By Barrett Holman Leak
SAN DIEGO — Every day that I awaken, I open my eyes and say “thank you” because I am alive and look forward to living the life I have been given. Many days are filled with routine and the people in my life. Then there are the times when you are trying to get into a parking garage and the pro-Palestinians surrounding your vehicle are bashing their fists on your car doors, banging on your car window, chopping huge protest signs on your hood, and then laying it on your windshield so you cannot see to drive forward.
That was what occurred last Sunday evening as I tried to park at the Hilton Bayfront for the StandWithUs gala. I wondered why the Harbor Police Department officers did not keep them away from the garage and to a certain perimeter. No crowd control was happening there. No containment. But never one to easily give up on my path, I blindly put my foot on the gas pedal and inched forward to the parking gate machine. The sign-holder jumped out of the way and yelled “Hey, I’m walking here!” and walked around to my driver’s side window, which was slightly open.
“You should be ashamed!”
I raised my clenched fist, smiled and said “Am Yisrael Chai!”
He looked at me incredulously with a twist of his mouth as I moved forward, took my ticket and parked a couple of levels up.
The gala was awesome. Beautiful and elegantly dressed women and handsome men in sartorial splendor came together. Oz Laniado, a great community leader and SWU’s San Diego regional director, and the brilliant Ashley Levy, SWU’s associate director were recognized for the powerful work they do. It was thrilling to hear two youths, Nate and Nathan, share their student experiences dealing with antisemitism. Jamie and Dan Feder were honored. Do you know them? Aren’t they simply outstanding? I covered the Feders in a feature article for L’Chaim Magazine during the summer. And finally, we heard from keynote speaker, producer, journalist and author Noa Tishby. Have you read “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew”? I recently finished it and it gave me hope.
During the gala cocktail hour, I told Noa about Kwanzaa Shabbat 2024 and she said that yes, this is what we need to be doing. That was also what she said during the program. In this last hellacious year that has spewed antisemitism around the USA and globe, so many non-Jews have stepped up in defense of the Jewish community and Israel. The Black and Jewish communities have shared legacies as peoples who have been oppressed, enslaved, persecuted and yet we still resist and persist and demand our right to exist and be self-determined. We must stand together in these times.
I shared with Noa that I formed the Playing Together Project in 2023 from a vision, starting with a Black~Jewish Shabbat dinner in La Jolla. This was followed by a Jewish solidarity tent at San Diego’s Juneteenth Freedom Festival in Memorial Park, more Black~Jewish home Shabbats around the county, and also the first Kwanzaa Shabbat at Temple Emanu-El San Diego. I am grateful to Rabbi Devorah Marcus and Rabbi Benj Fried for embracing my enthusiasm and vision!
A wonderful friend, Annick Salas, an Afro Latina Jewish woman from Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, works with me on PTP. There is a lot of cooking for Kwanzaa Shabbat 2024. There will be latkes with applesauce and sour cream, collard greens, tzimmes, black-eyed peas and rice, Ghanaian butternut squash soup, mac & cheese, cornbread, chicken, hibiscus tea and sufganiyot.
So here we are again, ready to light this darkened time with Kwanzaa Shabbat 2024. Please register and come. Bring family and friends. If you know anyone who wants to volunteer to help Annick and I with cooking, great! Please invite others in our Jewish community – and yes, I’m going to say it because I, an African American Jewish woman, can say it – invite your Black friends, acquaintances, colleagues, etcetera.
The date is December 13, 2024, at 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Here is the registration link. The deadline is December 6.
Leaving the gala was quiet, I guess the pro-Palestiniansd id not have much stamina and could not hang while we partied inside; they were nowhere to be seen. The drive home in the cool autumn San Diego air was nice. Climbing into my bed to go to sleep was even better. As I closed my eyes, I could see the lighting of the hannukiah and kinara, the eating, the laughter, the dancing. Another good day. Thank you G-d.
Let there be light!
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Barrett Holman Leak is an author, educator, and community organizer.