Voices Against Hate – Episode 3: Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg on Antisemitism, Compassion, and Community

In this episode of the SB Life Institute Podcast, host Safraz Bacchus sits down with Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg, founder of Malkhut in Queens, New York, for a thoughtful conversation about antisemitism, interfaith understanding, and the importance of building stronger communities.

Together, they explore the modern forms of antisemitism, the impact of misinformation and social media, the value of education, and how meaningful relationships between people of different faiths can help foster compassion, justice, and peace.

Rabbi Goldenberg shares personal experiences, insights from Jewish spirituality, and reflections on how communities can work together to create a more understanding and inclusive society.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are living in a time where hate has become louder, where words are fueling division, and where fear and violence are entering our streets, schools, homes, and places of worship. Every day, people are being targeted because of their faith, race, culture, or simply because they are different. But we refuse to allow hate to define our future. This series is about more than hate crimes. It is about humanity, healing, understanding, and courageous conversations that bring people together instead of tearing them apart. Featuring faith leaders, community advocates, public officials, survivors, and voices from different backgrounds united in confronting hate and building hope. Because love must speak louder than hate. And our shared humanity must always rise above division. Join us for this powerful new series on the SB Life Institute podcast. Conversations on hate, healing, unity, and hope. Coming soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Greetings and peace and love with you all, and welcome to SB Life Institute Podcast. I am your host, Safir Zbacchus, a spiritual leader, certified life coach, and a chaplain, and also I serve as a global peace ambassador. Today we are discussing something very important, and that is anti-Semitism, a form of prejudice that has affected Jewish communities for centuries and continue to present challenges in the very modern world that we live in. Our aim today in our discussion, I must say, it's not only to speak about anti-Semitism as a social issue, but also to explore how dialogue, how education and share values can help build understanding between various communities and societies. As an imam and spiritual leader, a life coach, I have witnessed the importance of creating and working to create a safe space where people can speak and dialogue openly, listen in a very sincere manner, and also reflect upon the conversations such as these conversations allow us to humanize one another beyond the labels that we often see people throw at each other and the very assumptions that we have. I must also say, and I say this formally, that hatred and animosity often grows where there is silence, where there is misinformation or lack of understanding of one another. Dialogues and conversation, I'll say, allows us to replace fear with knowledge and replace uh suspicion with empathy. And it is my distinguished honor today to welcome no other than Rabbi, and I hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly, uh Rishel Rachel.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Rachel.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Rachel. Yeah. Okay, I yes, good. Uh Goldenberg. And you know, an amazing individual, and I would like to take this uh moment in introducing her. She's the founder of the Malkut, uh 10-year-old progressive Jewish spiritual community in in Western Queens, New York, ordained by Jewish uh Hebrew Union College, sorry, Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003. Our beloved rabbi served in a mainstream pulpit world for the first 13 years of her career. She also brings training as a mindfulness teacher through the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and her social justice leadership at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice to her rabbinic work. Our rabbi lives in Queens with her husband, Jim, and they have two young adult children, Amina and Zeph. It's an honor and a privilege to have Rabbi sitting in our studio today, and we're going to have this amazing conversation. Thank you so much for joining, joining this podcast today, and I'll say that we appreciate your time and we appreciate your insight and your willingness to engage in a meaningful conversation, especially in something that is contemporary, that's affecting our community today. Anti-Semitism, I'll say that it's often discussed in historical terms, but yet many reports indicate that incidents of anti-Semitism continue to occur in parts of the world. In our time, the people often say that we live in a developed world, and people are much more uh conscious of what they say, but we see this type of behavior plagues uh our society today. As an imam, I can remember Pittsburgh uh synagogue shooting in in 2018. And when I heard of this, a group of religious leaders, we came together and we went to the borough hall and we spoke against this, despite of our faith background. And I'll say that when individuals are actually targeted because of their faith, um, we should always stand together and voice our strong voice that we will not allow this. Based on your experience interacting with people and living in New York as our as a rabbi, can you share with us um the main forms of anti-Semitism that that takes place today that you see? Uh, because uh some of the things that we see on social media as well, that how do you uh the the the various forms that it comes, maybe we can inform our you know our listeners about them and then we could chat a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Sure, I'm happy to do that. Um, first of all, thank you so much for having me. And we only just met, and I just so appreciate your welcome and interest in dialogue.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Um and I, you know, I actually like to start with talking about what happened in Pittsburgh because I think it's a really interesting example of how white supremacy and fear of the other in general, fear of immigrants, xenophobia, how those things are related to anti-Semitism.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

