Remembering our purpose…

“Go back to your country.” “America, love it or leave it.” “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Phrases possessing conflicting sentiments. I’m compelled to return to this theme repeatedly because it personally smarts. My husband is a Turkish Muslim and thus, it’s embedded in our children’s cultural identity.

It’s disturbing to witness on television and in my daily experiences what should be unbelievable behaviors and words: kindly-looking old women telling a Burger King manager to speak American English and go back to your Mexican country (he’s from Puerto Rico, a U. S. possession); a white North Carolinian woman accosting two black women in a restaurant who she thought were too loud, saying they were rude and brazenly flinging the N-word at them; at the register at Costco a white woman, annoyed at the time it was taking for a Hispanic woman to check out and spitting out that she should learn English (to my ear I heard a “New Yawk” accent, not a Spanish one).

Over the years, our family has had “episodes” of its own. Our sons have Turkish first names and our daughter’s middle name is Turkish. We’ve run the gamut from people asking what color our children are to the (recently all too familiar) “Go back to your country” shouted at my husband when dropping him at Kennedy Airport one day (Shemsi is a naturalized United States citizen).

We’re living in a frustrating, surrealistic time. People are emboldened to reveal their worst selves. It’s frighteningly unnerving to realize I’ve been walking among these people who, previously unbeknownst to me, have had these thoughts all along. It’s also all too easy to construct a pessimistic cloud around myself and get caught up in a negative the-world-is-crummy outlook.

I need to remind myself, as Anne Frank tells us, that people are essentially good at heart. We don’t hear about these people precisely because they are that type of people. They are humble and modest, not figures of self-aggrandizing bombast, callousness, and hubris. They say what they say and do what they do because they live the tikkun olam and love thy neighbor philosophy.

My mission each day is to make myself worthy to join their ranks and remember that every day, unbeknownst to me, I also walk among these blessed people.

Natalie Berhumoglu
B'nai Israel Reform Temple, Oakdale, New York

If you have any questions, please contact Beth Quinn (mhwlh@optonline.net) or Liza Robbins-Theuman (ltheuman@rochester.rr.com).

Thank you,

Liza Robbins-Theuman and Beth Quinn
Social Action Committee, WRJ Northeast District

What have you been up to since our time together in Washington? Following WRJ's inaugural Social Justice Conference how have you brought back your newly learned skills and knowledge back to your communities? Join WRJ August 12 at 8 p.m. for a post-SJC webinar to share experiences and learn about new social justice initiatives. REGISTER HERE

WRJ invites you to join us at URJ Biennial 2019 honoring Jewish Women's Archive and outstanding women at the WRJ Women's Empowerment Awards Dinner.
Nominate a woman to honor by August 31.

"Justice, justice you shall pursue..." Is your group interested in being a leader in the fight for pay equity? Learn more about becoming a pilot congregation.

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As part of the RAC’s Brit Olam, and made possible through WRJ’s Social Justice Fund, the WRJ-RAC Reproductive Justice Campaign (RJC) will provide the organizing structure for Reform congregations, women’s groups, and individuals to take collective action. With your help, we will mobilize our communities to secure our reproductive rights by training activists to be strategic and effective advocates.