On Sunday April 28, TBS hosted its first Kulanu community event, Shared Experiences in Antisemitism. This was an event for parents of school age children to come together and share their personal experiences and receive resources to help us navigate these tough times.
Rabbi Peter Levi, Regional Director of the ADL Long Beach and Orange County, was our guest speaker and he expertly guided us through different workshop activities to begin the discussion on how antisemitism impacts all of us. Breaking up into groups of 2, then 4, then 8, and finally 16, we started identifying keywords about how antisemitic events make us feel. Each time we merged with another group, we narrowed our choices from 8 words to 4 words and eventually, came together as the entire group with the 4 most impactful words. We quickly came to realize that even though these groups worked separately, when we came together to share our words, the feelings we have experienced in our own lives were very much the same. At times, the words were different, but the meanings were the same. Through this exercise, we narrowed down our feelings to shock, fear, anxiety and negative emotions.
If we adults feel these types of feelings, it is unimaginable what our children feel when they are exposed to this kind of hate and intolerance. From the benign parroting of a parent's words to hate filled anger fueled by social media misinformation directed at some, antisemitism is something our children need to understand and need the right words to defend themselves. As we continued the event, Rabbi Levi explored different statistics collected by the ADL from the reports they receive by people that have experienced these acts of hate.
Finally, we concluded on some of the available resources on ADL's local website. Rabbi Levi encouraged us to continue our efforts reporting incidents, no matter how trivial, as they are collected and counted by the ADL and used to influence change through our domestic lawmakers and institutions.
Here are links to the resources shared:
ADL Not on My Campus Website
Parent Resources
Report on Campus Climate
Campus Antisemitism Report Card
As well, here is a link to the Chat Bot for Israel . It is a fantastic resource to help create customizable answers to hard questions.
In the end, parents found that through our shared experiences, we have a community built on strength and passion to continue to fight against antisemitism. There was a unilateral opinion that our middle school and older children would benefit from attending similar workshops to learn about real life scenarios that other children have faced, along with the tools they need to stand against antisemitism. The Kulanu Committee will be exploring this type of educational event at the launch of our 24/25 religious school year.
We are all so grateful for the those who attended and look forward to hearing more on how the Kulanu group can be a resource to the temple and greater OC/Long Beach Jewish community.