And, you know, the individual who carried out that mass shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh was a white supremacist nationalist. And he committed that act of murder, um, at least what he said was because the synagogue was involved with um fighting against uh or or actually they're involved in in wanting to welcome immigrants into our country.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

And so, and a lot of the time anti-Semitism kind of rears its ugly head um as sort of a way of Jews get blamed for all kinds of things that that in particular white supremacists or um folks who might be suffering economically, they want to put their suffering, find a reason, an explanation for their suffering, right? And so they blame immigrants for having trouble finding a job, right? Or for the economy going south. They blame Jews for um empowering certain kinds of it's a level of projection off projection, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah, and we see that type of behavior quite often.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yes, yeah, absolutely. We see Islamophobia and anti-Semitism really being two sides of the same coin also a lot, I think um in New York City. Um and uh you know, so often folks who are um are expressing anti-Semitic beliefs also hold Islamophobic beliefs. Yeah. Um the ways that we're seeing it manifest through New York City uh these days, um, you know, there's um uh unfortunately been, you know, acts of um violence against individuals who are visibly Jewish, right? Walking down the street. I'm someone who's not necessarily visibly Jewish. Um so the folks who tend to be most vulnerable are those that are visible, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Probably wear their wear their attire. And and I I I can I can relate to that as well. Um I don't want to divert, I can relate to that, that when you wear your religious garb quite often that we're susceptible to attack, the steers that you get, the negative uh the negative words and insults that they sport spurt you. Um and I can I can begin to imagine that how uh frightening that may be for the Jewish community in New York, that they're leaving their home to worship with their outfit, with their family. And what's I'll say this from the bottom of my heart, it's a powerful image. Like when I drive down in certain areas and I see Friday evening going into Saturday morning and they're holding hands crossing. A beautiful scene. But people there are those out there that don't see that as a beautiful scene scene uh when someone is going to a place of worship, and yeah, and and I can begin to imagine what they're thinking in their heads, having to look back over their shoulder while going to be in the most vulnerable place.

unknown 10:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

No, it's scary. Um, you know, folks who who might practice more modern forms of Judaism, like I do, we and also who are white, right? Yeah. Um easily can easily pass. We can choose to not stand out in those ways. Um the other thing, you know, our institutions, our synagogues, our buildings are being targeted. Yes. And and really sadly, um uh, you know, Jewish folks in the United States are being um kind of associated with the acts of the state of Israel. So we've seen this uptick in anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts because folks who just may not really understand the distinction between the state of Israel and American Jews make that association. And, you know, um during the the genocide in Gaza and in this current war on Iran, Lebanon, and the Gulf, um, you know, folks also are projecting um their anti-war sentiments against Jews in the United States.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

And that's unf that's unfortunate. Um uh like previous generations, previous like years ago, this anti-Semitism, as you said, it it raises ugly heads in different form. Now we someone can be in the comfort of their homes and being targeted with the presence of the digital age, so to speak. And uh I can say that uh sometimes I post it like last week. I posted something in my social media, and uh I posted uh a friend of mine, we're very closely knitted, he he nerd, he nurtured me in my first unit of clinical pastoral education at Northwell Health. And and he's a reformed Jew. And um uh and I posted up something, and even individuals within my own community, because of this bias and this assumption, the assumptions that they have, were typing things that were not acceptable. And so you can be in the comfort of your home, and the Jewish community will be targeted because just who they are. So, can you can you share something about that? Maybe about uh how this presents itself even on the social media platform and how how we can um probably educate our people. I think this it's so important for education about accept acceptance and understanding about a faith. When you understand the faith, you're able to appreciate the faith.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

If you don't understand, well, and if you don't know people, right? Yeah um, you know, a lot of the way anti-Semitism shows up is this kind of almost this mystical idea about these people who exist, right? The the um these people who exist who are like pulling the strings or are controlling things like the media or control, right? That those are the sort of anti-Semitic tropes that have been around for a very long time. Yeah. Um this faceless, mysterious group of people who are behind the scenes, you know, pulling the levers or pulling the strings, those tend to be the tropes of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. When you meet a person, yeah, right, definitely Jewish, you realize, oh right, they're actually human beings. Yes, right. Yeah, you know, I I had a very dear friend in college um who grew up not in the United States, he had never met Jewish people before. He was educated with a lot of these conspiracy theories. He was taught to believe that the Holocaust was a lie. He was taught to believe that that that was that didn't happen. I was the first person he met who I mean, I have grandparents who escaped the Holocaust, I have great grandparents who were murdered, I have many relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust. He met me, he heard my stories, he all of that kind of misinformation kind of melted away for him.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

