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Asking people to change the world and being agents of that change is emblematic of that experience. Yet in 49 days, we transitioned to a deep level of purity and holiness worthy of Divine revelation. “Going out of Egypt, we were a broken and dehumanized nation on the brink of losing our identities as humans. Instead of being reactionary to the dysfunctionality and brokenness of the world, we can offer up a beautiful image of what we can be in humanity. One person one heart-allyship-creates these idealistic images. We singularly camped as one people at the foot of the mountain. “The most significant moment of our unity as a people was at the beginning of receiving the Torah. Everyone knows someone in their family who is a member of the LGBTQ community.” There’s also been a shift in the Orthodox world. But the color of a person’s skins carries immediate prejudice. It’s easier to get to know someone and realize later that they are in the LGBTQ community. Like Joseph’s brothers, it’s easy to dehumanize from afar. It’s easy to hate and to fear people we never met or things we never experienced. “Allyship is not a one-direction modality. When we have deep conversations with those who can use our support, we understand with greater sensitivity better ways to do that. There is no substitute for personal relationships, proximity and listening. The movement is having some of its best of times now, but there is still a lot of work. The modern LGBTQ movement is 50 years old.
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On a higher level, it means fighting for someone so they don’t have to fight.” So being an ally means to provide for others. For example, a parent literally carries a child, providing for their needs so they don’t have to provide for themselves at different stages of life. On another level, it’s not about sharing the burden but absorbing it so the other doesn’t have to carry it. “On one level, being an ally is about support. The contributors wrote about what they were passionate about and what moved them.” We asked people sensitive to these issues-people who reflected that diversity-to contribute to the anthology. The representation in the book is as diverse as our people in terms of color, disabilities and identities. It is attaching oneself to another person and understanding the necessity to be in a collective to understand the others’ needs. Allyship is a functioning of coming together as one person with one heart. “ Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum-my co-editor and Congregation Beit Simchat Torah’s senior rabbi-and I wanted to model what the reunification of our people looks like. It becomes an internal drive to take care of all God’s children as if they are our siblings and we want to have a relationship with them.” To be in proximity to one’s own lived experiences, we see our humanity tied up with that of others. We have to understand the needs of people around us and not around us. “We have to be aware of our privilege, resources and ability to contribute. “You can’t help a person if you don’t know what you bring to the table,” Moskowitz said. Here are more highlights from our conversation. “Be authentic with others bring what is uniquely yours to the table.”
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I don’t know the answer, but I want to help find the solutions. “We need to dismantle unsafe spaces,” he said, “and do a reckoning as a community.” Then he asked a question that is so true and right that it stunned me: “How did we allow this systemic dehumanization to become part of the culture?” I promised him that I would try to recognize that even incremental change is a victory. Show them wonderful couples of the same gender, talk about their beautiful families.” “Engage the person-ask them why they are threatened by people who are not straight. But he is also firm in his perspective: “The only time to walk away from another is after we’ve exhausted all of the opportunities to bring the person closer,” he said. It feels almost counterintuitive to say this, but I have no tolerance for anyone who derides or defames my son’s LGBTQ community. I have angrily walked away from people who blow dog whistles, make blatant homophobic comments or ridicule trans people. Yet I’ve stumbled on more than one occasion in my allyship.
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I cherish my natural and loving connection to the LGBTQ community. He noted that the goal of assembling the anthology was “to come together for a unified purpose for the greater good and to embrace commonality and individuality.” “We wanted to model inclusivity and attempt to offer a platform of what allyship can look like for different people and identities,” he said. Moskowitz said he asked people “from across the Jewish spectrum” to write for the anthology.