Jewish Ledger
First Shabbaton for Jews of color to mark ‘yahrzeit’ of George Floyd
By Esther D. Kustanowitz and Asaf Shalev
(JTA) – Across America, people whose lives changed when George Floyd was killed are planning to mark the one-year anniversary of his death this month.
Floyd’s family is working to rebrand the date, May 25, as “Day of Enlightenment” because of how many people were awakened to issues of racial injustice. Concerts and public events will honor his legacy.
And in a landmark gathering for Jews of color held last weekend, hundreds of Jews recited the Mourner’s Kaddish for Floyd.
First national Shabbaton conference for Jews of color to mark yahrzeit for George Floyd May 12, 2021 11:58 am A photo of George Floyd is pictured on a fence in Brooklyn, N.Y., alongside other victims of police brutality, Sept. 24, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
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(JTA) Across America, people whose lives changed when George Floyd was killed are planning to mark the one-year anniversary of his death this month.
Floyd’s family is working to rebrand the date, May 25, as “Day of Enlightenment” because of how many people were awakened to issues of racial injustice by seeing video footage of Floyd die under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Concerts and public events will honor his legacy.
January 29, 2021 1:23 pm A kohenet cohort is ordained at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut. (Gili Getz/Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute)
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(JTA) As Kohenet Rachel Kann welcomes participants to a Shabbat prayer and meditation experience she leads each month in Los Angeles, she intones a chant while playing the shruti box, an Indian version of the harmonium.
“Mah norah hamakom hazeh,” she chants. “How awesome is this body. How awesome is this place. How awesome is this journey through time and space.”
A poet, artist, and dancer in addition to a kohenet (Hebrew for “priestess”), Kann invites participants in her Realize Paradise: Shabbat Soul Journey services to get comfortable and many do, adopting yoga poses or lying down, drumming or dancing, even now that the event is on Zoom. The service includes a Native lands acknowledgement, in recognition that Kann’s L.A. neighborhood sits on land once home