Not Free To Desist 2023 Update

A Juneteenth Reflection 3 years after our open letter campaign

By Lindsey Newman

Three years ago, days after the murder of George Floyd, we published the Not Free to Desist letter detailing a vision for a Jewish community that embodies racial justice. 

In a matter of days, thousands of individuals and dozens of Jewish organizations heeded the call and helped us create a coalition of Jews of color and allies.  Together we were dedicated to holding the Jewish community accountable for racial justice.  Our letter joined a cadre of open letters and calls for change across a broad range of American industries and communities.  The goal of the NFD letter was multifold: 1) to expand the accepted notion of what racial justice could realistically look like in the Jewish community and 2) to provide organizations with a roadmap of concrete action steps they could undertake to move toward structural change and racial equity. 

This tactic succeeded at shifting the conversation across all elements of the Jewish communal landscape, but it didn’t come without a cost. Now, three years later, as we reflect on that significant moment, we write this note to share with the world why we did what we did, and what could come next. 

Why we did it: Jews of Color today

Jews have historically been a racially and ethnically diverse community, however mainstream Jewish institutions in the U.S. have reflected a largely Ashkenazi perspective and institutional hegemony for the last 150 years. The conversation on racial justice today is couched in a postwar America where many Jews from European backgrounds have been able to assimilate into the privileges of whiteness. In parallel, many of our institutions replicate systems that overvalue whiteness and require assimilation in exchange for the privilege of participation.  

While overall diversity of the community continues to increase, we have not seen a corresponding shift amongst the professional or lay leadership of our Jewish communal organizations, nor do we see Jews of color entrusted with true agency to build solutions to our own marginalization. Over the last several decades an increasing number of Jews of color have organized movements dedicated to the needs and dreams of Jews of color. These efforts have remained under-resourced, at times undermined or outright obstructed by an institutional world that has resisted meaningful change.

Our motivation in writing this letter was to drive action. While we know billions of dollars flow through the Jewish nonprofit ecosystem every year, there remains a gap in equitable deployment.  While studies show that Jews of color make up between 12-20% of the community, Jewish resources committed to Jews of color remain anemic. This reality has negatively impacted our community by siloing access to communal resources, encouraging gatekeeping and has deprived our community of the contributions of talented Jews of Color marginalized from Jewish life. Several of the letter’s obligations point to a solution that centers Jews of color, commitment to antiracist policies and practices, and the pursuit of structural change to allow for a more just allocation of resources. 

Why we did it: Racial Justice beyond the Jewish community

The Jewish community is not alone in its continued grappling with the issue of racial equity, and we have seen racial justice movements in the 21st century continue to grow and evolve. The growth of  #BlackLivesMatter since 2012, a Black-centered movement to recognize the humanity of Black people and galvanize the political will to protect Black lives, informed the context for how communities unified for change in 2020.

When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the world to shut down in March 2020, the structural fault lines in our society were magnified, making those who were vulnerable increasingly so. Stirred by witnessing police brutality, and undistracted by the noise of daily life due to the pandemic shutdowns, millions felt called to show up for racial justice.  

As those calls for justice and change grew louder, it was clear that notes of condolence and sympathy from our leaders were not enough.

And so, on a Sunday night in June, as we attempted to process the historic moment, Rachel, Aaron and I asked ourselves: “If we had the ear of the Jewish community, what would we want it to do in this moment?”

The answer to that question is laid out in the Not Free to Desist letter, written with love and informed by our Jewish identities. For Rav Nachman of Breslau teaches “If you believe you can destroy, believe that you can repair.”  We wanted to inspire the Jewish community to remember that if we can acknowledge our capacity to act in destructive ways, then we must believe in our capacity to repair and our power to build a better way.

As with all Racial Justice initiatives, this came with risk

The risks were immediately clear.  Alongside thousands of supporters, came death threats. We received notes calling us self hating Jews who were contributing to the downfall of the Jewish community. 

Messages of warning came from those we knew too. As we prepared to release the letter, we were told we were naive, that no one would step into the line of fire with us if we put this vision out in the world. We were told those in power would be too fragile to hear this message, that we needed softer tactics. Some told us our message was too divisive or that it was unrealistic to expect this kind of change. But we knew we couldn't sit on our hands as this Overton window sat open before us. 

We were ready to absorb these risks due to a few factors. We are friends and organizers who have been involved in Jewish racial justice work together and individually over the last two decades. We have been nourished by the burgeoning JOC-led movement for racial justice of the last 30 years. We have demonstrated our commitment and love for our community by serving on the boards of synagogues, national social justice advocacy organizations and Jewish Federations. Throughout our careers– Aaron through creating the largest media company empowering Black millennials and Gen z, Rachel through creating the largest national movement to end student hunger, and Lindsey through building community for Jews of color and advocating for racial justice in Jewish institutions– we have already dedicated ourselves to the complicated and demanding responsibility to pursue social change. Our access and positionality within the Jewish institutional world was a form of privilege, and with that came a responsibility to persist in speaking truth to power. 

We defined success not by how many people liked our tactics, but by our ability to create a shift in communal consciousness and galvanize collective energy.  If we could show that our vision resonated with others, then we knew we could help stimulate others to take steps to bring about change.

Though we had been told our message was too bold and would be rejected, the opposite happened. 

