Sharing the Struggle

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, at times fiery and at other times soothing, reminded the African Americans and Jews assembled Sunday evening at a Woodland Hills synagogue of their shared struggles and of the need to work together to protect society’s have-nots.

“We have been through the storm,” Jackson told a crowd of several hundred at Temple Kol Tikvah, one of the most socially active synagogues in the San Fernando Valley.

Recalling the violence of the civil rights struggles, Jackson added: “The black-Jewish coalition has a relationship . . . rooted in the blood of the martyrs.”

“A century of struggles and scars and battles shaped the coalition of conscience,” he said, noting that the coalition is being revived today around issues such as affirmative action and workers’ rights.

Standing beneath a sign that proclaimed: “ . . . how good and pleasant it is for people to worship together in harmony,” Jackson said: “There’s something historical today and joyous to me about being in this temple. Here we sit, planning to make life better and rebuild coalitions in the house of the Lord.”

Jackson, who spoke earlier in the day at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, was in the Los Angeles area largely to drum up support for a march planned for Feb. 23 to protest the anti-affirmative action Prop. 209 and other measures he said are reducing access to the American dream for many.

“I dare someone to say that someone who didn’t even have the right to vote in 1965 is now on an even playing field,” Jackson said. “That’s irrational.”

During a news conference preceding the speech, a storm cloud of sorts appeared in the temple in the form of a loud protest from about half a dozen members of the Jewish Defense League. Calling on Jackson to repudiate Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, whom many Jews view as anti-Semitic, the group shouted for several minutes, ultimately ending the news conference.

Aside from that outburst, the evening was a virtual love fest, with Jackson and Rabbi Steven Jacobs, the spiritual leader of Kol Tikvah and an organizer of the Feb. 23 march, heaping equal amounts of praise on one another.

Jacobs called Jackson a “modern prophet” and “the great comforter.” Jackson said to Jacobs’ congregation: “You have among you one who is precious. Don’t take it for granted.”

After the speech, Jackson said in an interview that he had spoken Saturday with President Clinton about a number of topics, including Jackson’s upcoming trip to Africa and issues the president raised in his State of the Union speech.

The subject of Monica Lewinsky, Jackson said, did not come up. Jackson also said that subject did not come up last Sunday when he joined the Clintons to watch the Super Bowl.

“We were aware of it,” Jackson said. “I was not there to discuss that matter. I was there to pray with him, for his spiritual strength, and that he might be focused while under tremendous duress.”

Earlier during the news conference, Jackson said one of the greatest sources of comfort to Clinton has been the support of the first lady.

“Her belief in him gave him a source of strength that is indescribable,” Jackson said. To have such support from his wife and daughter “gives one the strength to withstand the storms,” he said. “Strong families survive strong storms.”

Criticizing the tactics of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Jackson repeated his description of Starr as “a roving national vacuum cleaner sucking up dust particles and dirt.”

He likened the ever-expanding Whitewater probe to a football game with no rules.

“Mr. Starr is chasing the ball up into the stands, in the toilet, down the street,” Jackson said. “There seems to be no boundary, no defined area of focus.”