Amy Weiss she/her/hers, mother of Sol. Here to support and learn

This song is “Sing Through My Voice”by Beautiful Chorushttps://open.spotify.com/track/7xDWIztu9eGL0k4wLdEaC8?si=JcGCZ4VWRNqvidl4XS83IQ

corey on leni-lenape land. i’ve been thinking a lot about reparations over the last year. i’m grateful for the chance to think about it in the context of shmita with y’all.

finnigan, ze/hir, lenapehoking, the amazing teachers (esp with their gracious offer to have me lead services representing them this morning) <3

Sarah Chandler (she/her), aka Kohenet Shamirah. Currently in Munsee/Lenape/Canarsie land - Brooklyn, NY. I love Linke Fligl (especially visiting in person and hugging chickens) and am so inspired by the model you are setting for other Jewish-run orgs.

Leroy, they/them or he/him, on occupied Tsalagi (Cherokee) land. Here because I’m thinking about reparations and land justice myself and curious about what others who’ve been thinking about these things and experimenting with practicing them informed by Jewish principles has looked like

Shira (She/her)I live on the unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, BC)

Asher (he/him, she/her) on Anishinaabe and Dakota land in Minneapolis MN. I’m here because I want to understand how to bring reparations into reality, and am curious about shmita as motivation or methodology.

hi from just outside of Tkaronto (toronto) on Anishnaabe, Wendat, Seneca, Petun, and Mississaugas of the Credit land, on the territory of the Dish With One Spoon Treaty and Williams Treaties 1929

Ashley she/they. Eastern Cherokee and Yuchi. Our liberations are tied together… to explore that it new ways.

I live on Ohlone land, Oakland, California

jack they/he, cherokee and catawba land, always down to listen to folks working on reperations, especially jewish farmers!

Julia (she/her) and Sam (he/him) on Ho-Chunk land (Wisconsin). To assist us in understanding reparations.

SJ they/them, Tsalagi (Cherokee) and Catawba lands, near Asheville, NC. To learn how Jewish wisdom can contribute to reparations!

greetings ! Solace , Shlomo , or Sol (they/them) ||| living as a white settler on Konhomtara Pomo / Coast Miwok land ||| here to be in learning community around indigenous sovereignty and jewish practices of interspecies kinship !

Sarah, living on Lenni Lenape land

Claire Friedrichsen (she/her), nimi'ipuu, to learn and grow

Sarah Rovin, she/her, on Massachusetts land in Boston. To dig deeply in to learning about reparations

sara, she/they, north yorkshire, England. here to feel into this inquiry with you all and sink into how it could translate into my own british organising and justice work

hi, simone, they/them, on unceded Duwamish land (aka seattle). interested in connecting more deeply reparations work in food sovereignty movement to Judaism and also excited to learn from you Sol :) <3

Rachel, She/her, Cheyenne & Ute, Arvada, CO. To learn and connect more in a lived way with how to put these values into practice.

Simone or Aderet, she/her, Munsee Lenape and wappinger, land, I’m new to land justice but it seems like an important thing to understand for reparations. I’m really excited to have a session that is going to draw the direct connections!

la’akea kaufman they/em/kin on Kalapuya land, I am here to generate ideas and commune about how to most justly be on land/sharing that practice together

Orly (they) Anishnaabe land, want to work on making to reparations/tikkun olam specifically as a person who has benefitted from reparations in the holocaust on both sides of my family

Ari (he/him) On Catawba and Lumbee land (Durham, NC) I am here to see how Judaism could inform reparations and how it could become a reality

here to learn what reparations can look like as Jews living on land that is the traditional home many Indigenous nations

Shoshana Devorah Mackay / She & they pronouns / on Cherokee & Catawba land in Fairview, NC

Marlo (she/her) on Nipmuc and Pocumtuc land. I’m excited about finding many ways to connect shmita to my farming cycles!

Hannah, she/her. Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe land. excited to dig into what reparations can look like

Rachel Maureen (she/her) on Monocan land in central VA. Been contemplating how can refistribute some of the resources I inherited to support initiatives of dispossessed and marginalized peoples to reconnect to land

hi! i’m moriah ella. they/them. i am calling in from lenape land (new jersey). i came to learn more about reparations as part of connecting to land as a diaspora jew. and integrating these ideas into my artistic practice as a dancer and choreographer working with queer and jewish communities

Keo (they), on HoChunk land in Madison, WI

mollie rose, she her, learning and growing on the traditional lands of Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples in so-called Rhode Island.

Glad, on potowatomi, Kickapoo land, Chicago. here to be more grounded in myself in order to better work alongside the rightful stewards of the land

Chelsea (she/her) on Nipmuc & Pocumtuc land. Excited to learn with/from Chana and Sol and dig deeper

I’m Ezra (they/them), on Kalispel and Kootenai land. I want to learn more about reparations!

Hi :) Joelle they/elle on occupied nipmuc + pocumtuc land in “holyoke, ma”

elie, she&they, lumbee, catawba and occaneechi land. excited to learn and to further align with reparations as part of a broader political strategy.

