unBIASed message
Dear Friends,
I was recently reminded that not everyone understands the peculiar spelling of unBIASed. It is not a typo; it is intentional! The lowercase “un” stands for “understanding.” The lowercase “ed” stands for “educating.” So the meaning represents our goal of facilitating better understanding of and educating about bias. This includes educating and understanding ourselves as well as others.
How? By listening, learning, and asking questions—of ourselves and others. We can learn much from those in our own congregation, circle of friends, family, and those we have yet to meet. Perhaps you have heard about author Dara Horn’s new book, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. In it, she writes something that has really resonated with me. She writes, “The opposite of hate is not love. It is curiosity.”
With this in mind, and in this time of growing antisemitism, unBIASed is proud to invite you to our fourth annual Breaking Bread Breaking Bias interfaith service and potluck. What started four years ago as a small gathering has grown to a community-wide event (250 in attendance last year!)
Along with Temple Beth Am’s unBIASed, we will gather with our community partners, including Mosaic Miami, Unity on the Bay, AJC, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, our Muslim friends, Unitarian Universalist Miami, and others on November 15 at 11:00 AM at Unity on the Bay, housed at Temple Israel of Greater Miami. Everyone is welcome. Please remember to bring a dish that you would like to share. There is joy in sharing a meal and feeding one another, making friends, and sharing stories.
Speaking of sharing stories, my dear friend Lori Dubbin has written a book, and the story it tells is an important one. I’m sure many of you know Lori and her husband Sam. I first met these wonderful people when my family joined TBAM in 1969. The three of us were confirmed together at TBAM in 1971. I could go on and on about these lifelong friends, but for this column, I want to introduce you to Lori‘s children’s book, Perfect Match: The Story of Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton.
Right in line with our unBIASed mission and Rabbi Barras’s Atlanta conference and follow-up focus on strengthening ties between the Jewish and Black communities, Lori’s book tells a powerful, true but little-known story about two young athletes. This wonderful and beautifully illustrated story is a perfect way to introduce our children to being and living unBIASed.
L’shalom,
Joanne Harvest Koren
Chair, unBIASed