{"id":577,"date":"2020-08-27T12:43:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T16:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/?p=577"},"modified":"2020-08-27T12:43:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T16:43:36","slug":"weisman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/weisman\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest blog: There are No Bystanders. Reflections of a Rabbi and BU Alum"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Rabbi Greg Weisman,\u00a0(CAS \u201905) who is a rabbi at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton<\/a>, FL, where he is striving to make his city, county, state, and nation more just and fair for all.<\/em><\/p>\n

I came to BU because of Prof. Wiesel. Like so many Jews I turned to his writings to help me understand the legacy of the Holocaust, and was inspired to find a man who turned his experience of horror into a life devoted to\u00a0preventing others from suffering a similar fate. I came to BU hoping that just by being on campus with him I might catch a glimpse or a morsel of his moral wisdom. I was blessed to learn from him in class in the fall of 2004.\u00a0The class\u00a0met in STH, the School of Theology building, a building\u00a0where another one of our University\u2019s Nobel Laureates studied, Dr. Martin Luther King. When I reflect on that, the weight of it still hits me: I sat in a classroom with Elie Wiesel, in the same building where Martin Luther King studied.<\/p>\n

The two men came from\u00a0very different backgrounds,\u00a0but the legacies they left behind\u00a0have\u00a0much in common.\u00a0Both were gifted with extraordinary eloquence and they used their words,\u00a0written and spoken, to inspire others to pursue causes of justice and peace. They\u00a0reached generations of people across the globe and urged them to care for the vulnerable, the forgotten or ignored, and that each of us, regardless of our station in life,\u00a0has a role to play in that work.<\/p>\n

For the last seven years, I have served as a rabbi in Boca Raton, Florida. My journey into the rabbinate started at BU, through my work in the\u00a0Jewish Studies program, which has since been renamed in Prof. Wiesel\u2019s honor. In my work, I\u00a0often\u00a0reflect on my memories from that time, in particular on the lessons from\u00a0Professor Wiesel’s\u00a0class\u00a0on \u201cLiterary Responses to Oppression.\u201d With the rise of national awareness\u00a0for\u00a0the pervasive ill effects of systemic racism and race-based inequality, members of my community and I have been poring over modern-day responses to the oppression of People of Color in the US. We travelled together in the past year to Georgia and Alabama to visit the sites, memorials, and museums of the Civil Rights era. We have listened to podcasts, watched films, and read books and articles about white privilege, racist violence, and most recently, antiracism. While this learning was in light of the ongoing struggle for racial justice, it took an even more pressing turn after the murder of George Floyd.\u00a0 <\/span>When the leadership of our local Black community organized a Peace March through Boca Raton, my congregation turned out in great numbers in support. Our membership wanted to learn more and asked us to put together a panel on race in our community with a local pastor, a community leader, and a Black member of our congregation sharing their stories.<\/p>\n

I also heard from members of my congregation that they wanted to read together and discuss How to be an Antiracist<\/em> by Ibram<\/span> X. <\/a>Kendi<\/span>, that we might learn from him how we can combat the ills of racism in our day through our own lives and behavior. Right after I announced this book discussion group to the entire community, the news broke that Dr. Kendi<\/span> would be relocating to BU. Like many alumni I felt a sense of pride, and was curious about what prompted his decision. When I heard that he chose to come to BU because of its history of the acceptance of students of Color and because it was where Dr. King pursued his doctorate, I thought back to the STH building and my time in those classrooms.<\/p>\n

As a Jew and a rabbi, what compels me about Dr. Kendi\u2019s<\/span> thinking is that it leaves no room for standing by. The core message in his book, and of antiracism in general, is that everything we do either reinforces a system of racism that has been erected and reinforced over centuries or strives to tear that edifice down. In each action we take, we are either being racist or being antiracist. There is no neutrality when it comes to racism. As I processed his argument and began to think about it in Jewish terms, I couldn\u2019t help but think about the acceptance\u00a0speech Professor Wiesel gave in Oslo\u00a0when he received the Nobel Prize for Peace, where he\u00a0cautioned against neutrality: \u201cWe must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must \u2013 at that moment \u2013 become the center of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The burden Dr. King, Prof. Wiesel,\u00a0and Dr. Kendi<\/span> lay\u00a0upon us\u00a0is great. \u201cThe day is short, the\u00a0work\u00a0is much” (Avot<\/em><\/span> 2:16), Jewish tradition says. But along with\u00a0that burden, these great minds of BU inspire me each and every day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rabbi Greg Weisman,\u00a0(CAS \u201905) who is a rabbi at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton, FL, where he is striving to make his city, county, state, and nation more just and fair for all. I came to BU because of Prof. Wiesel. Like so many Jews I turned to his writings to help me … Continue reading Guest blog: There are No Bystanders. Reflections of a Rabbi and BU Alum<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1355,"featured_media":586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ewcjs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}