Editor’s note: This message is reprinted from a weekly shabbat email sent March 19 to HBHA families and friends.
This week was the Grammys! For those of you who weren’t paying close attention, the winner of the Best Comedy Album went to Tiffany Haddish — the first black woman to win this Grammy Award since Whoopie Goldberg won it in 1986. The name of her show? Black Mitzvah (now available on Netflix!).
She begins her show being carried out on stage in a chair, singing Havah Negilah. Her first spoken words? “That’s right ... I’m Jewish.”
She then goes on to explain that she lived through homelessness, through the foster care system — that her father was an Eritrean Jew — and that she grew up in South Central LA. “Do you know how hard it is to be Black and Jewish in the hood?” She asks.
Now, I won’t continue paraphrasing her routine because the vast majority of it is not appropriate for this email, and before you tell your kids about her, Black Mitzvah is really NOT appropriate for kids!
But I wanted to draw your attention to her because it’s so inspiring to see people proudly leading with their Judaism — “That’s right, I’m Jewish.” It’s doubly inspiring to see Jews of Color proudly owning their Judaism.
Tiffany Haddish decided to have her Bat Mitzvah at age 40. That too is inspiring — she was unable to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah because of her tumultuous childhood, yet she shows us that it’s never too late to reconnect to one’s Judaism, and have a bar or bat mitzvah at any age.
And while we are on the subject of inspiring Jews of Color, please allow me to shep nachas about HBHA junior Tyler Johnson. Tyler is a graduate of the Shalom Hartman Institute for Emerging Jewish Thought Leaders and was accepted as a Bronfman fellowship this summer. He was recently interviewed on the topic in a podcast produced by the Shalom Hartman Institute, and even more recently wrote an opinion piece for our online student publication, RampageWired.
So this week, I just want to celebrate our inspiring, courageous, and brilliant Jewish people of color: you remind us of what’s best in our tradition — our diversity, our loyalty and commitment to our roots, and what it means to be a minority and show pride. Thank you for leading by example. We are made proud by you.
