When I was 16 years old, I attended religion school at my synagogue for the Confirmation-level class, basically the "senior year" of a Jewish education. My father taught Confirmation and always capped every year with a class trip to a city with Judaic significance. Most Confirmation classes end up going to Washington D.C. or New York City, but my class took an unusual trip to Chicago, Illinois. Why Chicago? Why not? It's home to a number of historic synagogues, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and its connected museum, and many Jewish entertainers got their start with the Second City improvisational comedy troupe. On the Saturday morning of our class trip, we walked to shabbat services at a prominent downtown synagogue. We had to go through parts of town where, to put it bluntly, we were the only white people in sight. Race has always been something of a sticking point in Judaism, and in the 21st century Chicago is where the dialogue about the role of Judaism in race relations is happening in real time.

Chicago is where Rabbi Capers C. Funnye has his pulpit at Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken, a synagogue at which essentially all of the congregants are black. One of those congregants is Tamar Manasseh, a young woman studying to be a rabbi herself. It is likely that Manasseh will be one of the first black females to ever be ordained as a rabbi. While this is certainly cause for celebration, it is also an event that should raise some questions. The first that comes to my mind is, why has it taken so long for this to happen?

The sad fact is that Jews have been an isolated people for far too long, culturally and genetically. In the latter case, we have become so isolated that there are certain genetic disorders associated with our population, especially for those of Ashkenazi descent, including Tay-Sachs Disease, Canavan Disease, Gaucher Disease, and Cystic Fibrosis. Despite the lack of philosophical support, it has been a sad fact for countless generations that to be Jewish meant being white and often explicitly forbidden to associate with people based on skin color.

The ascent of Tamar Manasseh to a position of leadership in the Jewish community indicates that we are living in an age of social opportunity. She may be the first black female to become a rabbi but she most certainly will not and should not be the last. It is my hope as a Jew and as a social progressive that Manasseh's high-profile pursuit opens up a continued discussion of the role Judaism plays in the development of modern society. The world can ill afford a lack of diverse perspectives, especially in stations of power and leadership.

It is only consistent with Jewish philosophy to embrace any and all who seek Torah. There are those who would point to biblical passages as evidence for the support of racial segregation, though it takes little scrutiny to discredit them. The Torah does prohibit the mixing of two unlike things, including the interbreeding of animals and the blending of fabrics. To equate mixed-race social relations to these passages is tantamount to calling someone a different species based on skin color.

For too long we Jews have been a self-segregating people. It should be our mission in the 21st century to eliminate the destructive barriers we have supported, embracing the value and the necessity of multi-ethnic unity. We cannot acheive tikun olam, the repair of the world, if we ignore most of the people living in it.