In Honor of George Floyd

Last Thursday, May 28, just before the Jewish holiday of Shavuot—the holiday celebrating the receiving of the Torah—the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven shared an open letter with our friends and leaders of the African American community of the Greater New Haven area, and with other faith and community leaders.

In that letter, we expressed our outrage of the killing of Mr. George Floyd, a subdued, handcuffed African American man pleading for help, who was suffocated by former Minneapolis police officers.

One of the first things that the Torah teaches us is that every person is born in the image of God. Our hearts break for Mr. Floyd’s family and friends. We also feel devastated for our friends and neighbors in the African American community. We mourn together for this horrible death. Your pain is our pain.

The murders of George Floyd this past week, Breonna Taylor in March and Ahmaud Arbery in February remind us that until we recognize that the image of God is implanted within every human being and how each person is deserving of dignity and respect, our world will remain broken.

We extend our hands as allies in support of the Black community. The struggle for justice and anti-discrimination should be a fight for all; it is a struggle over the foundational human commitments as citizens and as a society. We commit to bringing together our communities to combat racism through conversation, advocacy and learning. We stand as allies with all of our local faith and ethnic communities. We encourage efforts by local leadership and law enforcement to implement education, training and policies to advance these ideals. We know that we are each responsible for working to dismantle the systems and structures of racism that exist both locally here and across the United States of America.