Workshop Summaries

Summary of "Our Liberation is Bound Together" Workshop

Kavod’s workshop series explores the Jewish obligation to create a more just world. We imagine a world in which Jews of all racial and ethnic backgrounds build authentic, sustained solidarity with one another and in deep relationship with other communities targeted by white supremacy.

The workshop series first examines the social construction of race, and the consequences of this social construction in the United States throughout history and into the present. Looking inwards, participants evaluate their personal racial identity and family history to identify how they have benefited from and/or been harmed by racism and antisemitism. Participants also identify the varied, interlocking ways in which white supremacy operates ideologically, institutionally, internally, and interpersonally in the United States.

Then, participants move to action, studying historical examples of Jewish involvement in racial justice work and applying lessons learned to the contemporary needs of the racial justice movement. Participants leave with a commitment toward concrete action to begin or expand their community’s racial justice work.

Summary of each module

Our Liberation is Bound Together is composed of five two-hour modules.

Module 1: Our Identities, Our Histories

This first module explores the historical social construction of race in the US. Participants learn how the modern conceptions of whiteness and blackness were invented in the 17th and 18th century and used to assign and deny power. They then examine their own racial identity and their family’s historical trajectory of being racialized in the US.

Participants answer the following essential questions:

  • What is my assigned racial identity? How might that differ from my felt or perceived racial identity?
  • How was the conception of race constructed in the US and how has it evolved over time?
  • How have Jews of various backgrounds been racialized in the US?
  • How have racism and antisemitism affected these experiences?

Module 2: Whiteness, Racism, and Antisemitism

In the second module, participants discuss the consequences of the social construction of race. Specifically, they examine how the invention of whiteness created and continues to create divisions within the multiracial and multiethnic Jewish community and in relationship with other communities. Participants answer the following essential questions:

  • How have we, as Jews with diverse identities, benefited from and/or been oppressed by an evolving definition of whiteness?
  • How does antisemitism function and what is its role in upholding the white ruling class?


Module 3: The Iceberg of White Supremacy

The next module offers an overview of the nature and impact of white supremacy as it exists in its current form in the US. Participants develop a common understanding of how white supremacy operates on ideological, institutional, interpersonal and internalized levels. Participants also reflect on how they have benefited from and/or been oppressed by white supremacy.

Module 4: History of Jews in Racial Justice Movements

In this module, participants identify historic instances of both solidarity and discord between American Jewish communities and Jewish & non-Jewish people of color. This module utilizes case studies to explore different narratives of Jewish involvement in movements for racial justice, recognizing the complexity of these events and gaining insight about the ways in which Jews can actively work to show solidarity in movements for racial justice today.

Module 5: The Current Landscape of Racial Justice Movements

This module explores local racial justice work happening today, and how participants can join in solidarity with this work. Participants first make connections between their liberation as Jews and the liberation of other groups targeted by white supremacy. They then discuss case studies of different Jewish communities' approaches to racial justice work. Finally, participants make a commitment toward concrete action to begin or expand their racial justice work and reflect on what is at stake in their own liberation in this work.