BIPOC Reconstructionist Cohort for Reckoning Together Pilgrimage
Reckoning Together will be a multiracial pilgrimage, just as the Jewish people are a multiracial people. And, we expect the pilgrimage to be majority white-identified folks. Even though we will all be doing the same activities, we know that our experiences will not be the same, as our life experiences leading up to the trip are different.
It is important for there to be affinity spaces so that BIPOC folks can attend to their own feelings and needs in moments that are particularly personal and all-too-familiar – whether that be the shared experience of living as a racial minority in a society shaped by systemic racism or the challenge of being in white-majority, “racial justice reckoning spaces” when they are often asked to bear witness to feelings of shame, guilt, and overwhelm from their white colleagues.
For these reasons, there will be a BIPOC Reconstructionists cohort that will meet regularly throughout the Reckoning Together Pilgrimage, providing an affinity space for connection and processing within the larger trip. The cohort will be led by Black Reconstructionist movement leaders who traveled together to the same pilgrimage sites in October, on a trip exclusively for Reconstructionist leaders of African descent.
Having experienced and processed an initial pilgrimage in this supportive environment, the returnees feel better equipped to provide emotional, spiritual, and logistical support to the BIPOC folks attending the movement-wide pilgrimage.
To learn more about this cohort, please contact either Rabbi Sandra Lawson or Rabbi Micah Weiss.
