By Michael D. Cohen
On an intellectual level we understand
that as less than two percent of Americans and as a shrinking
proportional population in the larger tri-state region, it is critical
for the Jewish community to embrace its neighbors and seek to forge
natural alliances with other like-minded communities. Taking the leap in
learning what such relationship building entails and substantively
acting upon those findings is something that much of our future communal
successes depend on.
When I was elected to the Englewood City
Council, among my first legislative actions was to follow up on a
commitment that I had made to the local African-American community—to
have an Orthodox Jew introduce the resolution necessary to have
Juneteenth officially recognized in our city of roughly 28,000. Having
participated in drafting similar legislation during my time working for a
member of the New York State Conference of Black Senators, I understood
the significance of this underpublicized secular holiday, which
celebrates the 1865 announcement of the de-facto end of slavery in the
American South.
Juneteenth’s purpose is largely to
remember the horrors and indignities of the past and to educate both
future generations of African Americans about their past and to raise
the level of consciousness among the larger American population. As
victims of discrimination from time immemorial, we as Jews understand
better than anyone the need for such commemorations, days that are both
rooted in reflection and act as teaching moments not unlike our advocacy
of universal recognition of Yom Hashoah.
At the Simon Wiesenthal Center there is
an unyielding focus on utilizing lessons of the past to better the
future for our children. The Center teaches that those who have the
capacity for hate will hate everyone, Jew and gentile alike, but that
what is necessary is to reach across community lines, understand each
other’s travails and through mutual empathy build an invigorated
activism to confront both anti-Semitism and discrimination in all of its
ugly forms.
I must admit that prior to being asked
to work on Juneteenth recognition in New York I too had little if any
knowledge of the holiday’s existence. I went to Yeshiva of Flatbush,
learned in Israel for a year, and attended Brooklyn College, what would
seem to be a normal educational trajectory for many of our Jewish youth,
and yet I was never taught about the holiday marking this important
event in African-American history. If we are to broaden our interfaith
alliances in the manner necessary for joint advocacy against hate, we
must collectively do a better job at cross-educating the next
generation.
Social activism begins with education
and mutual understanding and I have reason to be hopeful. Since the
introduction both in New York State and Englewood, NJ of resolutions for
official Juneteenth recognition I have seen many in the Jewish
community asking for the first time about the details of this important
holiday. Previously the common thought was that freedom came with
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, not realizing that at the
time Lincoln had not the physical authority to enforce such measures in
the Confederacy, leaving slavery intact for a few years longer.
As Juneteenth is celebrated across the
country this week, let us take a moment with our children to explain
what is being remembered and why. Let’s explain to our children that
celebrating Juneteenth is the Jewish way of showing empathy and
understanding and that we should encourage others to follow suit. Let’s
all understand that by recognizing the importance of Juneteenth in the
Jewish community we are taking one large step toward breaking down the
barriers between ourselves and our neighbors and that we need to forge
allies in the struggles of combatting hate in both their community and
ours.
Michael D. Cohen is Eastern Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center/ Museum of Tolerance New York.
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