This Jewish month of Elul, we caught up with two of our grantees for their work on tackling antisemitism as a part of dismantling broader systems of oppression. Rabbi Salem Pearce, from Carolina Jews for Justice (CJJ) spoke to us about the organization’s work on the Antisemitism Listening Project, its importance for Jews, and how it can help us connect to broader movements for justice. Video of the interview is posted above, and a transcript, edited for clarity, is posted below. JLF’s questions are in bold below, and responses are in plain text.
So we’re here with Rabbi Salem Pearce from Carolina Jews for Justice, one of JLF’s Grantees from 2021. How are you?
I’m doing well, thanks!
So we just wanted to ask a few questions to highlight the awesome work JLF grantees are doing right now. One interesting thing with you is that, these days, North Carolina always seems to be on the front pages of political news, but it's not somewhere people immediately think about as having dynamic Jewish communities. What's it been like building progressive Jewish communities in that atmosphere, and why is this the moment for organizing on that front?
It’s a great question. When we think about progressive Judaism, North Carolina doesn’t spring to mind. And that’s something Carolina Jews for Justice wants to change. We’re the only Jewish organization in the south that is dedicated exclusively to doing social justice work. The progressive Jewish community tends to be very coastal, but there are a lot of Jews here who don’t have the same opportunities to get involved in progressive cultural movements as Jews.
North Carolina is uniquely challenging because we’re actually quite a big state, and Jews are spread out amongst several different urban areas. The state itself sees itself as, East, Middle, and West, and the Jewish Community sort of follows those linse. So as a statewide organization, building community and cohesion can be a challenge not just because of geography, but also because the Jewish communities in those areas are small-- less than 1% or .5% of the Carolina population is Jewish.
So the chances we have to come together, to learn from each other, to get clear on our commitments in the progressive world, and to solidify our identity as Jews can be a challenge. But It’s super important that people support Southern Jewry. Not least because mainline institutions have kind of abandoned Jews in the south, but as we’ve seen, there’s tremendous potential, with investment, for larger progressive movements to make significant changes in here. And there’s tremendous potential for Jews to be a part of that.
As someone from Central Illinois and Missouri, that resonates at a real level. As part of what you said, you mentioned having the opportunity to come together and renew the commitment to important justice work. Your grant from JLF was to further your work on the Antisemitism listening project. Can you tell us more about what that is, and what it aspires to do?
Yeah! So CJJ is at its core a base building organization. We do leadership development, and we’re trying to help socially progressive Jews in North Carolina cohere and build a shared identity as Jews. And the Antisemitism listening project is part of that. We’re all impacted by antisemitism, but that’s not the only systematic force that affects the Jewish community-- which is multiracial, and includes LGBTQ folks etc.
We’re talking about antisemitism because, to start, Jews are under-listened to about antisemitism, and we want people to have the opportunity to share their stories and to share their stories with others.
The listening project is a small series of circles for people to come together to share their experiences of antisemitism and what they learned from it. And we try to end on a higher note-- we talk about why we’re proud to be Jewish in addition to some of the pain and harm we’ve experienced as Jews.
The idea is to help with our base building, people who participate in the circles then will get involved in our local chapter work. And also, we wanted to be a place of healing-- our community hasn’t done a lot of healing work around the trauma of antisemitism, but at CJJ we believe listening and being able to speak our truth is important.
Finally, we want to be clear on our own stake in the work and why it’s so important for us to be in solidarity with other marginalized groups. We care about dismantling antisemitism because we also care about dismantling racism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, etc.
I think that’s really powerful. Could you elaborate a little bit more on why is it so important to contest the mainstream narrative about antisemitism today? What is that mainstream narrative, and how would you describe the more nuanced conversation around antisemitism we should be able to have?
In the mainstream Jewish community, antisemitism is often framed as an eternal and unstoppable hatred of Jews that we’re always going to fight against. And certainly, at CJJ and in my work as a Rabbi, my goal is to have a vision for a world in which antisemitism doesn’t exist. So part of what we’re doing is approaching antisemitism as something built by people that can be dismantled by people. We don’t believe the hatred frame is the most productive way to understand it, but instead we we understand it as part of a machinery of lots of different oppressions that work to divide us from each other. In this way, understanding antisemitism and knowing our stake in the work is necessarily going to bring us together and help us be in solidarity with other marginalized groups.
It seems like you have greater ambitions as far as being in solidarity with other marginalized groups and bringing this to more people. What is the next step for the Antisemitism Listening Project in terms of building a larger movement?
I think there are next steps, and we also don’t know what we’re going to be hearing. And I think that’s part of the beauty of the project, really making sure we’re listening and giving people a chance to say what they want to say, and to listen to each other. So part of this is nondirective. We’re going to be collecting data, noticing stories, inviting participants in these circles to share and do their own documentation. Whether it’s going to be videos or art or writing, we do really want people as part of our healing process to be able to talk about their experiences.
And, we also want to be looking at specifically how antisemitism lands differently for Jews let’s say in NC-- in the south in general-- where we are in much closer contact and community with a larger Christian hegemonic culture that a lot of Jews can avoid in larger urban settings, where the majority of Jewsi live in this country.
Here in the south, our friends, our neighbors, and just about everyone you meet is going to be a part of that Christian community-- it’s hard to build a community without non-Jews being a part of that. So there’s something very powerful about the Jewish community showing up for other people and being able to see others show up for us. And that’s going to be something that we look towards.
So we have the high holy days coming up. And you’re a Rabbi, a spiritual leader, a community leader, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you, what’s something important to hold from this movement going into the high holy days?
I think that as we reflect, certainly in the time leading up to the holidays, right now we’re in the month of Elul, which is usually a time of reflection and what we call Teshuvah, which literally means return and is sometimes translated as repentance. It is so important for progressive movements to stop, and take stock of where we are, the places we’ve missed the mark, and how we want to return to ourselves, and return to our communities, and renew our commitment to justice.
And what’s really beautiful is that in the Jewish Calendar, we have that built in time where we’re asked to take that time. And so, when I think about pursuing and being a seeker of peace and justice during the High Holy Days, I do a self-accounting both personally, and also organizationally: where can we do better? How can we better show up? How can we take care of ourselves better? How can we take care of others in a way that is going to lead to a stronger movement?
Here at CJJ, we really believe that how we do the work is at least equally as important as the work we do, and that’s what’s going to sustain us and help us build a thriving movement is if we take that time for reflection and self care, and to renew ourselves and return to our highest ideals and aspirations.
So let’s say someone does want to take that time for reflection, self care, renewal, and return to all those aspirations. How can they get involved?
If you’re in NC, we want you to be a part of CJJ! We have several chapters all over the state, so we would love for you to get involved in what your local chapter is doing. We are a statewide org and our chapters have a lot of autonomy to pursue what’s going on in their local communities and the campaigns that are going on there.
And I have to put in a plug for the Antisemitism Listening Project! Wherever you are in NC, we want to hear from you! And we are really looking to involve as many people as possible, with as many Jewish identities as possible.
Awesome, thank you so much for your time, Rabbi Pearce, this was awesome. For those of you supporting JLF, we hope you enjoyed this conversation.