JWC commemorated the 2020 Jewish New Year for Trees by performing ritual and artmaking in response to a swastika carved into a tree along Sausal Creek in Oakland. We began with a workshop led and facilitated by Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman that addressed what it means to uproot antisemitism and other forms of hate.
We cultivated community, helped decorate an amulet for protection, as well as developed and used ritual for transformation. When we were done, the swastika was covered by a community created symbol of our strength, love, and resilience.
Jude Elf, one of the stewards of JWC, began creating the copper amulet. Community members added to it at the workshop. Jude is in the photo to the left wearing a black shirt with a name tag hanging above her waist. The amulet features a star donated for this ritual by Lead to Life. The star is made of metal melted down from guns during their 2019 Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy Oakland Ceremony in honor of the 10th anniversary of Oscar Grant’s murder by police.
We cultivated community, helped decorate an amulet for protection, as well as developed and used ritual for transformation. When we were done, the swastika was covered by a community created symbol of our strength, love, and resilience.
Jude Elf, one of the stewards of JWC, began creating the copper amulet. Community members added to it at the workshop. Jude is in the photo to the left wearing a black shirt with a name tag hanging above her waist. The amulet features a star donated for this ritual by Lead to Life. The star is made of metal melted down from guns during their 2019 Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy Oakland Ceremony in honor of the 10th anniversary of Oscar Grant’s murder by police.
(There was) a powerful transformation ritual. Magic began to take place. The wonderful folks at Lead to Life gave us a star ... (created during a ritual where) mothers of sons who died to gun violence, and ... formerly incarcerated people (convicted of) gun violence melted actual guns (to transform them) into the star constellation (that was in the sky) the night Oscar Grant was killed. (The) star was given to us to make an amulet to heal this tree, and so we gathered and created a ritual and took this amulet and placed it over the swaztika and nailed it in. The swaztika is still there underneath - we are not hiding the harm done. Rather we are shifting the narrative going forward. We can not as humans take away the truth of traumas yet we can heal each other, we can create a new path forward, we can create a new message, we can build community that is strong, vibrant, beautiful, that the ancestors are proud of. We can link together in our experiences of oppression and collectively create our experiences of liberation. This is one small yet mighty act of healing.
The quote above is from the participant in the photo to the left wearing the orange and black outfit beneath the amulet.
