Allegations in e-mail split Jews and blacks

An e-mail alleging anti-Semitic remarks by the local leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference set off a weeklong firestorm in the Jewish community that was only beginning to cool Friday.

The e-mail was sent to friends April 4 by Jewish philanthropist Daphna Ziman after she attended an awards ceremony that day sponsored by the Western Province of Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically African American fraternity. She described the Rev. Eric Lee as rejecting efforts to bring the black and Jewish communities together.

Ziman wrote that she heard Lee say at the ceremony, “The Jews have made money on us in the music business, and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us.”

Ziman noted that another prominent African American preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the former pastor of Sen. Barack Obama, was recorded making comments about Israel that she thought were very negative.

“What I would like to achieve is for all reverends to stand at attention and know that it’s not OK to spout anti-Semitic words,” she said Friday.

Lee, president of the conference’s Greater Los Angeles office, denied the remarks Friday. “I understand she thought she heard something,” Lee said. “But it was completely inaccurate about what I said.”

Lee said he strives to be a friend to the Jewish community and was planning to participate in a Seder April 17 organized by the American Jewish Committee and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The e-mail, he said, “is contradictory to who I am as a person and my work. It’s unbelievable to me how this has taken on a life of its own.”

Lee issued a public statement denying that he made remarks “offensive regarding the Jewish community” and sent an apology to Ziman for any misunderstanding.

Roz Rothstein, executive director of Stand With Us, an organization that seeks to educate the public about Israel, said she and others were outraged by the e-mail because it portrayed Jews as taking advantage of others when Jews see themselves as trying to be humanitarian.

She included Ziman’s e-mail in a 50,000-person newsletter she sent out Wednesday morning and was getting calls on it 20 minutes later.

“A lot of Jews marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and Jews have always been involved in civil rights and work in AIDS,” Rothstein said. “For Jews to hear something that is that divisive, that is painful.”

Ziman attended the fraternity banquet at the downtown Marriott hotel because she was receiving an award from the fraternity for her work with foster children, many of whom are African American.

When she heard Lee’s speech, she fled from the dais in tears. “I was crying for my children because I was frightened they would grow up in a world that’s violent and hateful,” Ziman said.

She wrote the e-mail almost immediately to a few friends while still overcome with emotion, Ziman said.

Ziman woke the next day to the ringing phones and an e-mail in box full of thousands of messages, many of them expressing anger. Some people criticized her for remarks that seemed to malign Obama.

That day she sent the e-mail to the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, an independent weekly. A story about the e-mail and the difficulty in confirming Ziman’s or Lee’s version of the event appeared on the journal’s website Wednesday. Blog posts soon followed.

Lee on Saturday issued his statement, explaining that he was trying to talk about how to leave an inheritance for the black community. Lee said he did discuss a conversation he had with a rabbi about the touchy time after King’s death. Some blacks believed then that they were negatively portrayed in movies and in TV shows, which “are perceived to be influenced by many in the Jewish community,” he said.

Lee said he wasn’t trying to perpetuate a stereotype about Jews but instead was emphasizing that African Americans should define their own identity rather than let others define it. He also said that he called for rebuilding a coalition between African Americans and Jews.

Amanda Susskind, director of the Pacific Southwest region for the Anti-Defamation League, said she has received a number of e-mails asking how she felt about Lee’s alleged comments.

“The stereotype of Jewish control is a sensitive issue for the Jewish community,” said Susskind, who called for moderation on the issue. “This is a common theme of anti-Semitism.”

The Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, the longtime pastor of the First AME Church in South Los Angeles who now teaches at USC, said he hoped there was simply a misunderstanding on both sides.

“This is an explosive time in our modern world because communication is now worldwide and high-tech,” he said. “It is crucial that we are extraordinarily careful in our choice of wording or we will cause a fracas that is not easily settled.”

Kappa Alpha Psi issued a statement Thursday affirming its “commitment to interfaith understanding” and adding, “Where any speaker gives pain to another, we extend our sincere apology.”

Lee said he wondered if he would get a response to his apology. He got one Friday afternoon.

“I would like you to know that I greatly appreciate this step forward toward a positive resolution,” Ziman wrote. “I hope that we all rise above the negativity and take the responsibility to give our children the opportunity for a better future.”

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jia-rui.chong@latimes.com