Blacks, Jews Build Base for Teamwork

In an attempt to repair what is widely perceived as a breach between African Americans and Jews in Los Angeles and in the nation, about 100 members of the local communities met Tuesday to lay groundwork for future coalitions on issues.

The five-hour event was sponsored by the African American/Jewish Leadership Connection, a group made up mostly of religious and civil rights activists and leaders. The group, formed 18 months ago to fight Proposition 187, had worked out of the spotlight until Tuesday night.

The group’s co-chairmen are John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League, and Rabbi Harvey Fields of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, where the meeting was held.

After Mack read a history of black-Jewish relations in the United States--a history that all acknowledged has included both amicability and hostility--the participants discussed black and Jewish responses to affirmative action, racism and anti-Semitism.

One of the livelier discussions focused on a matter not on the agenda--whether there should be dialogue between representatives of the Jewish community and Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, whom many Jews see as an anti-Semite.

Farrakhan, whose prominence soared with the success of the Million Man March last fall in Washington, D.C., has been the lightning rod for many recent disagreements between African Americans and Jews.

The question about whether Jews should talk with him was raised during a question-and-answer period by Mark Schwartz, a Jewish participant who later said such a dialogue needs to take place.

Schwartz’s question seemed to surprise Mack and Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor and author of a book on black and Jewish coalition-building in Los Angeles, who were on a panel together.

Sonenshein hedged his answer, at one point saying he would be “uncomfortable with such a dialogue,” because “it feels to me like a giveaway.” He also said there needs to be “confidence building steps” before such a meeting.

Mack seemed equally uncomfortable. “A lot of care and thought should be put to what would be the purpose of it,” he said.

Schwartz, however, was unequivocal.

“Louis Farrakhan is one of the most articulate leaders in the United States,” he said after the panel discussion. “He is a political force to be reckoned with. For the Jewish community to bury its head in the sand is a tragic mistake.”