by Lisa Tucker and Steve Metalitz
What will Sinai look like, feel like, and sound like with diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging as core tenets?
More than 60 Temple board members, committee chairs, clergy, senior staff, and active volunteers for Practicing Antiracism tackled those very questions by participating in “Activating Racial Equity,” an interactive working session held in December. The common goal: to build collaboratively our future as an antiracist synagogue — a synagogue that implements policies, practices, and procedures that promote racial equity and creates a welcoming home for our multiracial Reform Jewish community.
The facilitator for the day-long session, Gamal J. Palmer, a global diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) consultant, identified a DEI-ready institution as:
- A place where people want to be and stay and continue to thrive and gladly bring their colleagues and friends to join them.
- A place that acknowledges that harm has happened through racist practices, and that takes responsibility for that harm.
- A place that has mechanisms to reduce future harm. Those who are part of a DEI-ready environment have language and processes available to them to hold themselves and others accountable.
- A place where there is buy-in from all levels of the organization.
The group identified where the Temple, which has been working on these issues for several years, has advanced toward its goal, and also where impediments to Temple Sinai becoming a DEI-ready institution exist. Key steps that the Temple has taken towards our goal include: the Racial Equity Project, Building Racial Stamina discussion groups, the creation of affinity spaces for Jews of Color and Jewish-adjacent People of Color, programming around these issues, and the establishment of the Multiracial Sinai Fund. Impediments include: needing to highlight the importance of racial equity as a Jewish value, fear of saying or doing the “wrong” thing, racial equity as an afterthought rather than as a lens through which the Temple does all of its work, and well-meaning individuals not being aware of the harm they have committed.
Progress in the next phase of Temple Sinai’s antiracist journey will require renewed prioritization, developing systems of accountability, and additional resources. Through our actions, we can show that our commitment to being an antiracist synagogue is deep, sustained, and a high priority for our congregation. It’s a commitment we can only fulfill by working together
Throughout the December working session participants expressed support for the goal of being an antiracist synagogue, eagerness to craft concrete priorities to make progress, and appreciation for the importance of shared accountability in a DEI-ready institution. Participants have begun to identify accountability goals that are relevant to their role in the Temple Sinai community. Defining the actionable priorities for this next phase, including accountability mechanisms, will be taken up over the next weeks and months.
One concrete step that congregants can take now is to sign up for the next cohort of the Building Racial Stamina (“BRS”) facilitated discussion group, which begins January 17. Click HERE for more information and to register.
Resources:
“Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color”, commissioned by the Jews of Color Initiative, Aug. 12, 2021.
“What Does it Mean to Be an Anti-Racist?”, National League of Cities
“The Jewish Holiday That Reminds Me of My Conversion” by Winnie Hahn (Temple Sinai member)