Yavilah McCoy
About our
Director
The Ayecha Resource Organization was founded in year 2000 by Yavilah McCoy.
Yavilah McCoy’s diverse personal and professional background as an Orthodox,
African-American Jewish educator, activist, publisher and diversity consultant
led her to develop educational awareness resources that could both address the
needs of diverse Jews and assist Jewish organizations in building more aware,
inclusive and welcoming environments for “multi-dimensional” Jewish identity.
Yavilah’s work as a Judaic Studies educator and her leadership within organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, Hadassah, Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the Jewish Community Relations Council led her to believe that Jewish communal professionals were committed to the potential rewards of embracing Jewish Diversity, but lacked tools and resources for turning this commitment into practically applied strategies.
A Founder’s Vision
Over the many years and centuries that comprise Jewish history, Jews have faced circumstances and events that to onlookers might have seemed hopeless and insurmountable. Yet, over and over again, in each generation, men and women of our tradition have risen to look farther than what was immediately apparent to the wider possibilities that faith, courage, strength and stamina could yield. In my life, the experience of racial and cultural insensitivity among Jews seemed a puzzling oxymoron and a contradiction in terms that had to be, at best, a mistake; a misplaced emotional package among the parcels of a nation that had endured the worst of bias and discrimination.
Rather than turn aside from or deny my desire to embrace the beauty of a heritage that I both loved and valued, I focused my attention on becoming a visionary. I envisioned the untapped potential of our people to make a statement to world in our acceptance of human diversity and our ability to be unified in faith, history and tradition despite difference. I envisioned a role for myself in moving our people toward that reality.
Commitment to the Jewish Community:
As the founder
of Ayecha, my commitment to the Jewish community is inspired by the diversity of
my own experience as an African-American Jewish woman. I believe that in laying
claim to the rich culture and heritage of both Black and Jewish people, I will
be able to bring a valuable perspective and insight to The Ayecha Resource
Organization and represent the valuable lessons to be learned from two of the
most extraordinary, resilient, talented, and spiritual peoples on this earth.
As an African-American Jewish woman, I represent just one of many truly
distinctive ethnicities that exist within the Jewish societal framework. Over
the course of my education, and the opportunities it afforded me for processing
and re-processing my experience, I developed a strong connection to both my
African-American and Jewish identities and came to welcome my Black-Jewish
heritage as a blessing, a source of pride and a responsibility. My grandfather,
a Civil Rights spokesman and Labor Union leader, took every opportunity to
emphasize the importance and significance of the African-American struggle for
freedom, justice and equality and helped me to take pride in the courage and
vigilance that African-Americans exhibited in their historical and present-day
struggle against inequality. In my Judaic education, I had the pleasure of
experiencing diverse Jewish perspectives through my attendance of a Hassidic
elementary school, a Yeshivah University Modern-Orthodox high school, a secular
state college in New York , and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel .
In my career as an English and Judaic Studies educator, I sought and found
opportunities for teaching in Reform, Conservative, Hassidic and Modern Orthodox
day schools. As a young girl, my religious home life was inundated with the
traditions of Sephardic Jewry as my mother and father settled and found their
place in our Brooklyn Sephardic community. My life-journey has filled me with a
tremendous appreciation for the rich diversity of the Jewish population. It has
also made me sensitive to the points of tension where Jews fail to meet and
appreciate each other around “difference”. My commitment to the Jewish community
is inspired by my belief that through constant questioning and active work at
increasing our levels of tolerance and inclusion, we CAN learn what Jewish unity
looks like and, together, decide how it is to be formed and maintained. Through
our humble accomplishments in this direction, it is my hope that as a people we
can project a beacon of hope for our world.
To book a speaking presentation by Ayecha’s Director Yavilah McCoy, click here.
