Impact Theatre is a community-wide educational initiative to shine a light on the common history of oppression and persecution of both Jewish and African-American peoples and to strive for social justice. (For press inquiries, please contact Liz Knight, [email protected])
African-American and Jewish communities are experiencing an increase in the overt expressions of hatred and bias, racis
m and, in the case of the Jewish community, antisemitism. We believe something must be done to help reverse this trajectory; through education, by engaging our community, especially our youth, and by demonstrating how critically important it is to recognize and stand up to resist all forms and expressions of hatred. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who, together, joined forces and stood tall to fight for social justice and civil rights. This program is a unified and collaborative effort among community partners and is designed to teach and inspire by connecting teens to both Holocaust survivors and elder members of the African American community who lived during the segregated South. They are learning first-hand from those who bore witness to and suffered from oppression, segregation, and persecution, culminating in a showcase of the witnesses' stories, as told by the teens. Participant community partners include among others, The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, Temple Sinai and other Jewish Synagogues of Sarasota-Manatee, and Newtown Alive!
