after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. nothing on my skin means everything! ♪ nothing is everything ♪ ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. (upbeat music) good morning and welcome to 'mosaic'. i am rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host this morning. this morning we are about to have an amazing conversation about race in the jewish community.

we would like you to meet elana coffman, who is the public affairs and civic engagement director at the san francisco based jewish community relations council. and rabbi jackie, the senior rabbi at temple sinai in oakland. >> good morning. >> let's ask, what are your experiences in the jewish community? >> for the most part my experience in the jewish community have been very positive which is why i find myself as a leader in the community now. my family is biracial. i am questioned and challenged why we were there or if we are jewish. are you sure. which will be difficult at times. >> my experience was wonderful and complicated and challenging. i grew up in san francisco and i went to

synagogue and i was one of just a few kids who were not white or recognized as white in the community. i had a rich experience growing up with jewish values and jewish practices in the jewish community and experienced people wondering when i was adopted and when i became jewish. why my hebrew is so good, when i learned the prayers assuming i was a natural part of the fabric of the jewish community. >> in our jewish culture, we have this tremendous respect for what we think of as our text life which means, we value words and we play with words and would like to think about what the words mean and new words to invent and bring into the culture. can you reflect a little bit about the way we have used the language, biracial, are you really jewish and the way we talk about different ways in which culture interacts and families. what about our language and what does that tell us about this issue in our jewish community? >> the first thought that

comes to mind is , i have often experienced and this conversation, in which we are talking is specific to the united states in terms of the dynamics around race we are discussing. the way i think about language, rabbis, jewish leaders talk about our affinity for the other and our care and community of behalf of the other. when we talk about race we often talk about people of color as the other. there by not assuming there are people of color inside the jewish community. the first red flag around language is talking about race as if people of color are the other rather than an integral part of the us-based jewish community. >> an important point. so often we think of judaism or jews as being connected to other parts of the world which is perhaps why all jews do not look the same. there are some who are not white do not identify as

white. it is part of who we are and not a matter of welcoming somehow who is suddenly coming from the outside into the community. >> that is hard. the dynamic of being able to talk about people as the other gives us a way in the u.s. have framed our jews and how we talk about the exodus story and passover and when we want to be inclusive of others we talk about how we were once slaves also and the frame, presupposes that people of color , african-americans are not part of that slavery story , for example and we rely on the language of other to create a narrative about how we talk about jews in the united states. >> people use a word intersection alley. which is in some ways a modern word in some ways and a clumsy word which tries to look at weaving together these uniquely

american realities about how we talk about race in our country and how we talk about culture. does that help us in terms of saying the other is us and there is another. there is like a porous news in which we are in some ways pushing at that narrative and demanding inclusion in a way our way that may not be assumed. >> it requires patience on everybody's side. and that is important for us as a jewish community is for us to be open with what the possibilities are and for people to be in that space where they say we are the other and it begins an opening to have the conversation about the fact

that we thought someone was a stranger when they are not and it is important for us to be open and reflective about how we understand what makes us jewish and how we understand what can make someone jewish . >> we will take a quick break and come back to this conversation. join us in a moment as we continue this wonderful conversation on mosaic.

welcome back to 'mosaic'. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about race in the jewish community and talking with rabbi jackie, the senior rabbi of the temple sinai in oakland, and elena coffman, engagement director at the jewish community council. welcome back. we were talking about the function of otherness and how that notion comes out at our theology, the story of the exodus and the passover holiday and how that functions. it seems natural to just ask, what about being white? what about whiteness? what about that aspect of our culture, of the way that functions racially in you and your lives and your family? i know that is a big topic and a big way of asking the question but i think for

folks who are familiar with the conversation of race in any faith community, this is part and parcel of the conversation . some people may not be familiar with . having said that, what about whiteness in all of this? >> i was thinking in the last segment we were talking about intersectionality. one good thing about that is , it allows people, all of us, everyone of us has multiple identities. interracial context we are challenged to push in. for one side or the other. for those jews you are ashkenazi, have two white skinned parents, when they arrived to this country, they were not labeled as white, they were labeled as people of color. jews were marginalized because of their ethnic identities and backgrounds . in a modern dynamic where we have to talk about race, i understand that lots of jews who are white field push to abandon their ethnic identity and jump into a kind of

