Global Majority and Indigenous Jews
Fifty-three Jews—from Israel, England, Japan, Nigeria, Switzerland, Senegal, Canada, and the United States—attended the second Global Majority and Indigenous (GMI)* Jews Workshop. [* The peoples of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Latin America, and those descended from them, and Indigenous people, are over eighty percent of the global population. These people also occupy most of the global land mass. Using the term “Global Majority and Indigenous (GMI)” for these people acknowledges their majority status in the world and interrupts how the dominant (U.S. and European) culture assigns them a minority status. Many Global Majority and Indigenous people living in dominant-culture countries have been assimilated into the dominant culture—by force, in order to survive, in seeking a better life for themselves and their families, or in pursuing the economic, political, or other inclusion of their communities. Calling these people “Global Majority and Indigenous” contradicts the assimilation.]
There were Black/African-heritage Jews, Asian-heritage Jews, Latino/a Jews, Arab Jews, Indigenous Jews, Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews, and mixed-heritage Jews. I looked out at the diverse faces and thought, “This is what the Jewish people really look like!”
M— has been building the GMI Jewish constituency for many years. She led a class on sexism and male domination, a central issue in GMI Jewish work. She also led a class on Black/African-heritage Jews being at the center of GMI Jewish work. Two Black/African-heritage Jewish women showed the heartbreaking impact of both racism and anti-Semitism on their lives.
I led a class on discharging on genocide. Many had experienced genocide in more than one way. We also discharged on racism in the Jewish world and anti-Semitism in the Gentile GMI world.
GMI Jews are typically conditioned and expected to lead and be at the center, but this is often for everyone else and at their own expense. One person said it well: “Stop wanting things from me so much—you are killing me!”
Also, GMI Jews often base their work on relationships, as distinct from “work first.” Their collaborative love-filled teamwork was evident all weekend.
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of Jews
(Present Time 207, April 2022)