Like the Holocaust, the refugee crisis, the Yizkor service, and Bubbe’s mortality, racism and bias are subjects white Jewish parents often viscerally want to shield their kids from. But that’s our own discomfort talking. When you don’t help your child interpret the world, you’ve left a negative space in which other people will do your job. The TV, the car radio, the street, Instagram, other kids in Google Classroom. So what do we tell our white kids about the whats, hows, and whys of today’s protests against police brutality? Before we talk at all, we need to listen. A good place to start is by listening to African American Jews. Kenny Kahn, an African American Jewish educator in Northern California and dad to Theo and Harris, told Tablet in an interview, “Both the Black and Jewish sides of my family are good talkers, but sometimes it can feel less attentive to say, ‘I have a remedy!’ than to listen and be present in the moment.” Within both the Jewish and Black communities it’s important that we can’t call ourselves allies until we determine how each of us is oppressed. It’s not the same. Heschel marching with Martin is the easy reference. You have to go beyond that.” (He’s right, of course. There is a troubling Ashkenazi Jewish tendency to point out Jews’ participation in the Civil Rights Movement while ignoring the dictum of the great theologian Janet Jackson: “What have you done for me lately?”) Kenny’s wife, Alex Kahn, who is also Black and Jewish, points out that anti-Blackness is complex and systemic, and we all carry biases. “All four officers complicit in George Floyd’s murder were not all white,” she told Tablet in an email. “Racism did not start with Trump nor will it end with his presidency. It also does not diminish with your political affiliation. It does not change if you have Black friends, a Black partner, or Black children. In order to combat racism we all have our own roles and work to be allies for and with one another.” She provided what she called a “starter pack” for white people, a treasury of helpful links making clear that anti-racist work is invariably an ongoing process that demands vigilance. Passivity and neutrality are not passive or neutral; by not taking a stand, you’re taking a stand. “Active violence is just as problematic and dangerous as silence,” Alex said in the email. “No child is too young to learn about being anti-racist. I have no choice in shielding my 2-year-old from seeing how the world treats my husband nor do I in preparing him for a world that will cause him pain. Your 2-year-old can handle developmentally appropriate ways in talking about racism.” ...

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