And he felt terrible, right? But that's how he was brought up in a kind of bubble of misinformation. This was before social media. I mean, this is in the 90s, okay. Um, so so much the more so. Um, I think with social media and misinformation being able to just uh proliferate and travel so quickly, right? The blink of an eye, yeah, ignorance can just spread. Yeah. And um and again on social media, you're not interacting with actual three-dimensional human beings with a story um where you know, when you're sitting in a room with someone like we are doing today.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Of course, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

We realize, oh, we're we are all human beings, we have the same needs, the same suffering, the same right, uh yearnings.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

It's it's so interesting that you're saying that because I I feel the same way. I can recall the first time uh it was like just before the pandemic, I entered into a synagogue, and that feeling that I had, it's a feeling that I could I can't really explain, but I all I knew that I was very happy and excited that I stepped feet into a place of worship um of the Jewish community. And we were discussing, we were discussing anti-Semitism and ways and means how we can tackle that with other religious leaders, and the space was open, open for us. And I learned a lot because prior to the prior to the discussion, there was someone that came and spoke about the Jewish prayers and some aspect of the faith. So I guess what we can say, how important is it education in our contemporary time about diversity in terms of religion, how important it is for you to learn something about Islam or something about Buddhism or about the Jewish faith. Encouraging people, it's important to encourage people to learn a little bit uh about that so you're able to appreciate it, right? And also, as you said, meeting meeting each other.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yeah, I mean, I think education and relationships, they are the key, they're like the medicine for this illness of anti-Semitism, really. And you know, I studied Islam in college as a Jew. I grew up in a family, my father's a rabbi. You know, I didn't know much about Islam. I took a wonderful course on Islam. Um, and I'm able to then communicate to my Jewish community the ways in which we are so similar. The same prophets, we we share so many of the same holy stories and books, um, that we both have deep legal traditions, right? That we have um dietary laws that are very similar. There's so much in common, and I think you know, once we start to learn that about each other, we start to see each other as cousins or siblings.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Um it's it's interesting that you say that because yeah, when we look at the commonalities, we build bridges and we don't, you know, we don't build walls that divides people. We learn more. We have a lot more in common than differences. And um I I think when we engage in the educational process, and while we both realize how important education is, that education has I I do believe that it has to stem from from a young age, like from our kids. This is my my independent thought, thought that religious teachings should be taught in as a subject in the schools, school system, because not for someone to embrace, but in terms of culture. That look at religion as a culture. So when a child grows up and knows about religious cultures and so forth, somehow when they see someone with a turban or see someone with a kippah or or a kofi, that they want to ask what what that is. They will not ask that question. They will know that these are people that follow particular guidelines, religious practices, uh, through that medium of um uh of uh can can you tell me um you know if you don't mind, um I'll probably put you in the spot and ask you, you know, your time being here uh as a rabbi in New York, how you uh have an experience where you face where you face this type of behavior pattern, can you share and how you dealt with it?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Let me give you a little uh background on how I grew up because I think it really informs how I am with this with this issue these days in New York City as a rabbi. I I grew up in a town in south central Pennsylvania, not a big city, not a metropolitan area. Um, and I was one of very few Jewish people growing up in my public school and in my neighborhood. Um and so I really and my father is a rabbi. Okay, so I grew up really being a bridge builder from a very young age. And um and that's sort of that's that's just how I've always seen myself. Yeah. Um, so you know, it's happened to me, say, you know, uh, I'll here's an example. Um so our my community doesn't have its own building. So for our big high holidays, we rent space. Yes. And um, you know, have you ever seen a Torah scroll? Read the scroll that's the Bible, right? So I had to bring it literally in a cab or an Uber from my home to the place where we're having our worship services.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And I got in a cab, the cab driver sees me with my Torah, and he starts sharing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Um, oh, the Jews are all rich, the Jews control the world, conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds, um, how all the Jews are wealthy, which is not none of that is true. Yeah. Just like all people, right? We have a range of uh socioeconomic levels in the Jewish community. You know, I don't my initial reaction to things like that is I don't actually get offended. I really understand that it comes from ignorance and from not knowing, and I see my role as teaching. Um, it doesn't scare me. Look, I I haven't, I've been very lucky. I have not experienced violent interpersonal anti-Semitism. I've never been attacked personally, physically, verbally. Um and I think you know, that's a completely different situation where you need to keep yourself safe and you know, protect yourself and get yourself out of that situation. Um most of the experiences I've had with anti-Semitism in New York City have been with neighbors, where I just you know, I say, Well, you know, you may have been taught that, but here's what's actually true.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Um so Again, you're saying again, you're saying uh importance of educating, yeah, how important it is for us to take.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

