One of the most frequent questions I am asked is, “Are there really Jews on Rikers Island?”
This question says nothing about the asker, but everything about how we have positioned incarceration and the incarcerated as out of sight, out of mind. It’s a “bad” place for “bad” people. Or, as more than one of my congregants has said, it’s a garbage dump for human trash that no one wants to see.
Perhaps a better question is, “What is the relevance of Judaism and Jewishness on Rikers Island?” Just like those on the outside, people in jail are grappling with health issues, maintaining and developing relationships, and trying to imagine and plan for the future. There too, people are trying to cut through the cacophony and find peace and a sense of truth. While my congregants come from all Jewish backgrounds (or no Jewish background), they find in Judaism hope, guidance, and a sense of the here-and-now – what we do matters. Judaism does not offer easy answers, but the self-selecting groups I work with find comfort in the dialogue, and in the belief that teshuvah is possible.
I have to admit that this year, my own process of teshuvah has felt unsuccessful. I find myself preoccupied with my congregation and what each individual is going through, the rifts in my jail congregation that have appeared, whether the carceral system can be fixed – and whether beloved congregants who have moved on to freedom have been able to stay safe or have relapsed into drugs, if they have found a satisfying focus in life or have gone off their medications.
Again, there are no answers. But the liturgy reflects my anxious ruminations. Mi yanuach, umi yanua, mi yashkit umi yetoraf. (Who will be at rest and who will be restless, who will have peace and who will be torn apart?) Just as my favorite prayer of Rosh Hashana, Unetane Tokef, holds space for my anger, sadness, pessimism, as well as hope, I hope that on the “inside” as well as the “outside,” Rosh Hashana can offer space for everyone who is trying to figure out how to get through life, this year, this moment, whether in a pit of despair or a wave of optimism.
