Attention: Forgive me ahead of time for the length of this page – because of all the updates that I’ve had to attach – BUT, you will want to *refrain* from giving your hard earned money to the *Society for Humanistic Judaism* (mis-named) after reading everything that I’ve shared here – until they start *hearing* minority Jews. For *their* sake, I sincerely hope that you do! They need to wake up as an organization, and stop being Heredi in nature! That’s the problem with established family movements. I am *so* disappointed by their failure to engage appropriately with a minority Jew *within* their Ashkenazi movement!
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By being banned from the Humanistic Judaism Discussion group, all discussion posts that others and I have engaged in that were posted by me are subsequently removed. So, no progress has been made within this primarily white Society for Humanistic Judaism group for Black History Month. And I was the only one making these kinds of needed posts. What a damn shame this is!
Not one Rabbi in this Society for Humanistic Judaism (SHJ) movement has taken the time to say *to one of their complaining members* within the movement:
“Whoah, wait a second! What is *really* going on here? Where *is* this coming from?!”
Instead, the movement Leadership is so used to being attacked by theistic religious Judaism from the outside, that any supportive member who criticizes *from within* this organization is *included* as an outsider!
Hey, wake up call, SHJ!: Not all “secular” Jews are atheists! And not all *non-theistic Jews* are non-religious! Some of us are *very* traditional *and* devoutly non-theistic, and we choose *you*, because we are absolutely done with *prayer* Judaism.
Wake up, Society for Humanistic Judaism! We who complain from within (- until you rudely and abruptly kick us out! -) are not your friggen enemy! *We are your best chance of living up to your professed statement of, “We say what we mean, and we mean what we say” as non-theistic Jews!*
But, you must be willing to listen to *all* your members – without resorting to whitesplaining the SHJ movement! This is why – despite your kicking me out of the community fold – I continue to try to engage with you all. Listen – you, SHJ Leadership, have completely misunderstood my intentions, because you are too damn busy explaining your SHJ movement *to* me, rather than *listening* to a fellow member (until I suddenly wasn’t!). And I don’t care about your white fragility!!!
What I care about are *Jews*, regardless the flavor (denomination, orientation, color, or lack their of) who are victimized – *regardless* the Jewish movement that they happen to be in! I pull absolutely no punches and – absolutely, yes! – I am long-winded, because I am so *tired* of this daily addressing of Jewish short-sightedness in the USA! (And, being shut out for it, everywhere in these Western European dominated nations that I find myself in!)
A Jew is a Jew, yes?! I believe so!!! And I act accordingly! All Jews have a voice, period!!! Let me finish with this: There are Jews who exist outside of Western Jewishness, and we can be of benefit to Western Judaism! If only we were truly welcomed. I’m actually one of them.
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What I needed was a Rabbi to listen attentively, non-judgementally to every word, and allow me to vent my angry mind. Instead, I got from a Rabbi “TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read)” and, then, an equally long-winded lecture in reply on how my perspective and words are wrong. That’s not being a Rabbi!
What I needed to quiet down quickly was just to know that a Leader of this movement gave a damn about me, as a minority human being in their presence. Instead, I got the direct impression from all the Leadership that they didn’t have time for me and, because I pressed harder for this time (yes!), that they found me to be an annoyance to be ignored. That’s not being a Leader!
My mind is now quieting, and I will shut up now. No more attempting to reach out, because it’s obvious now that I was never really a part. Just my wallet was, and my free promotions of the SHJ movement! No more of that, either, this was my greatest mistake. … Oh, and by the way: To be a teacher, you must first be a student. As a student you must seek to surpass the teacher. A good teacher is always both the teacher and the student.
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Dang, the white privilege, the Caucasity! Like he “know” he got the law on his side, because of his white skin! This stupidity brought to us by the letters A and C and P and G.
It is very unfortunate that I must share with my community here on Facebook that the Society for Humanistic Judaism (SHJ) is not what it appears to be. And, I have (- very unfortunately! -) the receipts to show for it! Along with the horrific personal experience of relating with them.
SHJ is not Humanistic (and they don’t even understand the word itself!), they are strictly atheistic. They are not gay-friendly, unless you are a gay atheist who’s biting at the heels of theistic religion. They are not black and brown friendly, unless you are a “black/brown *Jew*” who is atheist in attitude, like them. SHJ is like the secular flipside of the Heredi -introduced coin in this world. I know direct experience!
