Bend the Arc

Uprise – Jews and Whiteness: A Messaging Exploration

2021

$100,000

As Jewish involvement in the racial justice movement has progressed, it has illuminated important links between antisemitism and the historic oppression of Jews with other forms of racism and hate. While those connections are critical, they can obfuscate how white and lighter-skinned Jews benefit from white privilege. At the personal, community, and movement levels, this has become a barrier to even deeper allyship with Black and brown Americans (Jewish and non-Jewish). Uprise, a strategy shop with specific expertise on antisemitism, messaging, and racial justice movements, is launching a project to address this problem and prevent it from being weaponized by those seeking to divide Jews from the work of social justice. With support from RPF, they will look for and test language about Jews and whiteness that more clearly reflects race and power dynamics; helps white Jews find themselves in the stories we tell about race; and makes it possible for the entire Jewish community to engage even more fully in racial justice work.