain their pregnancy. In the Jewish tradition, the fetus does not have the status of personhood. For more on Jewish ideas related to abortion, see this sourcesheet: [https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/242996?lang=bi]

To paraphrase activist Grace Lee Boggs z’l, ideas matter: discussing, understanding and taking actions from ideas is how we live our community lives.

May the memories of Celestine Chaney, Roberta Drury, Andre Mackniel, Katherine “Kat” Massey, Margus D. Morrison, Heyward Patterson, Aaron Salter, Jr., Geraldine Talley, Ruth Whitfield and Pearl Young be for a blessing. Through our ideas and actions, may we create a safer, more just world with sensible gun laws. As Roe V. Wade is being threatened, let us rise up to support abortion access, in line with our sacred teachings. 

Here are two organizations you can contribute to in support of the families in Buffalo and helping to bring direct care and access to those who need an abortion:

Buffalo Mutual Aid Network: Collecting monetary donations to meet direct, individual needs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/x9vue7-buffalo-mutual-aid-network

National Council of Jewish Women has created The Jewish Fund for Abortion Access:  https://www.73forward.org/fund

Shabbat shalom and Happy New Hope/Lambertville Pride,

Rabbi Diana

*Read about it here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/podcasts/the-daily/buffalo-shooting-replacement-theory.html?showTranscript=1

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/17/racist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-explained

**I heard the phrase that Jews have been “whited” [because it’s conditional] by Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein