Discovering the intertwinement of my activism and my Jewish identity
By Sarah Tabak
Mark Twain is reported to have said: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” As I critically analyze our country’s often problematic history in correlation with recent events, I find myself encountering patterns of cyclical behavior: that mistakes made in the past are likely to be paralleled in the future. Any part of history, such as the horrific lynching of Emmitt Till in 1955, can never reocurr in exactly the same way. However, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among countless others draw eerie resemblances. James Baldwin once said that “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” I often think about these two quotes together and how they interact. When we encounter a problem in the present day, the way we decide to confront that issue sets a precedent for how future generations will deal with similar events. Hopefully, with appropriate confrontation, a society can avoid that a future mistake will “rhyme.” However, if a problem is never truly faced, like Emmett Till’s murderers being found not guilty, it sets a precedent. In 2020 we have seen many police officers not being held accountable for murdering innocent people out of bias, prejudice, and bigotry. How can we face this to ensure that we are changing the world for the better? I believe that education is an essential first step.
During the summer of 2020, I participated in a virtual civil rights trip with the Workers Circle, an organization founded by new immigrants on the Lower East Side over 100 years ago. Today, it is a social justice organization that celebrates Jewish identity and Yiddishkayt. Before the physical trip’s cancellation, we were looking forward to visiting Memphis for the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of MLK Jr. as well as speaking with current and past activists. In 2019, I went on a similar civil rights trip — also with the Worker’s Circle- to visit historic sites in Farmville and Charlottesville, Virginia; Glen Echo Park, Maryland; and Washington D.C.
In 2019, however, the United States was a fundamentally different place. We were not amidst a global pandemic that our elected officials refused to act upon. We were not worrying about an economic downturn as devastating as the Great Depression, and the majority of us were not actively and passionately fighting against systemic racism. A 2020 civil rights trip, more so than any other year, was bound to be uniquely important. For four weeks, a mix of teens, parents, and other Workers Circle members, organized by Abbe Marcus and Eva Zasloff, met with Joanne Bland, the youngest person arrested on Bloody Sunday (we met with her a week after the passing of Congressman John Lewis); Michelle Browder, a Montgomery activist who championed the Montgomery Black Lives Matter mural; and Reggie Harris, an artist-activist who incorporates traditional and original songs to retell his ancestry of both slaves and slave-owners. The trip concluded with an opportunity for reflection, giving us time to think about our speakers and what our next steps would be.
From 2019 to 2020, not only have I become older and hopefully wiser, but I have been reckoning with how I can contribute to making a change. The 2020 civil rights trip not only retold stories of the past, but translated them into the present and helped us envision the future. It inspired me to truly set about doing my part to fix the injustices that in some cases I have benefitted from. Being Jewish means I am part of a community that has historically been persecuted. This reality means I must fight for others who are being denied basic human rights. I’m glad the Workers Circle believes that as well. For the past three years, I have discovered how intertwined my Jewish identity and my activism are. The Workers Circle has nurtured and helped grow my passion for advocating for human rights issues such as the Fight For $15 and the Fair Food Agreement together with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers boycott of Wendy’s. With the Workers Circle, I have discovered how integral fighting for social justice is to my Judaism. Although my family has never been incredibly religious, we value culture, Yiddish, and activism as expressions of our Jewish identity. The Workers Circle cultivates that expression so that we grow, learn, and become better people during the process. With Youth Stand Up for Justice, the Workers Circle’s teen program, I have connected with peers as we grapple and learn about the issues that we face as students, and what we will expect to face in the future, especially issues affecting us at the city and local levels. In 2021, it is imperative that we work locally to reverse the injustices that affect our communities. Even though we may not be the ones directly affected, the community and the country that we love is suffering and desperately needs our help.
However important student activism is, what’s even more essential to me is the bonding of community in order to properly affect change. Now more than ever, Jews need to stand up with other minorities and fight for the most basic human rights. Right now, Black people in America barely have these rights. Their life can be taken away by police officers without consequences. They are more than five times as likely to be incarcerated than white Americans. And they live in a country that was first founded on the premise that Black people only represent three fifths of a white person. As Jews who have experienced intense persecution, we cannot sit idly by. Instead, we must do everything we can to ensure that the events we’re living through right now are faced head on, so that generations that come after us aren’t forced to live through anything that comes close to ‘rhyming’ with our present and past circumstances.
Sarah Tabak is a high school Sophomore and a member of the Workers Circle’s Youth Stand Up for Justice program. She lives in Manhattan.
To learn more about our virtual civil rights trips, visit www.circle.org.
