As the Talmud teaches us, "Whoever destroys a single life, it is as if they destroyed an entire world." The violence of white supremacy is never singular — the systemic racism that allows Black people to be murdered with impunity is destroying our whole world. We can, however, build new worlds, and Carolina Jews for Justice stands in solidarity with the Black leaders — within our Jewish community and beyond — who are actively fighting for and constructing that future. Please join us.


In 2021, Juneteenth coincided with Shabbat, and the Jewish Multiracial Network asksd us to recite the Kaddish for Black Lives in remembrance of the countless Black people we have lost to racist violence and policy. We invite you to bring this offering into your own spiritual practice.

Creator of life, source of compassion. Your breath remains the source of our spirit, even as too many of us cry out that we cannot breathe. Lovingly created in your image, the color of our bodies has imperiled our lives.

Black lives are commodified yet devalued, imitated but feared, exhibited but not seen. 

Black lives have been pursued by hatred, abandoned by indifference and betrayed by complacency. 

Black lives have been lost to the violence of the vigilante, the cruelty of the marketplace and the silence of the comfortable.

We understand that Black lives are sacred, inherently valuable, and irreplaceable.
We know that to oppress the body of the human is to break the heart of the divine.
We yearn for the day when the bent will stand straight.
We pray that the hearts of our country will soften to the pain endured for centuries.
We will do the work to bind up the wounds, to heal the shattered hearts, to break the yoke of oppression.

As the beauty of the heavens is revealed to us each day, may each day reveal to us the beauty of our common humanity. Amen.

Click here to access additional resources from Black-led organizations in North Carolina, to educate yourself further on race in America, and to take action today.

Showing 1 reaction

  • Cole Parke-West
    published this page in Take Action 2020-06-01 16:50:10 -0400