Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This week we began this year’s observance of Black History Month. Having many years ago served as the executive director of the Kansas City Jazz Commission, I always feel a special connection to the need to lift up Black history.  I would on many occasions hear Jazz musicians refer to Black History Month as “Jazz Musicians Full Employment Month.”

While the explanation of why Jazz is a Black art form is too lengthy for this blog, suffice it to say that one cannot understand the importance of Jazz without recognizing how it has reflected upon and represented Black culture and history. There have been efforts to expunge Black history from American history.  It is a mistake, and it cheats us all out of our American story.  (We should read more into the phrase African-Americans.)

The selfish peace in all this is that, if those who aspire to a White Supremacist nation can erase Black history, they will not hesitate to erase Jewish history. The most obvious example is Holocaust deniers like Nick Fuentes. However, it also shows up in less obvious ways; that our contribution as Americans to the American landscape is significant, positive, and integral to the growth of America; in justice and law, in science and medicine, in the arts.

Let us commit and celebrate Black History Month. To do otherwise leaves us vulnerable to having our own stories expunged from the history books.