SHJ is just as insular and divisive as their Heredi ultra-religious counterparts are. I know, because I’ve dealt firsthand with both, now! And I see no real difference between the two. Both shun the world and each other – in true Western Rabbinical style!
And I want nothing more to do with Western white-presenting Judaism, because of these flipside experiences! Back to my Eastern island Jewish roots!
Photo Caption: “Dang, the white privilege, the Caucasity! Like he “know” he got the law on his side, because of his white skin. Suddenly slap a “CONFIDENTIAL” on his reply email – after I called him out on his whitesplaining of racism and militant atheism within his Jewish community – and he thinks the minority reaching out to him will now cower away in FEAR!
Rabbi, who the hell do you think you are? You’re no lawyer! And I didn’t agree to any confidential communication with you! The whiteness shows, Rabbi, and the ONLY reason I have redacted your name is to NOT promote YOU, and your white fragile Jewish community, by name!
Ashkenazi, get real – and let the white privilege go! Like everybody in the know, somehow, don’t know it’s you. … Signed, fellow Sephardi Jew, the complaintant (and, now, former member) of atheistic Rabbinic Judaism (SHJ)! … (Sorry for the delay, been meaning to get to this B.S.!)
Anybody who don’t know him and wants to know who he is and who he works for, email me on side, please! Rabbi, don’t *threaten* me with a good time! I know my place in society, and it ain’t beneath you, … fucker! Grow some damn maturity, for I didn’t treat you as an ignant child in my messages to you!”
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I so wish white-presenting Jews in the United States were capable of this! Then, our discussions this #BlackHistoryMonth would have been worth something. … Before I got banned from Western Judaism for encouraging this meme’s very sentiment!
Presently hated by liberal white Jews and Orthodox white Jews. And even lost a Rabbi as a “Friend”, though I had no direct conversation with him on these recent subjects. Mission accomplished?! I believe in #antiracism and am pledged to it!
#UriLTzedek keep doing your righteous work! #SocietyforHumanisticJudaism leave the extreme Left extreme Right tribalism behind!
And, on a personal note, I won’t hesitate to admit that I’m wrong, when I actually am! And I won’t hesitate to hold accountable those that are *not* allies of Jews of color, of gay Jews (who aren’t atheists!), and Jews who are not Ashkenazi raised! … Call a spade a spade, always, and publicly! The uncomfort that must follow is good, and it is for growth. I am simply not going to accept the whitesplaining from privileged rabbis of Rabbinic Judaism anymore, whether secular to ultra-frum!
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Uri L’Tzedek, we must teach the truth about U.S. history to be truly anti-racist! Let’s do better than this!!! George Washington is a hero to racist white presenting/privileged Jews – from ultra-frum to secular humanistic!
Hmmm. George Washington owned brown and black slaves. So did rich white-presenting Southern Jews who owned plantations in the USA. In fact, the Attorney General of the Confedrate States was a slavery-promoting white-presenting Jew. So, …
I guess this article is right that G Washington’s democracy for white citizens only and white-presenting Jews will not be divided. Odd, though, that white-presenting Jews today venerate G Washington as a hero to the Jews and completely white-wash the complicated history of European descended Jews living in the USA. …
White presenting Jews were critical to the success of the United States. White Jews were participants in the colony insurrection against England, in order to form the United States of America on these stolen and colonized indigenous lands. White merchant Jews were the reason the newly formed USA did not go bankrupt.
The Algemeiner, comments on this article.
James Madison, a prolific slaveowner, admitted in writing that “I have for some time … been a pensioner on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew broker.” Haym Salomon, was a Jewish broker who financially assisted and fiscally saved the United States in the early 1780’s, and was a slave owner himself.
George Washington owned brown and black slaves prolifically. Jacob Levin, Rabbi of Columbia’s synagogue, was a slave trader in South Carolina. Judah Philip Benjamin, a Jewish lawyer, was the Attorney General for the secessionist Confedrate States of America.
Wonder what the brown and black Carribean and Ethiopian Jews living in the USA think about George Washington? A hero to the “Jewish people”? What are the Mizrahi Jews thinking?
