Ginna Green | Advocate Now

"It's been hard to see so many of the comments that we've seen coming from Black folks, with also not a recollection or understanding of how Black folks might be in relationship with the Jewish community over time," Green tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now.

She adds: "Once we can sort of understand how our futures are intertwined, and how our oppressions are intertwined too, then we can actually move forward in a better way."

While Black and Jewish communities are two of the most progressive-leaning groups in politics, Green says they are still more than capable of engaging in hateful, conservative rhetoric.

"[Jewish and Black communities] are not immune to some of the right-leaning trends that we have seen not just in the United States, but across the world," she says, continuing, "It's important for us to really recognize that we're at a crucial moment in our politics, in our society, that is going to require all bodies, all hands, all of our parts on deck."

The modern racism towards Jewish and Black communities has been on the rise the past few years, with 2021 seeing the most incidents of anti-Semitic hate crimes in recent history, and 2022 excepted to see even more.

Green says that the surge in bigotry places an especially difficult burden on Jewish women of color, who have begun to feel isolated and even unsafe within their own communities.

"[Jewish women of color] are experiencing so many of these oppressions at the same time," Green explains. "Imagine what it must be like for a Black Jewish women navigating Jewish communities and Jewish spaces where we are the minority. And sometimes it's hard for us to navigate Black spaces, where religiously we're a minority."

Green believes that all minority group must unite to truly be able to resist the oppression facing them. Attacks on the Jewish community are also attacks on the Black community, as she says: "We can't fight one without fighting the other."

For more interviews like these, watch Advocate Now on The Advocate Channel.