Repairing the World: The Relationship Between the African American and Jewish Communities
The images of Black-Jewish solidarity are engraved in American Jewish history: Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a Holocaust survivor, speaking at the 1963 March on Washington just before Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel famously “praying with his feet” next to Dr. King Jr. in Selma two years later.
Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld delivering the eulogy for Andrew Goodman, a Congress of Racial Equality field organizer murdered during Mississippi Summer voter registration drives in 1964.
It’s a point of pride that a Jew joined W.E.B. DuBois and other civil rights leaders to found the NAACP in 1909. That in the first half of the 20th century, a singular Jewish philanthropist, Julius Rosenwald, funded the establishment of almost 5,000 Black schools and 20 Black colleges. That more than 30 percent of the white Freedom Riders who put their lives on the line in 1961 to challenge interstate bus segregation were Jewish.
In the wake of recent protests under the Black Lives Matter banner that forced national recognition of the racism that permeates our society, we are forced to wonder where Jewish commitment to civil rights for Black Americans sprang from. Where has it moved? How should it express itself at this critical moment?
Join us for an important three-part series, moderated by Rabbi David Saperstein, Director Emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
NIGHT 1:
Monday, June 22, 6:00 PM
Jewish Immigrants and America's Racial Politics
Dr. Karen Brodkin, Professor Emerita, UCLA, author of How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race In America
NIGHT 2:
Tuesday, June 23, 6:00 PM
From Selma to Montgomery: The Black-Jewish Coalition
Rev. Otis Moss, Jr., long-time civil rights activist; retired pastor, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland; and former regional director of the African American civil rights organization Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Dr. Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College
Night 3:
Wednesday, June 24, 6:00 PM
Building on Shared Dreams
Ian Solomon, Dean, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia and the Obama administration appointee as U.S. Executive Director for the World Bank Group
Ilana Kaufman, Executive Director, Jews of Color Field Building Initiative
In Partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism.
Via Zoom Conferencing
There are two ways to enter our webinar:
1. The way which will allow you to ask questions through typed messages - is via Zoom. You can very simply download Zoom to your computer or tablet at https://zoom.us/download (we suggest that you take care of downloading Zoom prior to the start of the course). Then, at the time of the seminar, just copy this link into your browser: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hw6yx3IsSMy4txBFKOEtQg
2. If you are looking for a simpler way to watch and listen, you can use the Temple Emanu-El livestream by copying this link into your browser: https://www.emanuelnyc.org/broadcast/