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- Havdalah #2: Sukkot, Yom Kippur, and Blocking Cop City
Havdalah #2: Sukkot, Yom Kippur, and Blocking Cop City
16 Tishrei, 5784 / September 30 , 2023
White Rose RI
September 30, 2023
Hello, neighbors!
Thank you for joining us for issue #2 of Havdalah!
Our Sidebar this issue was written by our lovely friend Aurit, and will be focused on Sukkot, the eight-day festival of building huts, star-gazing, and shaking a citrus at Hashem. However, I did also want to write a short little introduction to acknowledge Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and one of the most important days in the Jewish calendar.
Unhappily, I was rained out of the Kol Nidre service I had wanted to attend last Sunday night. I spent Erev Yom Kippur listening to the hard patter of water striking my rattling windows, thinking about a particular image: the penitent fist striking the chest over the heart.
As a storyteller, when I think of this image, my brain goes to two places, both of which come from plays.
The best production of Shakespeare I have ever seen was an all-female rendition of The Merchant of Venice, staged at the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, in August 2022. Merchant, of course, has the distinction of being one of the most antisemitic pieces of theatre ever written, if not the most. Merchant was an incredibly popular choice for producers throughout the Reich during WWII, and Hitler was a big fan. This will be relevant in a moment.
The 2022 production, directed by Kati Grace Brown, was a Herculean feat of self-criticism, by turns a castigation of the source material and a mirror for the audience to see ourselves in all our hideousness and humanity. There were numerous beats that hit me square through the spine, but predictably, the scene that finally broke me down to pieces was the trial.
The moment Antonio demands that Shylock be spared on the condition of her conversion to Christianity, Shylock, played by Rivka Levin, reflexively barks out a cackle of mad, hysterical laughter that swiftly devolves into sobbing. The gut punch is when Shylock looks to the Heavens as Antonio’s demand is ratified, and like a weak heartbeat, thuds her fist to her chest in apology to Hashem, whom she must now abjure. The firmament is silent, can only witness as the last thing Shylock has is confiscated.
The other place my mind goes when I think of the atoning fist is The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (or at least our best approximation), a play by D.A. Mindell. I had the honor of being cast in the Tavern’s staged reading of Mindell’s play as a companion piece to the production of Merchant mentioned above. The three act show follows a group of Jews in the Theresienstadt ghetto as they rehearse their own performance of The Merchant of Venice, as filming for the propaganda “documentary” The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews draws to a close. Theresienstadt was a real ghetto in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, and the film a real effort by the Nazis to disguise their machine of genocide. In Mindell’s play, as in real life, when production on the film wrapped, the ghetto was entirely liquidated, with the majority of the Jewish inhabitants sent to Auschwitz.
One of the most beautiful lines I have ever spoken in my career comes from this play. Isadore Strauss, now an old man and our narrator, reflects on his time in the Theresienstadt ghetto, and tells us what his lover means to him:
ISADORE: Valeska Bachert was beautiful like an avalanche is beautiful. I loved her the way I beat my breast on Yom Kippur.
EIZIG [Isadore’s castmate, in the past, arguing with the director] (offstage): Blasphemy!
ISADORE: Prayer.
I could tell you what I think it means, but I think the point of art is meeting it halfway.
Next year, I hopefully won’t be impeded from attending Kol Nidre services, but even then, I will still be thinking of these two moments when I beat my chest over my heart, and when I wonder if I have atoned, if I am forgiven.
#BlockCopCity: Weelaunee Worldwide Mass Action Speaking Tour
When: Sunday, October 1, 3:00pm-5:00pm
Where: 130 Cypress Street, Providence, RI 02906
The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, known as Cop City, is a plan to build the largest police training facility in the United States. The project threatens over 300 acres of the South River Forest, also known by its Muskogee name, Weelaunee. The proposed facility includes a mock city for police to train in urban warfare and protest control tactics. The South River Forest, which is surrounded by primarily Black neighborhoods, has been described by environmental groups as Atlanta's "best hope for resilience against the worst impacts of climate change."
Activists are visiting over 70 cities, including Providence, to prepare affinity groups for action and to provide updates from Atlanta, share strategic intelligence on the pivot towards mass action, and invite folks to travel to Atlanta in November to #BlockCopCity.
Each presentation will contain a portion on the history of the land the city is attempting to build Cop City on, a history of the movement to Stop Cop City, an outline of the movement’s next phase Block Cop City, and a short workshop to help interested participants form affinity groups and plan next steps. There will also be a Q+A portion.
Open to the public.
Link for background info: Block Cop City Website
Link for event: #BlockCopCity at Red Ink Community Library
The Red Ink Community Library is a nonprofit organization that brings equitable access to a collection of historical, economic, and political material. Its formation sets a cornerstone in the leftist Providence community, to turn allies into comrades, to challenge cultural hegemony, to raise up community voices, and to provide a safe space for people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Red Ink Community Library aims to become a nexus of radical and revolutionary thought.
Link: The Red Ink Website
We the Readers: A Live Banned Books Event
When: Tuesday, October 3, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Where: William Hall Library, 1825 Broad Street, Cranston, RI 02905
Join the ACLU for a celebration of Freedom of Speech at their in-person event during Banned Books Week. They will host a panel of authors who read from books that have frequently been banned across the nation, followed by a Q&A.
