Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

How Jews are celebrating Juneteenth

The holiday will feature joint gatherings of Black and Jewish groups, and talks by Black Jews and others

For the past two years, June 19 has been an official holiday in the United States, celebrating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Known as Juneteenth, it marks the day in 1865 when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued a declaration freeing the slaves of Texas. 

Jewish institutions across the country have planned events to mark the day. Here are a few notable ones.

Friday, June 16 

  • Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C. will hold a Shabbat service with their Jews of Color group and other community partners. The service will include appetizers and drinks and dinner after services conclude. The synagogue also invites its members to take part in a Juneteenth Heritage festival the following Monday, which will be hosted with  the Scotland AME Zion Church.
  • New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will speak at New York City’s Temple Emanu-El Friday evening. The service will “observe 158 years of liberation and remember the suffering of previous generations who did not survive to experience it.”

Saturday, June 17

  • Chicago’s Jewish Council on Urban Affairs will host their sixth annual Juneteenth Havdala at KAM Isaiah-Israel Congregation at 6 p.m. This year’s theme is “Liberation: Can You Feel It?” The civic group intends to “celebrate our diverse identities with our community.”

Sunday, June 18

  • Fort Washington Collegiate College Church in New York City will host guest speaker Dr. Karen Greene of Fort Tryon Jewish synagogue to discuss her experience as a Black Jewish woman. 

Monday, June 19

  • The Union for Reform Judaism and other Jewish community organizations are co-sponsoring the annual Scotland Juneteenth Heritage event in Potomac, Maryland. Held at the Cabin John Village and Regional Park, the event will celebrate “the past and present of the first places African-Americans owned land in Montgomery County.”

Saturday, June 24

  • The Racial Justice Collaborative will host their Juneteenth Summit online. Organizers say the event will celebrate the alliance between Black and Jewish groups in social justice movements: “We aim to foster a sense of unity and common purpose, reframing our perspective to see ourselves not as independent entities but as allies against bigotry and injustice.” Tickets are free but donations are requested.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.