Sam (they/them) Catawba and Sugaree land in the Piedmont of NC. Want to learn about the connections between smite and reparations

Claire (they/them), myaamiki, Lënape, Bodwéwadmik, and saawanwa (southern Indiana), to continue learning from the folks at Linke Fligl and inform my writing about diasporism, Jews and land

vanessa (they/them), living in the ancestral home of the Piscataway people and current home to the Lumbee tribe (Baltimore MD). Here to learn and brainstorm ways of putting this into action in deep thoughtfulness and solidarity.

Samson (he/him), I’m on Dartmoor, Devon, UK…. old Druid land of oak (Dart meaning oak). Feel strongly that reparations are related to shmita, which feels to me like a practice of repairing the imbalances and inequalities in society as much as letting the land rest… <3 Here as I’m excited to hear more about this connection….

Lexi (she&they) on Potawatomi, peoria, myaami, kickapoo land. here because these questions are deeply present in my heart and mind

cole (they/them) on nipmuk and pocumtuk land (northampton, ma)- excited to think about reparations + shmita!

<3

<3 <3 <3

Doe they/them! on timicuan and seminole land aka gainesville florida. Excited to learn what reparations can look like for me and the organizations I affiliate with.

PPSSHHHH

(their programs/events are won-der-ful)

I have heard amazing things from folks who've celebrated sukkot w/ Linke Fligl before <3

Link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wPXyTtUJH6Gq780aKeTsyj5n-Z1C4msNhlnuTD9Qun8/edit?usp=sharing

*I get an "access denied" message when I try to open the slides

Hi all—working on access to slides now

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RLQZiKhvuDKV_yECmsJrHMFKi2jeO2i21Zfp0rMry80/edit?usp=sharing

works! :)

in!

(Just getting to add) Josh, he/him/his, in new haven, CT on Wappinger, Paugusset, Qunnipiac and other Eastern Algonquian-speaking tribe land (still learning). I have been inspired and find hope in the work of Linke Fligl. looking forward to more perspective in thinking about reparations

Sharing this music as a soothing balm to zoom <3

RELEASE. Shabbos of the land

Release, accountability

forgiveness of debt

Taking down barriers and boundaries

Debt forgiveness and freedom from slavery/bondage

Economic reset

from the previous session: not enough to unlock the fence, you have to remove the fence (for wild animals)

every 7 years

halachically it's just in eretz yisrael

Food security for all

You can’t give permission to others to use “your” land, because the land isn’t yours to release—a leveling/reckoning with where ownership originates through violence

Caring for the vulnerable

Returning land back to spirit… remembering land was never yours!

Every 7 Shmita land is redistributed entirely

jubilee!

Shmita builds towards yovel!

ensuring distribution of food in community

loving up on soil and letting the microbial community below have at it !

in eretz yisrael in the present day there are a lot of rules people follow about what produce you can and can't eat during shmita

I think there is a lot of eating from Palestinian growers?

Link to Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RLQZiKhvuDKV_yECmsJrHMFKi2jeO2i21Zfp0rMry80/edit?usp=sharing

What is so essential about shmita that a society that doesn't uphold it doesn't have legitimacy to it's own existence? why would it result in exile?

this sh*t’s for real

Is exile a punishment?

Excellent q

^^that’s what its bringing up

the equivalence of hoarding to murder is wild

woah yes that question

I know that those first three sins are the only things you should die rather than commit. What does that mean about shmita?

a common thread is a denial of the sacred

making me think about what harms to other people translates to harms to the earth, to land

well capitalism (hoarding) is murderous

they're all stealing?

or that it stopped happening

Look at it opposite: the problem with injustice, murder, immorality is that it ruins the land, and so it is like not observing shmita\

can we separate the ideas of exile and diaspora? exile is a break in relationship and diaspora is to deepen local relationship

yes!

are there diff words in Hebrew?

Fundamental rule is about justice, but justice is not first about equity between but about justice for the land — which yields equity between people but is an end in itself

Is Shmita being practiced in Israel now or anywhere?

what might smite mean for those who are landless/non land-owning?

*shmita

Dropped a few words: should be: Fundamental rule is about justice, but justice is not first about equity between people but about justice for the land — which yields equity between people, but justice for the land is an end in itself, not a means to an end

what does shmita look like in relationship to palestinians right of return?

^^^ bumping this question

And the farmers have kept the count of when the shmita year is! They are how we know where we are in the cycle

<3 <3 sonya

REMINDER: If you are a Jew of Color, we invite you to put an * on your Zoom name so we can sort you into a Jews of Color breakout room after this section about reparations. Direct message me if you have any issues renaming yourself.

Shmita and the problem of indigeneity: we are all strangers Shmita teaches and so no more rightly owning the land than Palestinians, and in some senses (but not all) having less belonging to the land. We achieve belonging to the land by doing justice, which depends on honoring/upholding equity for the people who are “strangers” to us.

