Your Safety is My Safety is a new video series from Bend the Arc that highlights our visions of community safety beyond the limits of our fears. The title is inspired by the story of Ruth, who decides to stay in care-based relationship with her mother-in-law Naomi instead of returning to her family and people of origin. In this choice, Ruth makes a deep commitment to Naomi and her community. “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your G!d, my G!d.” (Ruth 1:16)
Our video series is an invitation to choose, like Ruth, to be together in a commitment like hers.
“Where you move forward, I will move forward; Your community will be my community; your safety is my safety; your future, my future.”
May this Torah of chesed (loving kindness) and these videos ground us in a vision of what can be possible when we choose one another. Follow our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages to see new episodes as they are released.
Episodes
Episodes
NAME: Enzi Tanner (he / him)
ABOUT: Enzi is a National Organizer at Bend the Arc. He will be watching Doctor Who and playing video games in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: "While playing Japanese role playing games (JRPGs) I learned that it is not enough to get rid of the threat without replacing it with someone else. If something better is not created in its stead, another threat will just rise up in its place."
Watch and share Enzi's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Rachèl Laforest (she / her)
ABOUT: Rachèl is Bend the Arc’s Chief Program Officer, supporting organizing, leadership development, and campaigns. In our liberated future she will be growing fresh food and hosting large and delicious community meals.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: "Online recipes and food blogs are an incredible place for learning and experimentation. You can get a real sense of the history and flavor of a place and a people just by reading about the ingredients, preparation and serving of their food. When we utilize the abundance right in front of us, we create beautiful, nourishing things."
Watch and share Rachèl's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Yehudah (he / him)
ABOUT: Yehudah is faculty for Kirva, Inside Out Wisdom and Action Project and the director of the Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out program. He will be relaxing under palm trees, dancing with friends, and caring for his community in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: "Avatar: The Last Airbender (the show not the movie) has taught me so much of what it means and could look like to have both the boundaries of justice without the punitive punishment that's a feature of our legal system today."
Watch and share Yehudah's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Victoria (She/Her / הִוא )
ABOUT: Victoria is the Co-founding Executive Director for the Atlanta Jews of Color Council. She will raise joyous, healthy children, free to thrive as themselves, in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: “Learning better self care. Teaching myself what foods nourish my body and what foods to avoid. I'm learning to reserve time on my calendar to lift weights, go for runs, and take rest to preserve a positive mindset. If I don’t, there is always something or someone else that gets prioritized. It’s definitely a learning process. To take care of one's health is a mitzvah, and the Sages find this mandate implied in the words, ‘take heed to thyself and take care of your lives’ (Deuteronomy 4:9).”
Watch and share Victoria's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Imani (She/Her/Ella)
ABOUT: Imani is an Integration Practitioner. She will continue to learn and lead us to integrate liberatory practices internally and communally in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: “I learn how to remind myself of our own organic processes, cycles, and feelings from lilacs, magnolia trees and weeping willows.”
Watch and share Imani's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Alejandrina (She/Her/Ella)
ABOUT: Alejandrina or will be a doctor-vet-witch-teacher in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: “Toca World." (video game)
Watch and share Alejandrina's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Graie (he/they)
ABOUT: Graie is a nationally-recognized trainer and leader in organizing the Jewish community to divest from white supremacy and work for our collective safety. In their full time work, Graie is the Chief Vision Officer at Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. They will be in a field of daffodils with their dog in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: “Butterfly metamorphosis. I continue to find so much learning in the process of breaking down and being rebuilt, that all of the direction and possibility is already encoded in the cells of caterpillars. It gives me a joyful hope about our future — we already are made for liberation, we just haven't found the conditions to break down the way we've learned to be thus far."
Watch and share Graie's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Tonda (she/her)
ABOUT: Tonda is the Chief People & Operations Officer at Bend the Arc. She will be making most excellent food while sipping Merlot and dancing and singing in the kitchen, kissing baby toes, traveling the world, and joyfully living out the rest of her days with her Beloved and the people she loves most in this world in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: “There has been no study undertaken that has proven more powerful in my life than the study of 'me' and my relationship with the world around me."
Watch and share Tonda's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
NAME: Jackie (she/her)
ABOUT: A lifelong Chicagoan, Jackie (she/her) joined the staff of JCUA in 2019. She is a co-founder of the Kol Or Jews of Color Caucus. She previously led JCUA’s Fair Tax campaign before taking on the work of the Community Safety Committee and its campaigns for Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) and Treatment Not Trauma. In 2022, she became JCUA’s first-ever Director of Antiracism & Equity. She will be gardening in our liberated future.
MY SURPRISING SOURCE OF STUDY: "In my backyard. I like to sit and watch the natural interactions of nature.”
Watch and share Jackie's episode on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.
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