African-American reparations is one of the critical social justice issues of our times. What is the Jewish community’s responsibility for reparations to the black community? We will take look at Jewish texts and examine the complexities of a Jewish response to this issue. Rabbi Jessica Zimmerman Graf, Aryeh Bernstein, the author of “The Torah Case for Reparations,” and CSI board member Christina Jefferson will discuss the Jewish view of reparations.

Christina Jefferson
Christina Jefferson is the first ever Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at the San Francisco Forty Niners. Jefferson leads inclusion and diversity efforts across the organization and leads the teams Internships, Fellowships, and holistic training strategy.
 
Prior to joining the 49ers, Jefferson spent six years with Sephora spending most of that time leading their diversity and inclusion efforts company-wide, including facilitation and creation of diversity trainings for corporate employees, distribution centers, store leadership and other brands within the LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey) group. She provided oversight to all cultural programming, participated and moderated panels across the country and hosted Sephora’s Non-Profit partners on Sephora’s Instagram. 
 
Jefferson earned her B.S. from the University of Southern Indiana and her Masters in
Human Resource Management from Golden Gate University. She is a member of
several boards including the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco
where she is one of the vice chairs, Congregation Sherith Israel, Jews of Color Initiative
and Better for You Wellness.

Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein
Educator and organizer Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein has written and taught extensively about the case for slavery reparations in Torah and Rabbinic literature, including in a 2018 article, "The Torah Case for Reparations". Aryeh is a fifth-generation Chicago South Sider who works as National Jewish Educator for Avodah and Educational Consultant for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. Aryeh is a Senior Editor of Jewschool.com and a member of the Tzedek Lab.  Aryeh studied for seven years at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa and also at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University, and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and has rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes’s Yashrut Institute.