Three actionable takeaways from a panel bridging Black and Jewish communities
I went to the most incredible in-person event that my company’s business resource groups hosted. It was about bringing together our Black and Jewish communities with panelists: Nancy Reinsdorf - President of Chicago Bulls Charities; Kareem Wells - founder of K.W.O.E. Group; and Chris Caresnone - motivational speaker, content creator, and the self-appointed “Babka King.”
I laughed, I cried (no, really), I felt it all.
I wanted to share a few of the takeaways with y’all since I was so deeply moved by these incredible Jewish and Black allies and, most importantly, humans.
Get in person and get off our devices
This wasn’t really discussed explicitly during the panel, but I felt this to my core. For one of the first times in my eight years at Chase, there was finally an in-person event in Chicago. I signed up immediately to make sure I could get one of the limited seats with our building under renovation. I was so excited, and, boy, did that excitement pay off. The energy in the room was palpable. The panelists were locked in and engaged. The audience was paying attention and having real human reactions at all the key moments. That’s what you expect from an in-person event, right?
Sure, but half the time we are so locked into our phones instead of locked into the beauty happening right in front of us. Every day I walk my daughter home from daycare and secretly (albeit may be maliciously at this point) hope one of the people glued into their cell phones trips on my stroller.
We go to work, staring at screens all day, then we stare at our phones the rest of the day outside of us. We need to start prioritizing human connection and community over our devices. The phones, the social media, the whatever are a capitalist tool to get us to feel worse about ourselves so we buy more, watch another episode, get glued in more so we are desensitized to the world around us and stay on the app or platform (Hi Instagram and Netflix, looking at you).
There is always a place for our devices, but we have got to look up and SEE the roses. We need to start connecting with real life humans not only for our own sanity and mental health but so we can start understanding other people’s stories. So we can start relating to people who are different from us. We need to get talking, especially given the state of the world.
The media and the government want us to believe that everyone hates each other - it’s clickbait and keeps us desensitized. But if we resist that and start having just one additional in-person conversation, one genuine “how are you?” to your barista — every single one of those interactions will create a ripple effect of human connection and understanding people who may look or seem different from us but are actually so deeply similar. Which leads me to my next point.
We are more alike than we realize.
Our differences aren’t that different. When we celebrate, we hit the dance floor hard with our family and friends. When we observe our religions, we do so in community with people who share our values. What really moved me was when Nancy Reinsdorf was sharing her experience after the October 7th terrorist massacre in Israel, which was extremely painful and heavy for Jews around the world including myself. I remember lying on my couch in the middle of my work-from-home workday because the gravity of what had occurred was too big for my human mind to even conceptualize and digest.
Nancy, as the head of the Chicago Bulls Charities, often spends time with the Bulls community at Brightstar Church on the south side of Chicago. She was brought into this space with an entire community of Christians - non-Jews might I call out- and held with open arms. Her pain was held by an entire community of people who don’t necessarily look like her, who observe a different religion, who we have deemed in this race-first society as other than us. But that’s the beauty of humanity, as I realized in this panel discussion.
We are all the same. We all have emotions, we are all a community, and we can all be here to support each other in the most unimaginable of times. I was literally moved to tears as she shared that. Can you even imagine being upheld by a community seemingly so “different” from yours in a time of need? Frankly I can’t, and I am in such awe of this experience she had and one I hope to be able to provide to others in even the smallest of ways. Which leads us right into our last point. Wow, I love a good segue.
Caresnone, Reinsdorf, Wells, and Noah Wintroub (Global Chairman of JPMorganChase’s Investment Bank) in order Take action to show our children the way
Whether you have kids or not, this is truly a shift in our day-to-day being. How can we show up in such a way knowing that someone is always watching? There were two quotes from the panelists (I didn’t write who said what) that really moved me on this:
We are the product, and we need to be the best product for the world.
I am going to use every ounce of the rest of my life to build bridges and bring our kids forward.
I mean wow. If we take every action, every moment of our lives, and truly do the best that we can, can you even begin to imagine what the world would look like? This is as little as being kind instead of snapping at someone when they interrupt you (hi, I’m working on this). Or as big as making guests feel important and seen when they attend an event.
There is so much I can say about this, but for the sake of brevity, I believe it comes down to two things. First, slowing down so we are not constantly rushing and defaulting to the anger, frustration, and annoyance of it all. So we can in fact lead with the kindness and thoughtfulness that so many moments of our lives deserve.
Second, living in line with our values. When we put our priorities first, we are able to have more space in our lives to ensure we are doing the right thing. We should always be conscious of this; however, when we know what is most important for us, we are able to act in line with that. For example, the panelists shared that their priorities are first faith, family, then things like friends, food, finance, and fun. When we have our priorities in order, we show up in a different way. We walk and talk differently. We know where we stand in the world, and we can be a little bit softer towards the other areas in our lives.
I hope you got something out of my recap of this private panel event from just under two weeks ago. I think it’s critically important to share these moments with others, and what better way to pick back up my Substack than share something that had such an impact on me. I hope you find some inspiration in these words and messages and find a way to do one small thing different today than you normally would.
I realize I’m popping back in here after months of a hiatus. It’s been quite the journey inward figuring out who I am as a person, a working mother, and all of the other titles I bear. I’ll continue to write as I feel inspired and hope you enjoy these little moments in your inbox.
Without further ado, I hope you had a beautiful week ahead.
Your mentor,
Melanie