This week has been a week of pain and feelings of sadness. We as Jews of Colour now have one year anniversaries of remembering victims of police brutality or police misconduct. Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the passing of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Black-Indigenous woman from Toronto who mysteriously fell off her balcony to her death. And two days before was the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. The Jewish community in Canada said sadly, not much of anything for either, the perpetual silence whenever it comes to issues of race. How many times can something be written, stressing that at least a token statement be released by a major Jewish organization to say something; anything on this issue?

For many years, Jews of Colour Canada have patiently done our best through panels to raise community awareness of Jews of Colour firstly. Then the racism and microaggressions within the Jewish community we face in everyday life. However, we are not an organization like the Federation, Hillel etc. Organizations that have larger community approach and directive. By remaining silent, it almost seems like complicity or lack of care because it does not affect a majority of Canadian Jews. However, it affects Canadian Jews of Colour but it affects non-Jewish people of colour every day.

Will Jews of Colour or No Silence on Race, have to make these sorts of statements every year? The only Canadian Jewish groups to do so? If you believe in human rights and human dignity, how can you sit and remain silent when police brutality and violence is no longer an “American thing.” In fact, it was never an American thing. Canada has had a long history of police violence stemming from indigenous people, Black people, and LGBTQ2S+ people. This is a history we can not ignore, but an ongoing history that we should embrace and confront.

Jews of Colour Canada will remain committed and dedicated to continue push Canadian Jewish organization to due their diligence in combatting racism and discrimination within our wider Canadian society but at home within synagogue and Jewish communal centres. We will continue to provide an avenue for Jews of Colour and Jewish allies to destress and decompress, to rant, to grieve, and to celebrate.

If no one else will do it, who will be our kin who can dwell together?