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No like I fo tink outsi da nomal! Neva mine me, eh? I ste relating wit da real kine, who no get da voice fo be heard say da haole. … Try can I fo reach da white, but no listen to da kama dey! No mattahs!!! I goin do da right ting, no mattahs wat dey say! Zman brah. Goin fo take care all tings!!! Zman brah!!! Mo betta den da haole derech.
An neva mind the Birmingham Rebbetzin hate fo Dat, fo haipule … dat hate dat wen try fo kama me online, so no can I talk da kine dat I talk achshav.
I no like make wahala for talk akamai kine to kumu yehudi. But got fo teach da trutt bout da Tora, an bout da chacham dat no teach em correctly. So, shma, brah! It stey okay fo read da stori as was meant fo read. No need fo force change da mana’o of da ‘ōlelo talk, jus because da oddah guys goin fo do tings you no like! Brah, no make lidat, eh?!
Try learn, I goin fo teach you wat da Tora say bout da mahu kine. How it no talk pilau bout da mahu, except wen married. An only talk da kine bout da kane, no talk da wahine. Adultery, brah, da only sin fo da mahu, da Tora wen say! So no make like it wen talk different. K? An if you still no undastand, try aks, eh?! I goin fo a’o you!
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And, again, leaders of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, you’re still *not* listening! I didn’t ask for half a refund. So, head matriarch and patriarch and executive director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, what you are saying with this pro-rated check is that I *paid you* SHJ for the unsolicited pleasure of:
1- presenting as the Jew that I naturally am, and getting verbally attacked numerous times for it, by militant atheists in your group that hate anything appearing religious;
2 – and, by white privileged denial of the Ashkenormative racism in the extended online network of this “secular” Jewish community, which – on both 1 and 2 – SHJ Leadership, kept whitesplaining away the behaviors of their members and placing the blame for these behaviors on me, instead (these experiences presented by the letters P.G.A.C.M.J.);
3 – and, being tossed around from group to group, Google listserve to HJD on Facebook and then all together chèrem’d at the leadership top by the SHJ community, because of the feelings of *a few* lifetime members, who don’t want these (Admin approved) discussions of mine had within the SHJ communities – even to go so far as to suggest (prior to shunning) that perhaps I would find a better home within another community (“RJ”, though I’m a devout *non-theist* who *rejects prayer Judaism* – they really dislike RJ some reason(!), it must be the Heredi nature of the SHJ family structure!);
4 – And, lastly, once hèrem’d by SHJ leadership, complete refusal to have these needed discussions, even in private, between us – without whitesplaining members’ behaviours – like full grown “Humanistic” community adults!
Half a refund! Still not listening! Those not just like them, fellow Jews beware!!! You’re in for a divisive experience, if you open up your mouth and mind in their presence. White must *always* be right, even among white-presenting Jews, and atheists must always rule the conversations, or these discussions *will be* shut down (as happened to me firsthand with that important pro-gay Torah post!).
Why do they keep forcing me to continue getting in touch?!!! I don’t *WANT* to!!!! I just want this over already!!!! I already told them, emails ago, that I am *finished* with them and *want a refund* of my membership!!!! Why is this so damn hard for them?!!!!!
#societyforhumanisticjudaism #shj #hujews
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Wow! A response already, so quickly, from the Executive Director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism: “I sincerely hope you get the help you need. I really do.”
So, he chooses to directly place the blame, again, on me and has chosen now to insinuate that I have some kind of problem that needs to be helped – for wanting a full refund, as *I* asked for. For this archived public record of my interactions with SHJ:
Not one person in leadership – a Rabbi, an Administrator – within this SHJ organization has stopped, for even just a moment, to give my words the benefit of a doubt, and to ask for specific details to investigate, so that they can determine *for themselves* whether there is a *bias* problem within their organization. Not *one* out of five, that I know of, that hold Rabbinical/Director offices. Instead, they kept *explaining* their movement to me, and avoiding my complaint of being targeted by certain types of “SHJ members.” And I am the minority within their midst!
I tried folks, but white must *always* be right, even among white-presenting Jews, and atheists must always rule the conversations, or these discussions *will be* shut down – as happened to me firsthand with that very important pro-gay Torah post, and now with a warning from the Executive Director of SHJ to not try again to claim the full refund that *I* asked for!
Don’t worry, Society for Humanistic Judaism, that was my *planned* final letter to you! For, I’ll recoup my poorly made investment into SHJ, through others being forewarned about you and avoiding making the financial membership mistake that I made!
