I knew that the Jewish community held much more diversity than I was seeing in offices, meetings, and board rooms. Instead of asking “where are other Jews of Color?” I instead asked, “what is keeping Jews of Color away, and how can we change that?” It was with this genuine desire for change that I mapped the early stages of what would become the Jews of Color Initiative.
September 2020
Arielle Korman and Yehudah Webster decided to build an organization free from prejudice, and where Jews of Color can learn in community with others who know first-hand the beauty and challenges of being a Jew of Color.
Without having the number of Jews of Color in the U.S., we would continue to face that recurring question, continue to be dismissed as just a tiny fraction of the community. Establishing a data-driven analysis of the number of Jews of Color also helps direct resources toward the community.
Faced with the reckoning with racism across time and the call to action from the Black Lives Matter movement in our present moment, Kaufman tasked any white Jewish webinar attendants and viewers to ask themselves: “What am I willing to give up? What am I able to learn, and what am I willing to contribute to halt the perpetuation of racism and white supremacy in this country?”