Anti-Racism Committee

In the fall of 2020, Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am formally created the Anti-Racism Committee to ensure that our synagogue is an inclusive and welcoming synagogue and that we actively address anti-racism issues.

Anti-racism training was implemented for the staff, clergy, Board members, and leadership and subsequently offered to congregants.  We are constantly assessing our synagogue’s progress on becoming an anti-racism organization.  

Anti-Racism Committee Mandate/Purpose

The purpose of the Beth David Anti-Racism Committee:

• To create an Anti-Racism Statement/Mandate for Beth David
• To conduct anti-racism education/awareness building - for Beth David members and their children/grandchildren  (Hebrew School, Kadima, USY) - issues should be focused internally first and then externally
• To build relationships/alliances with other communities
• To act and create substantive change

Our philosophy

We recognize that taking an anti-racist approach requires us  to scrutinize the systemic racial bias that is endemic within our society and to look within the  culture, policies and practices of our synagogue community to identify and uproot racial biases inherent in our practices and operations. Creating a diverse space is not enough. We must advocate for others to make our world a better place.

We aspire to build long standing bridges and deep relationships with several racialized communities. As a start, we have  prioritized working “within our house” and building relationships with Jewish racialized organizations and communities focused on including  No Silence on Race and Congregation BINA (a community of Jews from India).  We need to do better to ensure that all Jews feel welcome in our synagogue and are committed to achieving this goal. 

As Canadian Jews, we felt compelled to act and reach out to the Indigenous community in allyship and to begin the process of building strong and meaningful relationships,

In the future, we will also develop relationships with other racialized communities.
 

Committee Members:

We invite congregants to join our committee to help us expand and achieve our goals.  If interested please reach out to any of the Committee members or email us at anti-racism@bethdavid.com.

Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Anti-Racism Statement

On February 27, 2022, the Beth David Board adopted an official anti-racism statement for the synagogue.  Click here to view the Beth David Anti-Racism statement.

Resources and Links to Our Allies

Would you like to learn more about racialized communities and the organizations trying to have a positive impact?  Would you like more resources on anti-racism?  Click here to obtain links to these organizations’ websites and to view a list of resources to help you through your anti-racist journey.