You can’t help the blind, but you can help others not be unnecessarily blinded. This is the only path forward: to part ways fully and regularly warn! *I’ve been trying to do that!*
#societyforhumanisticjudaism #shj
Please, my friends, be smart enough to *refrain* from giving your hard earned money to the *Society for Humanistic Judaism* (mis-named) after reading everything that I’ve shared here – until they starting *hearing* minority Jews. For *their* sake, I sincerely hope that you do! They need to wake up as an organization, and stop being Heredi in nature! That’s the problem with established family movements. I am *so* disappointed by their failure to engage appropriately with a minority Jew *within* their Ashkenazi movement!
Just so you all understand the disconnect between this island Jew here and the present Executive Director of SHJ, P.G., the ED of SHJ (guess, pun also intended) grew up in the wealthiest borough of New York, thus has never lived outside of white privilege and doesn’t have clue how without world-wide experience he has. Basically, all he knows is New York, and his wife is a white woman in comparison to mine. So, I do find it offensive that he deems to tell me that I’m the one with a problem, thus needs help! …
The entitled Caucasity within this organization!
(Oh, and he’s a self-made *public* figure, so no lashon hara here – and I still will not advertise his name for him!)
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Have you ever wondered why the rabbis that have paid positions within the founding synagogues of SHJ and IISHJ are all white Jews? Coincidence?! In fact, pretty much the movement’s administrators, too, all white? Coincidence?! For being a world-wide representative organization, why is the core members so full of the white privileged?
I thought the Society for Humanistic Judaism would represent at its top, what it represents by membership fees at the bottom. Did I expect too much to expect attentiveness to racial, cultural, and religious diversity within this movement?! … Just wondering. For I hate being silenced and erased when in the presence of the privileged citizens within this USA society, for complaining about their implicit biases.
But according to P.G. (redacted to *not* promote him), the Executive Director, I’m the one who needs to “get the help” here, not them. Hmmmm. Okay? White privilege on full unapologetic display here?!
SHJ needs to actually stop preaching the religious dogma of Humanism for which they themselves *do not* understand.
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I don’t wear a Fedora because I want to be perceived as a theistic Jew “on the outside,” while being “frei” on the inside. I don’t wear ritual items to “repurpose” them. It was shocking for this to be even suggested about me by Society for Humanistic Judaism leaders (a Rabbi and an Executive Director)! It was a bit entitled and insulting for them to judge me and assume for me *my* story. To speak over me and for me and, then, to explain to me how the SHJ movement believes differently – while professing online, in emails, and in paper mailings that they “embrace” “diversity.”
Hmmm, are you sure, SHJ, that you are about diversity? You say all members are free to be themselves, no rules, but then *insist* on explaining the movement to members who complain about being cyberbullied for their non-theistic Jewish choices and expressions – because, to some SHJ members, we appear theistic.
I wear these clearly Jewish clothing/ritual items for two reasons *as an openly non-theistic Jew* who rejects the prayer Judaism part of Jewishness: One, the Fedora and the tzitzit is a part of my Eastern European Jewish heritage and, Two, the Fedora keeps the bright sunlight off of my eyes. But, USA “secular” Jews, pretending to be “humanists,” have said the former assumptive comments to me on more than one occassion. This is simply how I present as a non-theistic Jew in this world! At least, at this time, until I decide otherwise. The same is true for my inherited non-theistic use of ethno-religious terminology.
How can you be Jewish, if your first reaction is to bully Jews who are *being* Jewish?! I really don’t appreciate being treated this way, only to have the movement’s leadership ‘explain the movement to me,’ after I’ve asked them to listen to me about the atheistic bullying going on online. And, when I pressed to be heard, I was silenced, erased, and warned to never contact SHJ again. So, no closure as a non-theistic Jew for me!
I have the receipts, unfortunately, to prove my great disappointment here with SHJ. But, *HONESTLY*, I’d rather still be a member, than to have prove anything! Maybe, one day again, when SHJ is not so Ashkenormative white and when SHJ actually represents a *”Humanist”* Jewish organization (rather than a strictly atheist one) behind the online pages and mail box flyers! They wouldn’t even give me a full refund of my membership because, apparently, being always right is more important than meeting a complaining member half way.
#societyforhumanisticjudaism #shj #hujews