I mean, uh you know, I I'm not sure I have a story of of my you know being personally or even my community um experiencing direct anti-Semitism here in New York City. I'm very lucky. Um growing up in York, Pennsylvania, we did have that experience. Um we had a local synagogue where um probably some white supremacists put a Very offensive to Muslims too, put a pig's head on the door of the city.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

That's very scary. That's really a threat.

unknown 22:07

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

It's very deeply offensive. And the best response to those things I find is to gather our allies, gather our friends of all faiths together to speak out. And when I when I discovered in New York City when an incident occurs, good people show up. You know, good people show up. So after Pittsburgh happened, one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced in New York City. It was the one it was a very traumatic thing for the Jewish people. Um I was scared to go to services and lead lead worship the next Sabbath. And I invited a pastor, I invited a couple of pastors whom I knew. I just started my community. I didn't know a lot of people yet, just to come and sit with us at services, and they showed up. They showed up, and that makes such a difference. So I I mostly have positive stories.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

And and and I I guess that positive story I think could be an inspiration for others as well, that when something happens in our community, you know, I I often I analyze things when it happens, right? Sometimes communities are uh not proactive, but rather they're reactive. Something happens, then they they show up in droves. I often believe that it's important for religious leaders uh like yourself, you know, religious leaders in a whole, we we must have uh a pathway to prevent this, at least try to prevent, or true education, uh awareness before it happens. When it happens, everybody goes out, the heart is there. But we have to tackle this issue, I think, uh, issues like Islamophobia or xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate um in a systematic way. And that is why again, uh that is why again I think uh having this conversation and created this podcast simply because of a conversation like this, because it's my this is my thought process. Um so um I think there should be uh interaction between uh religious groups, like inviting a person like yourself to to, for example, to my mosque uh to speak about it, right? Or interact with children on Saturdays, or go to another, the the Sikh community and to speak about it, right? Creating that awareness by going into these spaces through through the medium of education, um workshops maybe looking at statistics and you know how I know that this is the city is doing an amazing, amazing job, at least trying their best. Um, through um, I know a good friend of mine, Vijay. Uh he he he's working in the hate crime unit, he's he's working tirelessly to get people together to prevent hate crime and you know bring awareness. But um, you know, and uh I I think we can work along with other uh organizations to sensitize and to bring that awareness. So that um it will minimize not prevention because sometimes we can change the mind mindset of individuals, but some level of prevention or minimizing minimizing the occurrence of this, that'd be able to change the thought process of individuals. Our Jewish brothers said cousins, and that's the way I look at it. Ismail, isha. Ismail is ha, isn't it? Yes, yes, they're they're cousins, family, families and uh brothers, yeah. Yeah, so and and that's the way I look at it, and if you present it in that format. And also, we're all children of uh of God. When white supremacists uh looking at the Jewish person and thinking that they're superior, God created you and created them, yeah, right? So we're all creation of God, and if God is just in his ways and just in his decision making, he will not you know create individuals with a level of superiority over others that it's based on love in our hearts.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

The same person, right? From the very beginning, we descend from one Adam.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Yeah, yes. And that's I I think that is. Can you tell me a little bit about your synagogue?

