Apologizing for Slavery & Other Historic Wrongs

"Visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children…"
Apologizing for Slavery & Other Historic Wrongs
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
February 9th, 2007 

The second of the Ten Commandments, which we read tomorrow, prohibits idolatry. It is forbidden to make an image of anything from the air, land or sea and call it God. Further, it is proscribed to worship it. Doing so ipso facto rejects Adonay as God and denies His authority and His law. If this repudiation of Adonay is continued, then punishment will be visited on the first generation to do so and those who follow them and do it as well. While a 'half' reading of the Biblical verse makes it sound like the sins of the parents will be visited on their children regardless of what the children do, the Rabbinic reading of the entire verse indicates that the sin has to be continued in order to deserve punishment.

Why is the subject of punishment injected here? It is the only commandment written this way. I think the answer is this:The rejection of God is the rejection of His moral code, of the foundational beliefs that each human being is holy, that life is sacred, that there are eternal values enshrined in laws that perpetuate these values and concepts. A society that worships idols will ultimately and continually denigrate and subjugate humanity. A society like that will enslave others. This is a fundamental Jewish teaching. I cite this text as the introduction to the subject of my sermon.

I have been following most carefully the debate in the Virginia legislature concerning the original bill submitted by Delegate McEachin and its amended version that is wending its way through the General Assembly: to express profound regret for slavery and other historic wrongs rooted in racial and cultural bias and misunderstanding. I was first questioned about it by the reporter from the Times-Dispatch who solicited my response to Delegate Hargrove's comments. The reporter did not include my reaction to his question: "Should Virginia atone for slavery?" I said to Paul Williams that from the Jewish perspective atonement means that I personally wronged someone and there is a necessary process by which I make it right. I indicated that the language of atonement did not fit this situation. I could not support a statement that was inherently flawed.

Obviously many in the General Assembly felt the same way, besides the aforementioned delegate. From a personal position, I didn't have anybody in this country until the 1890's, and they lived in New York City. They certainly didn't own slaves. Furthermore, they certainly did not dispossess Native Americans from their lands. That happened long before my family and most other Jews arrived here. In fact, while some Jews living in the South did own slaves, they were a tiny minority, and their descendants are overwhelmingly no longer Jews. What do I have to do with all this? It doesn't take into account that there were 3,000 black slave owners in the ante-bellum United States, and that the slave trade involved many countries of the world, and especially native Africans and black Arabs participating in the selling of their own into slavery. This subject is so very complex that it is beyond sermon, lecture or legislative bill.

What does this proposed bill say and should we support it?

How does Jewish teaching inform this conversation?

This bill talks about how we tell our story – the story of the United States. 

I remember how I learned our story in my history classes from elementary through high school. There was a distinct story, a sacred narrative taught to me. It substantiated the existence of the country whose flag I saluted and whose anthem I sang every morning. It was a thrilling tale with adventure, bravery and right. The arrival of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and those to Jamestown were heroes. Those who fought the savages were brave. The red menscalped and raped the colonists. The Europeans were civilized. In each succeeding chapter, from Daniel Boone to the Alamo, through the Rockies to California, the white man was always victorious, the Indian – never called Native American – was denigrated, and the horrors of slavery were never depicted. I had to learn much more about the battles of the Civil War – the War of Northern Aggression – than the narrative of slavery. I dare say that there are still books written that way.

This bill indicates that there is another story, a different story; maybe a truer one.

This bill chastises the European settlers that came from England as invaders, usurpers, and ethnic cleansers. Since only three in the entire General Assembly are Jewish, they did not include the fact that the English colonists here and the Spanish elsewhere also came to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and so, too, to the Africans brought here for slavery. That part is conveniently omitted. The celebration of the 400th year since the founding of Jamestown is a triumphalistic gesture. The Native American tribes that were decimated and eliminated are not here and would not celebrate. This bill and its discussion enunciate the pain of the story of four hundred years, as the years since 1865, even 1963, have been filled with agony. There is much to commend in this bill and deserves our support. It refers to a story of this country that I was not taught in school. It is a story that is as much a part of our fiber as all the rest, including ours.

It is inappropriate to say "Get over it." You never get over your story. We remember the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and the Second in 70 CE. We will sit at Seder and tell the story that is 3,250 and years old! Our liturgy makes sure that we "don't get over Egypt." At the same time, Egyptians of today do not atone nor apologize for our enslavement. And we don't apologize and atone to the Amalekites and Canaanites. We take our story to the next level. Our retelling of our story as motivated a legal and moral system that cares for humanity, that did not permit the slavery practiced here, that demanded care for the stranger, the homeless, the orphan and required tithing and other foods for the poor while preserving their dignity.

            We don't get over our story.

                        We tell our story with honor.

                        We tell our story with dignity.

                        Our story motivates us.

                        Our story elevates us.

                        Our story enables us.

                        Our story sanctifies us.

At some time in history, German reparations paid to those whom they harmed will cease, as the last survivor dies. Atoning will be over. Memory will last forever. Collectively, the Jewish people tell the story and rise from it.

            We rebuilt centers of learning.

            We established the State of Israel.

            We founded synagogues, religious schools, day schools and JCC's.

            We birthed a new generation of Jewish scholars and publish their wisdom.

We are a model and extend our story about our story as a motif for others.

Embedded in the bill is reference to the phrase "a more perfect union."

Let them get on with it!

            Make better schools.

            Shelter the homeless.

            Rebuild our infrastructure.

            Eliminate pollution.

            Curtail excessive drinking and all drinking and driving.

            Find the cures to the diseases that afflict us,

                        And make sure that everyone can have it.

            Remove the scourge of drugs.

            Create more honorable jobs and pay a living wage.

It is NOT time to get over it.                                                    

It is time to get with it!

Learn from the story.

Write a new, true American story.

Then we will have a more perfect union, "with liberty and justice for all." 

Shabbat Shalom