whiteness that does not resonate with them. >> it is interesting you say that. ashkenazi, referring to jews of eastern european origin, let's just say, we jews, we come out of a place in which prejudice was based on religion and ethnicity to a country where , in a reductionist way to say, prejudice has roots in skin color. even though internally we would never identify as anything but jewish and that experience of prejudice, we come to a country that from the outside sees us as white and gives us a kind of presumption of access to society, based on the color of our skin. without regard to how we feel internally. and we succeed, in part because of that. >> i think looking at jewish-white privilege in a

jewish context can give us an interesting perspective when a we look at what that means outside the jewish community. we talked about being challenged. you walk into a jewish space and you are challenged if you don't look white . as to whether or not you belong. jews to look white or however people understand that, are not challenged. that is privilege. you're not being asked to explain yourself or give a legitimate reason why you should be there. within a jewish context, i think because it is about belonging and about when you walk into a jewish space you want to feel that embrace that you hope the jewish community will give you, it gives an interesting perspective on what the distance means. if you are white you have the benefit of the doubt and that is what privileges if you are not come you are asked to explain yourself. that is what it is in the jewish community. we talk about issues of justice and issues of equality, we can see how that plays out in the

bigger picture. >> to add to the largeness of this conversation, both of you are leaders in the jewish community. you are a rabbi and you are director of civic engagement of public affairs for a premier jewish community relations council, jewish community agency. people come to you for your leadership and your expertise in the broadness of the jewish community. it is kind of a big question but does this issue play out , not play out? there are certainly subtleties like if you are lesbian or transgender or a woman, all these things have subtleties but can you comment about where this exist does not exist when people come to you as rabbi to officiate at a lifecycle event, come to you for a consultation

on how to deal with an issue in the community? >> it plays out in all kinds of levels and layers. i choose to be in this role and it is a privilege to serve in the jewish community and to be a jewish community leader. with that i choose all the complications that come with intersectional and by sectional reality. every day people take a second look at me when they see me as related to my name. i have a traditional, jewish name and they don't assume i will be block when they see me live and in person. sometimes i walk in situations where a racist thing is happening, it is unfolding . it may be in language or graphic imagery. maybe inside the synagogue i am visiting and working in on a consultation. have to grapple with how i can be a leader in educator. someone who can advance the conversation in a way that holds the community together and have authentic feelings about it. and process it as a person of color and a black person and i need to do that at

once. the other thing is , because of my background as a person of color who is also jewish and working in the jewish community it gives me vantage points into community connections that may be people with my background and experience can uniquely make on behalf of the jewish community and on behalf of the larger community building activities . on one hand there may be complications or races things that happen, and on the other hand there were nothing but opportunities to build bridges and advance the jewish community but all communities working together as allies. >> i think there is something interesting about the fact that we both grew up within the jewish community and people who do not identify as not only white, we had to look at our identities and who we are and how we understand ourselves and what makes us jewish . i think that also puts us in a unique place as leaders as well , being able to help other people understand who they are and what makes them jewish.

>> i was going to say it brings an extraordinary richness to actually developing jewish identity in a greater authenticity for people who may struggle in that way. we will take a quick break and we will say goodbye to elana and welcome another guest in a moment. rabbi jackie will stay with us. thank you for staying with us and we invite you to return to us in mosaic in just a moment.

welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about race in the jewish community. joining us is rabbi jackie, and diane tobin. the founder and executive director of, an organization that advocates for racial and ethnic equality in the jewish

community. what are your experiences in the jewish community? >> i adopted a child 18 years ago and i like many people, when you talk about white privilege, many people are not aware of race. it is not part of their lives. our life became very much , i did not know any black jews i studied at a research institute. we had to study ethnic diversity in the american jewish community to understand who was around and what do that world look like? 15 years later, we provide a space for a lot of people. jews, normal and all kinds of jews who are making different choices in life. this is a world in which people are

very open. internet and social media and social networks allow us to make choices about our identity in life and people are choosing, when you talk about multiple identities, people are choosing to be jewish and part of your synagogue and choosing to be a lot of different things. it is creating that space and i meet people where they are. and people come from all different spaces. >> when you say people make different choices, can you comment a little on the jewish context, the degree to which people, take their jewishness to this other place? to this other community, to this other experience? if that makes sense to you ? >> as you touched on earlier we came to the united states as a persecuted minority and we were fighting for our lives and this is the way in which we succeeded , was to fit in with other european americans , it

is interesting to think about it is only been like that since after world war ii, because of the g.i. bill it provided affirmative action for european males . at that moment we became american and have that opportunity. i don't think that was a mistake. it was what it was no need to rewrite history but we are at a moment in time now where the american -- in particular is more diverse. the country is multiracial. whites will be a minority, supposedly as of 2042. we have a moment as a jewish community to rethink who we are and how we got here and where we want to move forward. jews are in

multicultural people. we live all over the world. just because we immigrated from the part of eastern europe. we are a global people. >> we, the jewish community are from africa or ethiopia, for example or latinos in south america, for example. and worldwide in this way. if you funnel that global reality to american life . can you comment on when you are jewish and you go in the chinese community, your experience when you are jewish and you go into the african-american community ? how does an identity in someplace dominates ? how do you take the core of what you are into the community? how does the function? >> you take the core of who

you are with you all the time and you are always everything that you are. and for a lot of people, it is not a choice in that kind of way. it kind of exists naturally side-by-side in a way that melds. when i go into the chinese community, i am jewish and i take that aspect of me , perhaps the symbols or cultural experiences or things like that that i encounter. those specific reactions within me. but in the end they will be informed by my greater experiences as a jewish person. ideally it exists in a holistic kind of way. rather than making us choose one of the other, it enables us to understand and be able to relate in a much broader kind of way all the time.

>> diane, i know you will answer this question also but your comment makes me think, do we suddenly force in america a parsing of identity that actually isn't humanly accurate? >> i think that people are projecting their own experiences and i think what we are finding is the greater mix of racism, ethnicity and all the different pieces of who we are as americans, the more we continue to do that and experience that, the less we will force one or the other. >> we will take a quick break and join us in a moment and when we come back to 'mosaic'.

welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a great conversation with diane tobin who is the founder and executive director , of an organization that advocates for the jewish community for diversity and ethnicity. rabbi jackie, senior rabbi. we were in the middle of the conversation about how notions of understanding in the jewish community and you were going to add to that. >> jackie just made a good point on break, you have diversity within your family,

the changes the whole character of the family. for me , i drop station i did not grow up jewish. suddenly i have can american son and it rocked my world forever. my worldview is different. and i think i feel lucky to have that worldview and has made life more mature and meaningful. and i feel for people that, we may accuse people of being racist or having white privilege and a certain pejorative way but the reality is most people don't have the experience or the exposure and we work as an organization we work to provide that to them. to work to have his conversations. people , overall, just don't pick about it. a film came out, called this little white lie. some people just don't think about it and they don't have it in

their lives. >> we are just about time to come to the end of our conversation. it seems to me , for your final reflection, it seems to me that with all the ways in which, went something like this happens in your family and suddenly you have a different reality, that it takes a tremendous amount of love to really get to what the core is of a person and a human being. and i just wonder, in the minute if you have a comment to serve on that level of experience for yourself? >> yes. it is a lot of love

and understanding and openness. we are at a really exciting time. the race piece is one aspect of what it means to create an american jewish experience and i think that is a really exciting place that we are. the mixing of families and races, it means we are becoming an unique experience in the history of jews. >> and i think across the whole jewish people, people are choosing to be jewish and maybe they are not expressions we may not recognize, but they are choosing. 94% of people feel proud of being jewish. >> thank you , so much. i want us to have a moment to say, thank you for joining us on 'mosaic'. please join this conversation in your lives . thank you for being with us this morning.

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