September 3, 2020 Co-Chairs and Members of the Committee: My name is Rabbi Debra Kolodny. I live in Multnomah County and am the Executive Director of Portland United Against Hate and the Rabbi of Portland’s UnShul. Having spoken with over 100 people and read through dozens of first hand reports on extraordinary police violence against almost exclusively peaceful protestors, and having pastored to over a dozen people who have received horrific injuries, I want to thank you for your work on LC 17 through 20. That being said, I believe that...
Chanting to Eicha trop Words curated by Rabbi Debra Kolodny Perek aleph: Chapter One: Final words of 8 Black men and one Black woman shot by police: ‘Officers, why do you have your guns out?’ – Kenneth Chamberlain ‘What are you following me for?’ – Trayvon Martin ‘Mom, I’m going to college’ – Amadou Diallo ‘I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.’ – Michael Brown ‘You shot me! You shot me!’ – Oscar Grant ‘It’s not real.’ – John Crawford ‘I can’t breathe.’ – Eric Garner I love you too. Sean Bell Please don’t let me die. Cristal Perkins Perek bet:...
Our rabbinic sages say that we are to learn and replicate the deeds of our ancestors. They call this principle maase avot siman lebanim, which means that the actions of our ancestors are a sign or portent to their children. I invite us to learn from a series of deeds that isn’t found in Torah, but is part of the legacy of the avot v’imahot/the founding generation of the LGBTQI+ movement. On a hot summer night in 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York ’s Greenwich Village, a haven for the city’s LGBTQI+ communities At the time,...
Today is the Jewish holy day of Shavuot when we celebrate our receiving of Torah. Some of us study all night long, altering our consciousness from lack of sleep so we can feel and maybe be closer to God. Today as I stand in that liminal place where only the thinnest of veils separate me from the Holy One of Blessing, I contemplate the Jewish concept of kabbalat ol malchut shamayim-not just receiving but accepting the yoke of heaven, which we understand as our obligation to follow the rules and laws of right living so generously offered to us...
