Minnesota Jewish activists weigh in on recent protests

Ghidalia said there are two issues at stake: “One is the local – what people feel is a senseless death [of George Floyd]. The second is national – people are starting to protest.

By OMRI NAHMIAS
An "I CAN'T BREATHE" sign in reference to Floyd's final words (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
An "I CAN'T BREATHE" sign in reference to Floyd's final words
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
WASHINGTON – America woke up on Sunday to a grim reality of widespread protests in dozens of cities across the country. The protests, which started in Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd by now ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, ignited similar ones from Los Angeles to Miami, some of which turned violent and ended with looting.
Local Jewish activists from Minnesota spoke with The Jerusalem Post about the situation in Minneapolis and shared their personal experiences from the past few days.
Carin Mrotz is the executive director of Jewish Community Action, a Minnesota-based organization. Over the weekend, the organization released a document with a series of calls to action. One of them was to appoint Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison as a special prosecutor in the case.
“There was a lot of tension about the way that the police were engaging with protesters,” she told the Post. “I was actually there the first couple of days, and all of the protesting was extremely peaceful. And then we just saw this intense escalation by the police, and it really began to just spiral out of control.”
“And then the National Guard came in, which I think has done a lot to quiet things and clear the streets but has certainly not repaired anything for the communities who are in extreme grief after the murder of George Floyd,” Mrotz said. “It was like, ‘Well, you know, the local cops were behaving badly, so we brought in the military.’ I don’t think that’s the solution for communities that some of our elected leaders think it is.”
When asked if she was worried that things are getting out of hand, she said she was worried it could “get us further away from a conversation about the racism inherent in our policing and criminal justice system.”
“I worry that more people of color and black people will be harmed, and not just physically harmed in these protests,” Mrotz said. “But, you know, in Minneapolis we’re seeing black- and native-owned businesses destroyed. And so I think my concern is that is that it will just, it will pull us further from justice and humanity.”
Tamar Ghidalia is a member of Shir Tikvah synagogue in Minneapolis. It is hard to predict where the protests are headed, she told the Post.
“I think that right now, it’s day by day,” Ghidalia said. “Some people are going to be very upset that the [police and National Guard] forces are out and about. On the other hand, we could not, in my mind, let people destroy the businesses of the community that is suffering.”
“In South Minneapolis, the businesses that were destroyed were businesses that were 50 years old, that were minority businesses,” she said. “And without them, it’s very hard for the community to get access to food or to all the different places they were shopping at. So it’s hard to say what’s going to happen. I think it’s really day-by-day right now.”
Ghidalia said there are two issues at stake: “One is the local – what people feel is a senseless death [of George Floyd]. The second is national – people are starting to protest, too, because it’s a symptom of a larger issue, and it’s really about racism. I agree that the violence right now and the destruction is not helping anything in a sense that the people who are targeted and suffering are the same people who need to be focused on.”
“Jews are a diverse group, and so are African Americans,” Shahanna McKinney Baldon, an African American Jew and a longtime educator from Wisconsin who works for EDOT – the Midwest Regional Diversity Collaborative, told the Post. “One of the reasons that police brutality against black people is a Jewish issue is that some of the black people who experience police brutality are Jews. Another reason that police brutality against black people is a Jewish issue is that it does not align with our Jewish values – values like Tzedek, Shalom, Al Ta’amod Al Dam Re’echa [Justice, Peace, and Do Not Stand Idly By the Blood of Your Neighbor].”
“Our organization does work around racial and ethnic diversity in Midwest Jewish communities,” she said. “We are working on building coalitions. Moving forward will depend on strong coalitions built on strong relationships.”