Protests against police brutality shook the public sphere in 2020, organized in response to the murder of George Floyd. But in the years since then, protests for racial justice have become less common. Many have moved on to focusing on other social issues, and cases of police brutality have garnered less attention over time.
Attendees at previous Interfaith Coalition for Black Lives rallies. Bolton Street Synagogue congregant Eleanor Simon is pictured wearing the BUILD shirt. (Courtesy of Debra Brown Felser and Eleanor Simon)
But members of the Black Lives Matter Interfaith Coalition, which will soon be changing its name to the Interfaith Coalition for Black Lives, or IC4BL, continue to organize monthly rallies in Baltimore to focus on issues affecting the Black community. And congregants from Bolton Street Synagogue are often present at these rallies, even as the four-year anniversary of the 2020 protests approaches.
Bolton Street Synagogue is one of only two synagogues involved with IC4BL, with the other being Congregation Beit Tikvah. The remaining 40 co-sponsors largely consist of multi-denominational Christian churches, nonprofit organizations focused on racial justice and a few monasteries.
“Black Lives Matter as a national movement has kind of receded,” said Eleanor Simon, an IC4BL planning committee member and Bolton Street Synagogue congregant. “There hasn’t been a big national story about police murders in a while. But the problem hasn’t gone away, so we still feel that we’re making a difference.”
The synagogue has a history of community involvement. Previously, Bolton Street Synagogue representatives served on the board of Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, an interfaith organization dedicated to improving Baltimore’s social landscape by refurbishing neighborhoods and schools and advocating for workers’ rights.
“We’ve done a lot of grassroots organizing, knocking on doors and asking what concerns people in the neighborhood have,” said Debra Brown Felser, a member of Bolton Street Synagogue’s Social Action Committee and the IC4BL planning team.
In 2020, Bolton Street Synagogue was invited to attend meetings held by the Racial Justice Circle, a group of primarily Catholic lay leaders hoping to educate clergy across religious communities about racial justice. IC4BL was born out of those meetings and early rallies organized in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
The monthly rallies held by IC4BL do not solely focus on police brutality, but on many issues affecting Baltimore’s Black community, such as food insecurity and under-resourcing for schools in primarily Black neighborhoods.
“We have what we call related actions, which we pick out months in advance. They are usually organizations located in proximity to where the rally is,” Simon explained. “We’ve done the Towson University Food Pantry, we’ve collected coats for the Baltimore Hunger Project and we’ve cleaned up the median in front of the Baltimore School Board headquarters.”
According to organizers, these rallies help to not only remind people that racial injustice is still an ever-present problem for a large portion of Baltimore’s population, but to do good in the community by engaging in community service. While the causes IC4BL rallies often support may seem unrelated to police brutality and racial justice, Felser said that many problems that American cities face are rooted in systemic racism.
“We feel it’s our responsibility, especially as white people, to educate other white people about racism. We’re not trying to make them feel guilty,” she added. “If we’re going to change society, we have to understand our history if we want to look towards the future.”
Felser said that fighting for racial justice is related to Jewish values.
“Jewish values are so rooted in equality and helping others. It’s who we are,” Felser said. “It’s important that we communicate that to the younger generation. There are so many new, young members who are interested in social action-related activities.”
Of course, Bolton Street Synagogue would not be able to engage in this activism on its own. IC4BL’s collaborative nature allows Baltimore-area religious institutions and advocacy groups to accomplish more together than they would if they acted separately. They plan to turn their attention toward local legislation in the coming years.
“Attending these rallies is very doable,” Simon said. “Every month has us trying to make things better, and we feel that we’re reaching more people.”
