Rabbi Sandra Lawson Opens Up on Finding Connection in Unprecedented Times

Rabbi Sandra Lawson is the world’s first Black, openly gay female rabbi. Ordained in 2018, the social media star and Reconstructionist rabbi at Elon University in Elon, N.C., aims to lift up Jews around her to keep Jewish life strong. Lawson spoke with the Journal over Zoom to discuss, among other things, her recent viral Juneteenth Kabbalat Shabbat.

Jewish Journal: What has it been like working with young adults at Elon University? 

Rabbi Sandra Lawson: A lot has happened. We try very hard to keep connections going with students. I’ve had students [reach out] and we talk about [things]. And this is an election year, so I think with quarantine, COVID-19, protests and election, it’s going to be very interesting. There’s no historical books for how to deal with all this. We’re just trying to figure it out.

JJ: Jewish spaces are changing. If you want to be more inclusive, what do you think it takes to get there?

SL: I don’t believe that any Jews are trying to be unwelcoming. I think at the bottom of people’s hearts they want to be welcoming. What you may perceive as welcoming, I may perceive as intrusive, and those are the conversations we need to have. I think that many communities have not historically wanted to talk about race unless it was something that’s happening outside of their community that they didn’t want to look at internally. 

The top three podcasts right now all have to do with race. “The New York Times Best Seller List” is all about talking about race. People are reading books now that I didn’t think they would read, like “How to Be An Anti-Racist” and “How Jews Became White Folks.” So, that’s kind of hopeful.

JJ: How have the roles of rabbis and religious spaces changed since you became a rabbi?

SL: I’m wondering how I would answer that if COVID never happened. There has been a lot of change in the rabbinate. Many people want to do something else other than be a congregational rabbi. You’ll see rabbis as executive directors of nonprofits, as chaplains, or Jewish educators.

I’ve been online for a long time and see social media as a tool for connection. Some of my colleagues have always been afraid of that and they saw it as a replacement. I’m, like, “No, use this as part of the conversation.” That’s just part of building relationships. We can’t rely anymore on “because we build a building” or “we build a Hillel” that people are going to come. That isn’t how it works anymore. We have to go out into the community. What I’ve been really impressed by is that communities are sharing resources. 

JJ: Thanks to technology, thousands attended the Juneteenth Kabbalat Shabbat. How did it feel to have that huge response? 

SL: There were a lot of firsts. This was the first nationally televised service led by two queer Black women who are both rabbis at universities. We all thought that it would be a few people, and then every day more and more organizations were signing on. We were up to 7,000 people. It didn’t really register with me. In my mind, it was just I’m going to do a service. My friend said, “You crashed Facebook.”

JJ:  That’s amazing.

SL: Let me be real with you. Every Black rabbi I know, at some point has come across racial bias or racism in the hiring process in communities that need Black rabbis. The issue for me is that representation matters. I think people wanted to feel hopeful for something. They wanted something to celebrate, and Juneteenth plus Shabbat was this perfect container for celebrating where we’re trying to go as a people. We’re trying to provide more quality for people who want to live up to the values that are enshrined in our Constitution, and that’s where we want to go.

I think people wanted to feel hopeful for something. They wanted something to celebrate, and Juneteenth plus Shabbat was this perfect container for celebrating where we’re trying to go as a people. We’re trying to provide more quality for people who want to live up to the values that are enshrined in our Constitution, and that’s where we want to go.

JJ: Why do you tie music into Jewish life and ritual?

SL: Music gets us out of our head, plus it helps us remember. It was easier for me to learn Hebrew through music. I wrote a song called “Kaddish, My Kaddish.” I wrote it for, basically, Black Lives Matter, but [also] for me. It helped me to move beyond Kaddish as something for people in my immediate family who died. Well, Black people are my family and were being murdered. I needed to write this song.

JJ: What do you want people to know about your Jewish community in North Carolina?

SL: There are a lot of Jews in the South. There are strong Jewish populations in Savannah (Ga.), Atlanta, different parts of Virginia, Austin (Texas) and other cities. Many of them are progressive, and they’re hungry for some of the progressive things that are happening in New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco. I really want funders and people who have thought about moving to other places to think about some of these other cities.

JJ: You must get questions you’re tired of hearing and answering. How do you move forward from that?

SL: When white people, white Jews, ask Black Jews or brown Jews or Jews of color, questions about their Jewish identity when they already know you’re Jewish. I think asking somebody if they’re Jewish is a fair question, depending on the circumstances and if it doesn’t feel othering. If you ask me when you meet me before we’ve had a relationship, “When did you convert?” or “Were you born Jewish?” Depending on my mood, I can answer it in lots of ways. It would be one thing if white Jews asked everybody that, but they don’t.

JJ: You had a rabbi who was inspiring. What are things that you took from him that you have made your own?

SL: [Rabbi] Josh [Lesser] taught me how to use my Jewish values in the public sphere. Interfaith work is really important to me. Judaism has a lot to teach the world, and if I can teach you through a Jewish lens, we all benefit. Josh is openly gay and he’s also someone who’s had his Jewish identity questioned back in the day when people thought you couldn’t be Jewish and gay. I watched how he patiently navigated resistance he has had over the years and the relationships that he’s built with people who disagree with him or people who were even homophobic. So, I learned the value of building professional relationships like that, especially when you’re trying to do social justice work. Also, the importance of self-care, so I can better serve other people.

Follow Rabbi Sandra Lawson on Twitter and Instagram @rabbisandra.