The Third Annual Art and Mary Schuman Lecture: Tamar Manasseh, “An African-American Jewish Mother Repairing Cracks in Our Communities” Co-Sponsored by BIC

Tamar Manasseh describes herself: “I’m just a Jew . . . . And I’m a Black woman in America.”

In 2015, Tamar Manasseh, an African-American Jewish mother of two teenagers, heard about another young mother from her Chicago neighborhood, murdered while attempting to break up a fight. In response, Manasseh decided to sit vigil at the scene of the killing—maintaining a constant presence to de-escalate gun violence in her community. Within days, others joined her, and the organization that grew from her efforts, “Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings” (MASK), continues to fight gun violence in Englewood and has been the subject of features by NBC News, the PBS Newshour, the New York Times, the Forward, and a full-length documentary, They Ain’t Ready for Me. She is also, in what Rabbi Capers Funnye has described it as “a watershed moment” for the Israelite community,”  the first woman ordained to the rabbinate at Chicago’s Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

This event is Co-Sponsored by Beth Israel Congregation.

On Zoom at:

https://emich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zfWccF9wQeyL0nA3YPtFig