{"id":38205,"date":"2022-01-28T01:45:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=38205"},"modified":"2022-01-27T18:21:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T02:21:14","slug":"a-minority-within-a-minority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/01\/28\/a-minority-within-a-minority\/","title":{"rendered":"A minority within a minority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rivka Campbell, co-founder of Jews of Colour Canada. (PR photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

On Jan. 9, Rivka Campbell, co-founder of Jews of Colour Canada, spoke on the topic Harmony in a Divided Identity: A Minority Within a Minority, the third Zoom talk in Kolot Mayim Reform Temple\u2019s 2021-22 Building Bridges lecture series.<\/p>\n

A Jew of Jamaican descent, Campbell seeks to create a sense of community among Jews of Colour in Canada. At the same time, she works to establish dialogue with mainstream Jewish organizations and to provide a better understanding of Jewish diversity and the experiences of Jews of Colour.<\/p>\n

Her opening remarks focused on what she labeled \u201cthe question\u201d \u2013 that is, the unwelcoming, uninviting and off-putting line of inquiry Jews of Colour often confront when entering Jewish spaces. Though born and raised in Toronto, Campbell, like other Jews of Colour, is often asked, \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d \u2013 the implication being that she is not Jewish.<\/p>\n

This question, she points out, is alienating from the start and is not the kind of introduction that Jews of Ashkenazi backgrounds ordinarily face when, say, entering a synagogue.<\/p>\n

A decisive period for Campbell occurred after getting married and starting a family. At the time, she wanted to introduce her children to their Jewish roots so that they could understand and appreciate every aspect of who they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe leaped into the community with the assumption that I am a Jew and that this should be a non-issue. I am going to go to synagogue, put my kids in Hebrew school and just do stuff. I was wrong. What I didn\u2019t reflect on was that I did not meet the stereotype, if you will, of what a Jew looks like, and it never occurred to me because I am Jewish, what\u2019s the big deal? And I realized that for some people it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The questions and comments would come even before a hello \u2013 Are you Jewish? How are you Jewish? But your last name isn\u2019t Jewish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am a new face, then fine, we should welcome new faces. But the way to welcome new faces is with \u2018Shabbat Shalom. My name is So-and-So, what\u2019s your name? Here\u2019s where we keep our siddurim.\u2019 Welcome me first and the rest will flow naturally,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

She referred to these episodes, when she is singled out and her Jewishness is openly questioned, as \u201cmicroaggressions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMicroaggressions are like mosquito bites at a summer camp. You might spray yourself and take other measures to prevent bites. Nothing works, so you spray yourself more and wear long sleeves and still nothing. After many efforts and layers, you finally say, \u2018I can\u2019t do this any longer,\u2019 and you remove yourself from the place where the mosquitoes are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Campbell, there also have been more repugnant full-on aggressions, including having the derogatory term \u201cSchvartze\u201d directed at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you continue to want to put yourself in that position? I have met and spoken to quite a few Jews of Colour who have said, \u2018I am done. I can\u2019t take it anymore.\u2019 They do not want to subject themselves or their children to that kind of treatment. If we say there is no racism in our community, then we are fooling ourselves. All of us should feel they belong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Campbell had a very good experience during an extended stay in Israel, where she met Jews from myriad backgrounds. In Israel, she did not feel she had to explain who she was and did not encounter the same questions she is asked in Jewish spaces in Canada. That trip caused her to realize that the Canadian Jewish community could do better and led her to start Jews of Colour Canada.<\/p>\n

Things changed dramatically in May 2020 after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which, to Campbell, symbolized the banality of evil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat event made me not give a hoot whether people were comfortable or not with what I say because, until we are all uncomfortable, there won\u2019t be change,\u201d she said. \u201cIt really flipped the way I felt about diversity and the work that needs to be done. And that is where we sit today. And I see us as a community doing the work \u2013 we are listening and not just hearing what people are saying. You fix your own house first before you fix anyone else\u2019s. And you cannot rest on the laurels of others, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell is the executive director at Beit Rayim Synagogue in Vaughan, Ont., and a board member of ADRABA, Toronto\u2019s first 21st-century Jewish high school. She also hosts the CJN<\/em> podcast Rivkush<\/em>, which focuses on diversity, Israel and other Jewish topics. She is the sole Canadian recipient of the inaugural JewV\u2019Nation\u00a0Fellowship\u00a0from the Union for Reform Judaism. For more information, visit jewsofcolour.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The next speaker in\u00a0Kolot Mayim\u2019s Building Bridges series is, on Feb. 6, poet, author, literary scholar and\u00a0internationally recognized speaker on transgender issues Joy Ladin on the topic of Jonah, God and Other Strangers: Reading the Torah from a Transgender Perspective. On Feb. 13, Reverend Hazan Daniel Benlolo, cantor, rabbi and founder of the Montreal\u00a0Shira Choir for special needs adults, presents The Power of Music. To register for either or both talks, visit kolotmayimreformtemple.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sam Margolis<\/strong> has written for the <\/em>Globe and Mail, the <\/em>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rivka Campbell, co-founder of Jews of Colour Canada. (PR photo) On Jan. 9, Rivka Campbell, co-founder of Jews of Colour Canada, spoke on the topic Harmony in a Divided Identity: A Minority Within a Minority, the third Zoom talk in Kolot Mayim Reform Temple\u2019s 2021-22 Building Bridges lecture series. A Jew of Jamaican descent, Campbell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[19752,218,9270,2427,19753],"class_list":["post-38205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-jews-of-colour-canada","tag-judaism","tag-kolot-mayim","tag-racism","tag-rivka-campbell"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}