SPEAKER_00 26:57

You know, like to. Yeah. So um, so I founded Malfut 10 years ago. This is our 10th anniversary year, which is very exciting.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Um can we tell you about a little bit about the name? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah, so um it comes from this the root melech or malek, right? Melech, right? Which is sovereignty.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Sovereignty. Um, but in in interesting, that's one of the names of of God.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so in Jewish mysticism in Kabbalah, you may have heard of Kabbalah, right? Um, there are many manifestations of the divine, many different divine names.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Malfut is the aspect of the divine that is most um accessible to us here on earth. It's very connected to my mindfulness practice. So it's the experience of the unfolding of divinity in our awareness from moment to moment. Yes. Okay. And it's also associated with the feminine aspect of the divine. So you may have heard of the word chihina, which is the name of the divine that's feminine. Um, and so there's a bit of a play on the word Malchut, sovereignty and queenship, right? And here we are in Queens. So that's I love that. That's yeah, that's the play on the name. Um, but we also at Malchut we practice um uh contemplative forms of prayer that are really about awareness of being itself as it manifests from moment to moment. So that's where Malchut comes from. Um, I was ordained as a reform rabbi in the reform movement. Um, our community is not uh formally affiliated with a particular stream or denomination of Judaism, but we're progressive, we're liberal, we're egalitarian, meaning men and women have equal access to everything that we do. Um we don't have a building, we rent space, we mostly rent from churches because they tend to have the buildings that we have access to. Um and our our church partners have been very uh generous to us. We um hold worship services and uh children's learning in Jackson Heights.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Um Jackson Heights, okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Twice a month on Shabbat morning on Saturday morning. Um we also have programs in Long Island City, and then we hold all the Jewish holidays throughout the year. We kind of pop up across Western Queens. We've rented from CUNY School of Law many times for our high holy days. Um I have a wonderful rabbinical student who works with me, okay, uh, who's an intern with us. Um yeah, and our community is growing. So, you know, we have probably about 200 people who engage with our programs across, you know, across the year, um, but we reach many more. We reach probably 900 people. Um and we love to sing, we love to make music, we pray a lot through music. Through music, yeah, through singing, through chant. Um and I'm trying to think what else I can say. I'm happy to answer other questions.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

No, no, no, but uh it's it's nice to you know for individuals to know what what what what goes on in a synagogue in terms of prayer, some of the activities that you have, because when there is on when there's a sense of unknown as to you know what transpires in the in the synagogue or what do you try you talk about kids, for example. You use a space to inspire kids, inspire communities, different people. So uh I'm trying to connect what you do uh as a Jewish rabbi, uh reformed Jewish rabbi, should I say, uh, and bring that awareness to our listeners across the spectrum so they will know that the practices that is there, that it is all uplifting practices. And there's nothing to hate about uplifting practices. Our community will our communities will flourish if we have people with spirituality, with a sense of spirituality. We groom in our younger generation in within the Islamic faith, within the Jewish faith, within the Christian communities, within the Hindu communities, groom in the youngsters to hold on on religious values. And I think it's it's important that the work that you do, and I want to thank you so much. We often will have a uh a session of 30 minutes, you know, we're wrapped wrapping up right now, but I want to say that your time that we spend having this very important dialogue, um that commitment to work together. Um, would you have um anything to say about how important it is for communities to work together to battle hate crime and combat hate crime as we conclude?

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yeah, I mean, I think the way that we immunize our children, our communities against hate is is through meeting each other, through sharing meals with each other, um, through sharing space with each other, um, through learning that, you know, in my faith, I bet we are uh upholding many of the same values that you are. So for instance, when we pray on our Sabbath on our day of rest, we're praying for peace. We're trying to cultivate compassion, uh, we're praying for justice, you know, and and and we uh we work towards sedak, right, which is like sadaka, right? Same same route, yeah. Um towards justice and fairness and righteousness and the thriving of all people, you know, and so yeah, I mean I I think um uh the the way I I I actually don't like the word combat hate um because it's a it's interesting, it's right, it's a military uh term. And I think what we can do instead is cultivate wholesome qualities of peace, of compassion, of justice, of solidarity with each other. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Powerful message. Uh we want to thank you uh so much for joining our podcast. I'm sure that this would not be the last conversation we will have and the last time we will see each other. The the work that you do is important in the Jewish community is an integral part of New York. And as I say, I always look at uh our Jewish brothers and sisters as a cousin. And while uh there might be differences in terms of the political atmosphere that is happening around, um, that does not mean that we allow hate to foster in our heart. Now we may hate an action of a person, but we never we were never taught to hate. Um, in my faith, um uh I often echo this that when the Prophet migrated to Medina, um, he mentioned to the people spread peace. In a in a diverse Medina was diverse, you had people from the Jewish community, um, those that migrated from Mecca to Medina, there were different cultures and different tribes, and he said, Spread peace and feed the indigent. He said, pray at night while people are asleep, and you will enter into the abode of peace. And we were all created from God, and you know, God created us. We are the children of God. And I think it's so important for us to advocate for love and peace in a world that is broken. Seriously, I think um it's so vital for us to raise our voice and not to be silent. And when we are silent and say this does not affect us, because I'm a Muslim and that's a Jew, it's good. Then we're bankrupt morally if we we look at it that way. We must be able to stand up and say no when it happens to the Jewish community, no when it happens to the Muslim community, no when they burn the Hindu flags, or no when it they target the African American churches. We should do that. And you know, thank you so much and uh kindly join us on our podcast and you know, share the word. Um Safra's Bacchus Life Institute. Um I will uh encourage you to subscribe and have a blessed day and peace and love. Thank you.