A Roundtable Discussion on Black-Jewish Relations was held on Tuesday, June 25, at the New York State Attorney General Tish James’s Executive Office, joining black and Jewish clergy from New York City, Westchester, and Long Island for a timely discussion on Black Jewish relations.
During the course of the discussion, Rabbi Chanina Sperlin, Executive Vice President for Governmental Relations of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, spoke about the work that the Attorney General had done over the past 20 years ago.
He mentioned her first role as a liaison in the AG’s office, later as a Council Member representing Crown Heights and most recently as Public Advocate, where she spoke out forcefully against any act of vandalism or violence against members of the Jewish community and always was a leader for bringing people together.
David Harris spoke of the crucial role that Jewish leaders played in the struggle for equal rights for Black Americans, and called for teaching that history to young people of all races who may not have that memory.
Several of the Black leaders echoed those comments and called for new relationships to be drawn between Black and Jewish leaders.
Rabbi Eli Cohen, Executive Director of the CHJCC, spoke of the work that has been done in Crown Heights to bring the community together and the way that African American, Caribbean American and Jewish leaders have worked to address hatred and bigotry in the community as well as address community-wide problems such as violence on the streets and gun violence.
Rabbi Cohen also related that he and District Leader Geoffrey Davis had held conversations with children in half a dozen public schools in Crown Heights in an attempt to understand what had motivated a recent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the community.
Several clergy members present spoke highly of the work in Crown Heights and expressed a desire to bring it to their communities.
Maybe we should educate the children in our own mosdos about treating others properly. In addition, why do the kids run around using derogatory terms for other races…. About time to change
I hope no one who has experienced the constant and historic one sided harassment, assault, robbery- and the several murders- perpetrated and encouraged against our community- has to read the deeply flawed and nonsensical comment above. And yes- we will continue to call out people who abuse out community.
No excuse for the assaults, ‘hitler is coming’ and all the other hate directed against Jews
Really wow . I’m so relieved these unelected officials had a discussion. I’m sure everything will be great on the ground now
I must say that one day last week not once, but three times, as I was shopping on Kingston Ave, a woman of color, then two seperate times men of color were so polite to me that I was taken back. Without going into specific detail, I felt a real shift in community attitude. I do believe they are being influenced by good leaders now, as opposed to a few months ago when we were having bad problems. I complimented them on their politeness and was happy to see it and appreciated their kindness. It’s nice to live in peace,… Read more »
Did anybody have the courage to tell the black leaders, that the overwhelming majority of hate crimes being perpetrated against Jews in nyc, are being done by black people!
Fighting hate starts at home.
I noticed here there were so far some positive comments and some negative. I am sure that we have all experienced negative attitude from our neighbors but personally as one who was traumatized by the incidents of ’91, I find taking the high road and showing care and concern to our neighbors reaps major benefits including kiddush hashem. I see this on an every day basis and it simply comes down to a what you might call a pat saying but in reality this is constant work, and that is you get more with honey than vinegar. You would be… Read more »
When I worked for the city, an African co-worker – she made to
me the following complaint:
“I once worked for the Jewish National Fund. They treated
me nice and with respect. You orthodox, you call us animals!”
It’s time for all frum yidden to unite in outvoting all democrats. Why aren’t another hundred thousand of us even registered to vote. On every level we need to vote in massive blocks to defeat all our enemies which include the liberal anti yeshivas and anti Israel activists. There is a sinister gang of liberals attempting to destroy everything we stand for on every level. Atheism among millennials is sky high as well as deviant behavior. Hamaven yoven.