When a Black, Non-Jewish Woman Visited a Jewish Website

Advertisements
Advertisements
November 23, 2022

5 min read

FacebookTwitterLinkedInPrintFriendlyShare

I recently received this email in response to my article about Dave Chappelle:

I am a 76-year-old Black American woman, troubled by the noise about Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle is not antisemitic! I want to know who decides what is antisemitic? It feels like everything is antisemitic… I don't expect other ethnic groups to fully comprehend or understand what it is like to be the product of slavery but I do expect them to respect me as a fellow human being just like them.

The word Antisemitism is beginning to feel vengeful and hateful where people have to guard what they say or shut up and not risk being crushed by people who have the power to destroy their lives and livelihood.

As a Black American I found myself trying to reconcile my feelings about how Black Americans are treated and continue to be treated by everyone including Jewish people. Black Americans are not haters of any people and we have never advocated violence or dare to question Jewish people's right to exist. I subscribed to AISH because of the article you wrote and the need for understanding.

Honestly, I am tired of it all. I just want to be a human relating and respecting all humans. There has to be a better way, or we all perish.

God bless this woman. She and I could not be more different – diverse upbringings, religion, peoplehood and sensitivities – yet somehow, she found and read my article criticizing Chappelle’s SNL monologue for being subtly antisemitic, vehemently disagreed with it, and what did she do in response? She subscribed to Aish.com!

She didn’t immediately click away frustrated with “those Jews” and move on to another website situated comfortably in her echo chamber. She appreciated hearing a position foreign to her thinking and recognized the need to expand her horizons in order to demystify the “other.” As she so rightly said, there has to be a better way, and it’s only through openness and genuine understanding can we overcome our ingrained prejudices and learn to see each other as fellow human beings deserving of respect, despite our vast differences.

At 76 years old, this Black woman still has a yearning to learn. This is the first essential step to attaining wisdom.

In Rabbi Noah Weinberg’s signature series The 48 Ways to Wisdom, he delves into the 48 essential tools listed in Ethics of the Fathers (6:6) one needs in order to comprehend and integrate Torah wisdom. The first item is “B’Talmud”, which he defined as being a constant learner. As the Mishnah says, “Who is the wise person? The one who learns from every person” (Ethics of the Fathers, 4:1).

Learning from every single person you encounter throughout your day requires more than humility (which you need in spades); it means the one commodity you value more than anything else in the world is wisdom. From the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night, you’re on the hunt for wisdom, and you’ll extract it from whoever has it. You value it more than money, more than Instagram, more than the World Cup; you define yourself as a truth seeker.

In addition to humility and appreciating the value of wisdom, being a student of life requires another quality that seems in short supply today: curiosity.

In addition to humility and appreciating the value of wisdom, being a student of life requires another quality that seems in short supply today: curiosity. So many people today are stuck in their group-think, cut off from alternative viewpoints that may challenge their own, content to remain in their insular corner. Where’s the spark of curiosity to question and reexamine your viewpoint, to discover new ways of looking at the world, to get a glimpse of who this foreign person really is and what makes him or her tick?

I am confident that this Black woman who recently subscribed to Aish.com will be surprised and intrigued by some of the things she will learn about Judaism and the Jewish experience. She won’t agree with everything we have to say. I hope we expand her mind and challenge some of her views, and I hope she stays in contact with me and that we continue the dialogue. Her admirable openness and curiosity are deepening her empathy, the essence of being human.

And this obviously works both ways. Am I still curious, asking probing questions, deepening my understanding of viewpoints and people who are so different than me?

Fear and small-mindedness push one to demonize those who think differently. Blacks vs Jews, left vs right, religious vs secular – tearing down barriers won’t happen through censorship and close-mindedness. It starts with a yearning for understanding that’s sparked by curiosity and the recognition that there is wisdom out there, wisdom that will greatly enhance your meaning in life.

Click here to comment on this article
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
EXPLORE
LEARN
MORE
Explore
Learn
Resources
Next Steps
About
Donate
Menu
Languages
Menu
oo
Social
.