REMINDER: If you are a Jew of Color, we invite you to put an * on your Zoom name so we can sort you into a Jews of Color breakout room after this section about reparations. Direct message me if you have any issues renaming yourself.

settler colonialism is an ongoing process, not a one-time event

how do refugees (eg. jewish refugees) fit into this?

Please speak more about immigration and how this connects

$1000/person over 32 years?

some indigenous communities have refused to accept compensation (in the hundreds of millions of dollars) for their land being stolen because they so deeply know that land, including their bodies cannot be bought

re: Hawaiian homes, all but one person I know is/has been on the waiting list to get for getting these land leases. The waiting list is in the thousands, and many people die before their allotment is bequeathed. And, as you mention, lots of these plots are in remote, underdeveloped and served areas in the islands.

what's Sophia's last name?

Sobko

Rep Conyers has passed, Rep Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas is now the sponsor of HR 40 and there is a good chance that it could pass the house in this current make up https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/108/hr40/text

and that land sovereignty is the continued demand of Native nations across so-called US and Canada

We have studied HR 40 as a form of text study and it was really powerful

are there resources one can read about how these land tax projects got started / how to start a local land tax project?

freygl - yes will share resources at the end!

thanks sol!

@freygl http://sogoreate-landtrust.com/shuumi-land-tax/

i missed a bit of the call -- did we talk about usda lending practices and black farmers having lost their land?

REMINDER: If you are a Jew of Color, we invite you to put an * on your Zoom name so we can sort you into a Jews of Color breakout room after this section about reparations. Direct message me if you have any issues renaming yourself.

@freygl - there is still an active collective as part of coalition of anti racist whites who worked with Duwamish to initiate Real Rent, I wasn't a part of it but I know that folx are open to sharing about how that process got started, lesosns learned, etc and i'd be happy to reach out and connect you.

@Sarah not specifically, that is an important point

Can you share a link for Reparations Map:Black, Indigenous and POC land projects Not seeing it on the slide deck or finding it online. Thank you!

@freygl are you connected with sundance harvest?

Breakout Groups Q: What is coming up for you? How are shmita & reparations interconnected? What can we learn about societal repair when we look at the two concepts together?

she's a black farmer in Toronto who iirc was raising money for land

Slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RLQZiKhvuDKV_yECmsJrHMFKi2jeO2i21Zfp0rMry80/edit?usp=sharing

wondering if shmita is actually a reparative process? if it is, what harm is it repairing?

Shabbat is weekly practice, keep practicing in bigger and bigger ripples and cycles, love this image, thanks!

yovel feels more like a reparative process to me...

Even 3rd century and 11th century writers didn’t agree on what shimta should be, so I think it’s cool for us to evolve it for our times.

And each shmita year/cycle can be a deeper expression of shmita than the one before

^^^^yes

This time together also makes me crave putting all the tools of money and land resistor from jewish tradition alongside each other as a toolbox (schmita, yovel, tzedaka, tithing)

*redistro

Chevruta: paired/small group learning

@Ollie YES

^^ that would be a cool virtual art thing Ollie, to have a virtual tool box and you click on the different tools and can learn about each one more and links to places that are putting it into practice—a classic imagery but it would be cool to see it all in one place

Radical ancestral toolbox!

<3

wow amazing that you meantioned commons cause I was just thinking about enclosure

@solace what is the person’s name that you mentioned again?

<3

afaik enclosure (the taking of public lands in England in the I think 17th century? or 18th?) was a major driving of colonizing north america

^^^ exactly

Such a juicy convo, thanks everyone for these thoughts!

and it ties into what we talked about in my breakout about people being displaced and displacing others

*driving force

Link to Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RLQZiKhvuDKV_yECmsJrHMFKi2jeO2i21Zfp0rMry80/edit?usp=sharing

https://reparationssummer.com/ a reparations project by the Black Land & Liberation Initiative

not land-related but interpersonal micro-reparations are also important

in a local fb group i'm in there is a weekly thread where bipoc can post their venmos and white people can give

yes enclosures in england were mostly from the 17th century

also not sure if its been mentioned connecting with mutual aid projects is a great way to redistribute resources (money, food, etc)

Thank you for taking us on this journey, what an excellent session!

As land-based Jews who care about racial justice and ending white supremacy, how can we integrate these two concepts in our lives?Leaving this space, what is your commitment to reparations or racial justice and how do you want to bring your Jewish identity into that commitment?

thank you sol and Chana!

oy@linkefligl.com :)

Thank you!!!

Thank you Sol and Chana!

Thank you Chana and Sol for an excellent learning session. It left me wanting more!

Thank you so much for this, so carefully held and thought provoking xxx

I thought this session ends at 5:15?

that's so cute that it's oy

thank y'all!

Elie can you elaborate or give an example what you mean by mutual aid organizations

Thank y’allllll <3

I’m involved with the organization Jews For Racial and Economic Justice in nyc. It’s a really amazing organization that braids these threads

there is a jewish mutual aid group but its not specifically reparations, both joc and white jews can post there

just applied to organize with yall <3

thank you sol, chana, and all of you for your insights

thank youuuuuuuu for taking us on this journey

thank you so much sol & Chana!

Thank you!!