Classrooms Without Borders (CWB) stands alongside peoples of color in the long fight against racism in the United States. Upholding our mission to teach cross-cultural inclusion and respect, CWB stands in solidarity with the African-American community and all communities of color. Together we mourn the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and all victims of senseless violence.
More than seventy years ago, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild reminded his Atlanta congregants that “[w]e must do more than view with alarm the growing race hatred that threatens the South. The problem is ours to solve, and the time for the solution is now.” He went on to say that it is not enough to not commit an overt sin against another human being, because the sin of indifference, “the evil of what we didn’t do,” is deeper. In the 1950s, Rabbi Rothschild became a close ally of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and an interfaith coalition developed. Fighting Jim Crow segregation and demanding equality pulled many northerners to the South; it also led some to wonder about the national scope of racism. As he marched from Selma to Montgomery, Rabbi William Frankel of Illinois offered these words that are still prescient today: ‘How will we react when the battleground will not be in distant Alabama but in our own backyards…?’ The challenge embedded in this haunting question stares at us today.
As the lens of history reveals, these moments are ones in which we must speak up and speak out against racism and violence. Jewish history teaches us that only by uniting across our differences can we overcome the divisiveness of racism and the othering of individuals and communities. Only by standing up and demanding justice can we work to create a better, more just, equitable, and inclusive community both here in Pittsburgh and in our nation. The words of Rabbi Frankel and Rabbi Rothschild still resonate today as we look across our country. We must reject inaction and move away from simply standing by; we must stand up and work to create a country in which freedom and justice can breathe.
Executive Director
President
Sources:
— Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, “The Greater Sin,” October 13, 1948 found in Holly Frey and Tracy V. Wilson. “Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation temple,” Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast, minutes 6:40-8:04, found at https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/bombing-hebrew-temple.htm
— ’Jewish Voices from Selma-to-Montgomery March,’ The Devil’s Tale: Dispatches from the David M, Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2015/01/14/jewish-voices-selma-montgomery-march/