Can Jews Back Both Israel and Black Lives Matter? Of Course!
Rabbi Susan Talve is arrested in St. Louis as part of a day of disobedience held on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown Jr.’s shooting death. Image by Bill Greenblatt/UPI.
Regarding the Forward’s December 21 article “Can Jews Back ‘Black Lives Matter’ and Be Pro-Israel?” we wish to state that the St. Louis Jewish community stands in solidarity with our friend and colleague Rabbi Susan Talve. Though we do not all agree with the opinions that she espouses or the stances that she has taken, we unequivocally condemn any attacks against her and we reject any attempts at dialogue around these issues that use incendiary language or offensive rhetoric.
Further, the St. Louis Jewish community has a long-standing relationship with the African-American community in St. Louis, a relationship that has roots long before the events in Ferguson took on national media attention and that have continued to today. The Jewish Community Relations Council, a beneficiary agency of Jewish Federation of St. Louis, is working to identify areas in which the Jewish community will take leadership roles as appropriate to advance the common interests of our region.
It need not be said that the St. Louis Jewish Community also stands in solidarity with Israel and works tirelessly to support the State of Israel and its citizens.
Attempts to force the Jewish community to choose between these two issues are erroneous and aim to agitate and disrupt positive, established relationships. We will not allow these attempts to succeed.
Maharat Rori Picker Neiss
Executive Director
Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis
Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
