Why Reparations is an Important Issue for Jews to Address

By Rabbi Steven B. Silvern

Each generation of Jews has had to select broken pieces of the world to mend. Today’s generation of Reconstructionist Jews is naming systemic racism as one of the broken pieces requiring our attention and efforts to rectify severe wrongs.

The Reconstructing Judaism strategic plan identifies the goal as to “join and lead Jewish efforts to dismantle systemic racism, and to advance racial diversity, equity and inclusion within the Reconstructionist movement.”

To that end, the Reconstructing Judaism Tikkun Olam Commission recently put forward a resolution on reparations to be considered by the Plenum of Congregations to complement the resolution previously passed by the Reconstructionist Rabbinic Association. A major concern expressed in the resolution is that reparations require careful study to ensure they are true reparations and not simply a monetary penalty.

In preparation for the plenum, Doug Colbert, a law professor at the University of Maryland, Kol HaLev student Rabbi Emily Stern and representatives of the Lutherville congregation’s social justice committee arranged for Rabbi Micah Geurin Weiss, a tikkun olam specialist at Reconstructing Judaism, to teach the Kol HaLev community about the issue and importance of reparations.

Rabbi Weiss asked participants to reflect on the collage “Hineni | הנני: Belonging, Memory, Action,” created by Marjorie Attignol Salvodon, in response to Reconstructing Judaism’s “Day of Learning on Reparations” on Aug. 8, 2021. The community read the resolutions and reflected on each.

Finally, there was a discussion of the Talmudic principle of the stolen beam (Tractate Gittin 55a), where the strictest opinion regarding restoration of a wrong requires destroying even an edifice to return a single beam, and a more lenient view is to pay for the value of the beam along with a penalty.

After meeting with Rabbi Weiss, the Kol HaLev community voiced support for the resolution, and the congregation’s social justice committee voted unanimously for the synagogue’s board to support the resolution at the plenum.

“This is one of the most important steps we can take on the path to rectifying the ills of racism,” said Prof. Colbert. At a meeting of the plenum on Dec. 11, 2022, the resolution passed without objection.

A key component of the resolution is “… we encourage all Reconstructionist movement congregations and affiliated groups to engage in ongoing learning about systems of oppression and structural racism, and about how these systems have caused, and continue to cause, harm in our communities …”

To that end, Kol HaLev is offering monthly workshops on reparations. The workshops are offered online and are available to anyone interested in the reparations process.

As an intern, volunteer and teacher, Brenna Gourgeot, a Kol HaLev congregant and workshop leader, has deep experiences working with communities harmed by racism. Part of Gourgeot’s teacher training included biennial diversity, equity and inclusion training. During this training she was introduced to the idea of reparations.

Gourgeot has developed the following plan:

Workshops will include multi-media explorations of reparations in the United States through the 20th and 21st centuries, via film, essay, song and personal stories;

Participants will bring a multi-generational perspective through sharing their lived experiences of historic moments in the recent past;

The group will meet on the fourth Sunday of each month and topics are not necessarily successive, so people can join whenever they are able. The first meeting was on Jan. 22 and will continue through May 28th. Information for connecting to workshop sessions may be found by visiting kolhalevmd.org.

Rabbi Steven B. Silvern serves as interim rabbi at Kol HaLev Congregation in Lutherville.