Event Postponed: A Letter from The Base Hillel Team
Dear Partners and Friends,
We are so grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received since we first announced our virtual vigil on Sunday. What began as an event co-created with members of our Base community who are Jews of Color themselves grew much larger than any of us could have imagined. Dozens of organizations around the country and even in Europe joined as co-sponsors.
We have since realized that we did not invite many of the Jewish organizations that are led by and serve Jews of Color. We regret that we have left out many of the very people to whom we were seeking to show solidarity. We are deeply sorry for the pain this has caused during an already incredibly painful time.
Our responsibility is to listen to those in our community who are asking us to slow down and re-think how this event has come together, and that’s what we’re doing. We must course correct. In the recent hours, we have been in close contact with a number of organizations and we hope to work with them to announce a new date and time for this event in the coming days.
We take full responsibility for this misstep and apologize to the organizational partners that felt unheard, upset and put off by this rally being coordinated for them, but not with them.
Ultimately, we are humbled to be a small part of a large, vibrant Jewish world that is grappling with what it means to stand with our brothers, sisters, and siblings of color. The outpouring of support for this event represents the deep yearning for a coordinated and meaningful response to the centuries of systemic injustice towards people of color in our country. How beautiful it is that as Jews, the call to justice still rings in our ears. At the same time this experience reveals the cracks in how we as a diverse community work together with love and humility. We are committed to doing that.
With love and gratitude and deep learning,
The Base Team