The letter was received with overwhelming support

In a matter of days and with no institutional backing or platform, over 1,200 individuals signed the open letter in solidarity and over 60 organizations committed to fulfilling the NFD obligations.  Rabbis, scholars, CEOs, philanthropists, foundation professionals, educators, activists, Jewish communal professionals and lay leaders from across the country signed onto the letter.  Some of the most vibrant institutions dedicated to Jewish life today, including congregations, foundations, denominational movements, advocacy organizations and federations, released public statements reaffirming their commitment to racial justice and detailing tangible steps they were taking to make change. We helped inspire similar calls to action across the world. 

Jewish communal professionals expressed that the letter resonated deeply with their desire for honesty and action, and provided tangible guidance for incorporating racial equity into organizational operations. Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of JFNA shared the letter in an email to the field of Federation professionals, inviting its leadership to see our voices and the letter as an invitation, not a threat. The executive leadership at other Federations and major foundations across the country invited us to meet and help them think about how their organizations could incorporate these pillars into their work. 

Since 2020, the number of JOC founded and led organizations has increased exponentially, and we expect more to be created every year moving forward.  Among historically white Jewish institutions, there have been concerted efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity of the boards of directors at institutions across the spectrum of Jewish life, as seen at organizations such as JPro, Repair the World, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, and Bend the Arc.  Access to training for educators on Jewish diversity, bias, and culturally responsive curriculum resources on Jewish diversity have increased.  Jewish organizations have begun to hire Diversity Equity and Inclusion directors and allocate funding within their budgets for DEI related initiatives, training, and assessments. JFNA’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiative provides education, training and support to better equip the Federation ecosystem to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse North American Jewry. We have begun to see mainstream institutions increase their investment in building JOC leadership capacity through initiatives like Avodah’s JOC Bayit, the B’Yachad Fellowship for JOC educators by the Jewish Education Project, At The Well’s POC circles,  and Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Network JOC cohorts.

The work over the past 3 years

In the three years since the letter’s publication we have sought to support professionals and individuals making progress toward racial equity, providing feedback and sharing resources to encourage organizations to maintain momentum in their racial justice work.  We were joined by a group of dedicated volunteers to create and publish resources which have been downloaded or viewed thousands of times.  We’ve reached over 5,000 people through speaking engagements, training and consultations on racial justice in the Jewish community.  We have begun to hold space for multiracial groups to think deeply about how they can personally show up to dismantle racism and learn from one another’s success and challenges in making change within organizations.  We are dedicated to creating space for JOCs to nurture their own skills, talents and healing to better prepare them to lead the evolution of a liberated Jewish community rooted in belonging and justice.

We saw our tactic as one of many along a spectrum needed when advocating for change. Our process was not perfect, as there is no objectively correct way to address racism. We welcomed feedback as any movement needs an emerging flow of data to evolve and grow. In the years since, we have built stronger relationships with the folks who told us to adjust our strategy or to not publish at all. 

While we recognize the fleeting nature of the Overton window presented in 2020, we also wonder what we could have done to prepare for that window, not to mention the inevitable swing of the pendulum in the other direction towards book bans and “anti-woke” rhetoric. 

Looking back we have seen our work directly impact some of the largest organizations that serve the Jewish community.  We recognize that institutional change is both fast and slow.  We have walked the delicate line between prioritizing the pursuit of timely change while not allowing the process to fall victim to the detrimental effects of urgency. The targets we set within 7 pillars of action made some critics uncomfortable in their audacity, but audaciousness was the point. Change comes when we feel challenged.

Looking forward

By outlining a set of principles, our goal was to break institutions out of our usual mode of operating and shift into action. While the work continues, communal challenges will persist, new global crises will inevitably arise and communal priorities may evolve. As anti-semitism and anti-democratic threats rise in severity, we believe we must not lose the progress made towards racial justice as the three are directly linked. 

As individuals and together as a team, we continue our commitment to this work.  Rachel currently advises and leads national campaigns to combat Jewish poverty. Aaron is dedicated to increasing access to capital for BIPOC and female founders through his $65M venture capital fund.  Lindsey helps Jewish organizations identify tools to develop equity strategies for long term impact.  

Resilience and innovation have been hallmarks of Jewish life for thousands of years.  The pursuit toward progress is endless. As a community we have achieved much, and there is still much left to be done.  For we are taught: it is not our responsibility to complete the work, but neither can we desist from it. 

Building on this tradition, we believe the Jewish community can:

• Mobilize resources to support marginalized Jewish communities, including Jews of Color, by seeking opportunities to democratize philanthropy, utilizing flow funding, collaborative philanthropy, giving circles and other practices that facilitate the ability of marginalized groups to help direct resources to the issues, projects and interventions that affect them most

• Continue to invest in building the capacity of JOC leadership, through high quality programs and curriculum that offer breadth and depth of impact that support their leadership.

• Think beyond just a steering committee. Promote innovation in ideas, strategies and programs to create multiracial, multiethnic Jewish community rooted in justice and equity. 

• Create more opportunities for white people to learn and build skills related to racial equity, preparing them to work in multiracial coalition work to dismantle white supremacy.

For all those that feel called to continue the mantle of this work, we hope you will consider one of the following opportunities: 

• Work for accountability:  Ask your organization to report out the progress it has made toward its racial equity goals.  Use this form to share your progress with us

• Share the obligations outlined in the letter with the leadership of your organization and ask for related change

• Build your skills to do the work: Join our multiracial antiracist action cohort facilitated in partnership with Inside Out Wisdom and Action. Form antiracist habits and behaviors and strengthen your ability to achieve your racial equity goals through Jewish spiritual practice in the program, Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out.

• Invest in the agency of JOCs by donating directly to JOC-led organizations and projects