Resistance is One Secret to Joy
On June 19th, 1865, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army took control of the federal troops on Galveston Island and made this proclamation:
"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."
The celebrations that followed became what we now know as Juneteenth, an African-American holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the US. We often think of slavery as ending when the Emancipation Proclamation was read, or when the South surrendered, but it took more than three years from the Proclamation to get to Juneteenth.
As Jews, we have our own experiences of slavery and as Tessa and I have talked about in preparing for her bat mitzvah, the Torah teaches us that it is not a quick route from slavery to freedom. Indeed, our tradition tells us that Moses led the Israelites the longest way around through the wilderness because they needed time to move spiritually and emotionally from what they were to what they were becoming.
Transitions take time no matter how much we want them to be instant, like turning on a light or making a proclamation.
Juneteenth is in many ways the African-American Passover, a time to celebrate freedom but also acknowledge the challenges of becoming free.
As American Jews, we should be proud of how active and committed we have been to the Civil Rights Movement, from Rabbi Prince who spoke just before Martin Luther King at the March on Washington, to Abraham Joshua Heschel, a dear friend and spiritual brother to Dr. King. We should remember Lillian Wald, Rabbi Emil Hirsch and Rabbi Stephen Wise who were cofounders of the NAACP.
Of course, there has also been racism in the Jewish community and we have work to do to be better and to confront our own racism.
But Jews have shown up in numbers far larger than our size would indicate to support the civil rights of the poor, of refugees, and of African Americans. We have felt solidarity and affinity with Black Americans, and we have been good allies.
Which is why it was upsetting to me that the two most famous people being honored or speaking in Burlington’s Juneteenth celebration are both outspokenly and virulently anti-Israel and pro-boycott, and that one of them is an outright anti-Semite who has publicly supported a writer who says the world is secretly run by a cabal of Jews and Lizard-People, and blamed the Talmud for world oppression.
What is most sad to me is that this person is Alice Walker, a brilliant writer whose novels are among those I love the most. I remember reading THE COLOR PURPLE when we first move to Jerusalem in 1985. I remember reading the end of POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY stuck in a tent on a camping trip in Canada when it rained non-stop for days. When I read “Resistance is the Secret of Joy” it touched something in me and I started crying and couldn’t stop for hours. I had that line above my desk the entire time I was a dean at Middlebury College. So I have a profound admiration and even love of Alice Walker as a novelist.
And she is an unapologetic anti-Semite.
What is difficult for me is holding that contradiction, that tension and sadness when somebody we deeply admire as an artist also has a belief system that is reprehensible. But both are true, and I have to hold both those truths. God made us with the capacity to hold complex truths.
When I learned that a series of events at the Flynn as part of Burlington City’s Juneteenth Celebration was in honor of Alice Walker, I decided that I had to at least call and write the City’s Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging and let them know my concerns. I specifically said I was not in support of deplatforming or cancelling her, but I was disappointed that an office focused on Inclusion and Belonging would be part of honoring her when there are so many other outstanding African American leaders to celebrate.
I’m glad to report that the City Office was excellent and took my concerns seriously. I sent them links to articles about Ms. Walker and her racism against Jews, and last night I got an email from the director of that office that they had contacted the event sponsors, and while the event focused on HipHop would continue, any materials or speeches honoring Alice Walker would be removed.
It is a sad victory, and a sign that in many ways, we as Americans are still in the wilderness when it comes to understanding and supporting one another across differences.
Tessa, we have talked about how the people in the Torah are all complicated, complex, with good and bad mixed together – the way all people are. I have been very impressed, Tessa, by your critical thinking skills, your ability to look at something from a variety of angles and think for yourself - your ability to hold contradictions.
Many times you have spoken out as a fan of the scientific method, that requires research, reflection and facing the data whatever it shows us.
Holding complexity is one of the key lessons Judaism teaches us. It is one your generation will have to carry forward in the face of forces that are pushing us to either/or world views and opinions, that seem to dismiss complexity as a micro-aggression. I pray that you hold on to that ability to see things complexly and to hold contradictions calmly, with compassion and kindness, but also with clarity and a willingness to speak your ideas. I pray you will continue to have the courage to speak your truth even if it means some people sometimes won’t like what you say - even if it means losing some friends over the years.
But being free means you can speak your mind; freedom requires that we speak our minds. If we can only say what we feel we are supposed to say, what the people we like will like, then we are not free, but rather in the wilderness, in exile from our own spirits. We are in the desert, or in The Scarlet Letter, or the Crucible, but definitely not the promised land.
This week’s Torah portion, B’ha’alotcha starts by describing the menorah at the Mishkan, the tabernacle, and how we need to adjust the seven lamps on the top so that they combine their light and shine their light in the dark places.
It goes on to report that the Israelites started to beg to go back to Egypt and be slaves because things were provided for them and life was simple. They were afraid of liberty.
On Juneteenth let’s commit ourselves to the deeper freedom that comes from seeing the world for ourselves, and avoiding dogma and ideologies that try to force us into group-think.
On Juneteenth, let’s commit ourselves to shining our lights on the plague that is racism toward African Americans, but also on the plague that is racism against Jews.
On Juneteenth, let’s guard ourselves against the temptation of longing to return to Egypt to be slaves, where we don’t have the think for ourselves and we only say what we are allowed to say, and where we rely on a Pharoah, a Strong Man to tell us what to think and what is truth.
On Juneteenth, let’s ask ourselves Rabbi Hillel’s complex saying that we talked about in class: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
Shabbat Shalom