Link: We the Readers Event
Conversation about Incarceration: Noelle Hanrahan and the Fight to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
When: Sunday, October 15, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Where: 340 Lockwood Street, Providence, RI 02907
Journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal’s fight for freedom over four decades of incarceration has been a keystone in the Black Liberation Struggle. Noelle Hanrahan, founder and director of Prison Radio and longtime organizer in the fight for Mumia’s freedom, will be providing an update. Join DARE, the RI National Lawyers Guild, and local Black Studies scholar Marco McWilliams in conversation with Hanrahan.
Conversation and letter writing to incarcerated people.
Snacks and childcare provided—feel free to bring a dish!
Link: Tea with Noelle
Prison Radio is an independent multimedia production studio producing content for radio, television, and films for 30 years and distributing throughout the world. They stream their high-quality audio material to media outlets and the general public in order to add the voices of people most impacted by the prison industrial complex. Prison Radio’s mission is to include the voices of incarcerated people in the public debate.
Established in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is the nation’s oldest and largest progressive bar association and was the first one in the US to be racially integrated. Their mission is to use law for the people, uniting lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers to function as an effective force in the service of the people by valuing human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests.
Protest Demanding Compassion around Encampments
When: Wednesday, October 4, 3:00pm
Where: Providence City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, Providence, RI 02903
Amidst raids and evictions of unhoused people from encampments on public property, Rhode Island Housing Advocacy Project and other homeless advocates will be holding a protest at the Providence City Hall to demand a set of more compassionate policies around encampments.
Jewish Collaborative Services' Kosher Food Pantry 2023 High Holiday Food Drive
Jewish Collaborative Services’ (JCS) Kosher Food Pantry is hosting its fifth state-wide High Holiday Food Drive until October 11th! You can participate virtually by purchasing items from JCS’ online registries.
All Kosher items will be accepted. JCS is most in need of the following items:
Food/Grocery: vegetable oil, flour/sugar, baking mixes, jams/jellies, canned salmon/tuna/sardines, canned beets, borscht, gefilte fish, kasha, tea/coffee
Personal Care: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap
Household: aluminum foil; single roll paper towel, 42 oz laundry detergent, 28 oz dish soap
Donations can also be made directly to JCS’ Kosher Food Pantry.
Friend of Local Rhode Islander Needs Help with Legal Fees
Amanda was sued for defamation after speaking up about intimate partner abuse, and is facing hefty legal fees. Any help is appreciated.
The Freedom to Read: Challenges to Intellectual Freedom Then and Now
When: Wednesday, October 4, 6:00pm-7:30pm
Where: James T. Giles Community Room, Central Library, 140 Sockanosset Cross Road, Cranston, Rhode Island 02920
Book challenges and threats to intellectual freedom are on the rise nationwide, and community support of public libraries is more important than ever. The Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center and the Cranston Public Library will present a panel discussion looking at the historical context of intellectual freedom and how we can respond and advocate for these institutions and freedoms in the present.
Free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but you will receive email reminders about the event by registering.
Guest Writer, Dr. Aurit Lazerus
I’ve been struggling with the new year holidays this year. If I’m honest, I’m too mad to want to repent. I’m tired of all of the horrible things society is doing to people who are poor, queer, female, not-White, and not born in the US.
I’ve decided that our society is being ruined by selfish narcissism and if all goes well, the future will see this time period like we see germs. Hundreds of years ago, everyone was getting sick because germs were invisible. Societies were decimated and the poor suffered the most. The future will look back and trace how the sheer volume of undiagnosed and untreated trauma shaped public discourse and policies to explain why quality of life was unnecessarily low.
Because, our society has emotional germs everywhere. A fraction of the population has rigid and brittle identities that cannot tolerate the idea that we are all humans and that being born in the United States doesn’t make us entitled or existentially special. Stinginess is packaged as pride and cruelty as nationalism. Narcissistic structures, that is, systems where malignant narcissists hold decision making power, are always hypocritical. They blame others for what they do and take credit that they have not earned. These systems thrive on invisible labor and on minimizing the suffering of those with less power.
I’m exhausted. Utterly exhausted. It takes energy to insist that reality is reality. I know I’m not the only one.
Thankfully, Sukkot is coming up. It’s one of my favorite holidays. It’s a time of creating temporary shelter and making it beautiful and welcoming. It’s also a time to remember that the trauma of migration is so great that we talk about it for thousands of years. It’s a time to invite new people into our communities.
We build these beautiful huts and balance remembering the past with the stillness of the moment. We enjoy nature and the company of loved ones. This year, I will get to spend the holiday with my eight little niblings (gender neutral term for nieces and nephews). We’ll talk about the importance of sharing and housing and kindness. We’ll color and draw and eat. The eldest, who is nine, has read the graphic novel Open Borders (Link: Open Borders) about an economist's perspective of the financial value of immigration. We talk about my activism.
I’m hoping that this year Sukkot will help me feel rejuvenated and ready to reshape the world one small moment at a time. That we all emerge from this holiday with the energy to match our convictions. So that we can continue to act with solidarity and forge an ethical and just society.
Needle Drop #2: Shlomit Bona Sukkah Song
Aurit shared: My favorite Sukkot song from when I was a kid in Israel and Sukkot was the holiday of perfect weather, and the imagery of the green lit sukkah that welcomes everyone has been with me since I was four years old.
All Quiet on the Western Front this week, stay turned for something longer here soon!
