On Yom Kippur, Congregation Micah makes space for education, politics
For Congregation Micah, the pursuit of equity and justice go hand-in-hand with observing the Jewish Day of Atonement.
"We Jews are not supposed to wait until the end before we ask ourselves these questions," Rabbi Laurie Rice said during a Yom Kippur morning service on Wednesday. "We shouldn’t wait until the moment of our death to seek answers because there may be nothing we can do about it then but just feel regret."
Yom Kippur marks the end of the High Holy Days, a 10-day event that starts with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
Rice's message was about the importance of people asking hard questions and gleaning wisdom about their own selves. But in a series of subsequent events, Congregation Micah, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Brentwood, encouraged its members to also reflect on social issues.
After the Wednesday morning service, the synagogue hosted an interfaith panel on education sponsored by Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, known as NOAH, that featured Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, and Berthena Nabaa-McKinney, a Metro Nashville Public School board member.
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"We need to be cognizant of the language that is being used and the policies that are being passed by the individuals with the most power in our state," said Clemmons, who is a member at Congregation Micah. "Their overarching objective is to completely undermine teachers and the public schools system."
Clemmons and Nabaa-McKinney talked about various education-related controversies related to book censorship, classroom curriculum about "divisive concepts," and charter schools like the Hillsdale College-backed charter applications. Tennessee's Republican-majority General Assembly spearheaded and passed many of the measures to the dismay of progressive legislators and residents. Republicans have long argued it is the right path to provide families with more education options and choices.
Many of the state-level education measures have targeted claims about critical race theory, an academic concept largely taught in law schools or at the university level, but Nabaa-McKinney said it's affected education about minority religious groups.
"We are continuing to see history repeat, not just for Muslims but also for our Jewish community and it will continue as you continue to see those changes exist," said Nabaa-McKinney, who is the second Muslim woman in Tennessee to be elected to public office.
One audience member, a Congregation Micah member and an educator expressed concern about using an excerpt of Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust that was removed in a different Tennessee school district.
Even if some ideas and concepts aren't explicitly prohibited, some of the new education legislation is creating an environment of fear for teachers on what they are allowed to teach, Clemmons and Nabaa-McKinney said.
"The purpose of this is is to completely hamstring or eliminate any discussion of certain aspects of our country’s history and international history," Clemmons said.
Rice said the panel on Wednesday is common for Congregation Micah on Yom Kippur.
"We do a panel each year, often devoted to a social justice issue of some kind in keeping with one of the scriptural readings of the holy day which comes from the prophet Isaiah in which we are charged with making the world a better place for all," Rice said in an email Thursday.
After the panel on education, more than a dozen Congregation Micah members came together for "schmooze and views." The roundtable event referenced the discussion in the previous panel and then led to conversations about the economy, voter disenfranchisement, the Supreme Court and abortion.
During "schmooze and views," members raised hands and gave each other the opportunity to speak, either echoing earlier comments or offering alternative perspectives.
Yom Kippur, as a result of its focus on the idea of repentance, is also a day to commemorate progress, said Rabbi Philip "Flip" Rice, who is married to Laurie Rice, during Wednesday morning's service.
"Failing and surviving life's difficulties engenders growth," Rabbi Flip Rice said during the service. "Today is meant to lift us out of our small-minded concerns."
Other High Holy Days celebrations
In addition to Congregation Micah, here are some ways other Jewish communities in Nashville observed the High Holy Days:
A week before the official start of the High Holy Days on Rosh Hashanah, West End Synagogue, a Conservative Jewish congregation, hosted a prayer service called Maariv and a candle lighting ritual called Havdalah, followed by a dessert reception and the screening of a documentary about former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
Chabad of Nashville, the local branch of the Hasidic organization Chabad-Lubavitch, organized a "Shofar in the Park" event to celebrate Rosh Hashanah at Edwin Warner Park, where apples and honey were enjoyed as part of the celebration.
The Temple, a Reform synagogue, after its Rosh Hashanah service, hosted a prayer called Tashlich at a creek that flows along the synagogue's property.
Sherith Israel, an Orthodox congregation, held a community luncheon on Rosh Hashanah.
Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: On Yom Kippur, synagogue makes space for education, politics
