William Tatum of New York, co-founder of the Black-Jewish Coalition, told the Oneg Shabbat session of the 76th annual convention of Bnai Zion here that “the need for coalition between Blacks and Jews in America is so evident that it is hard to understand why we are walking further and further away from it.”
Another speaker at the Oneg Shabbat, Helen Kirshblum, past president of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, told the 400 delegates that Black-Jewish relations had begun auspiciously with the march at Selma, Alabama, when Jews joined with non-Jews and Blacks in demonstrations on behalf of voting rights for Blacks. She said those relationships had deteriorated “unfortunately” in the years since, hitting “rock bottom ” during the controversy over the statements made by Louis Farrakhan, who had spoken out repeatedly on behalf of Democratic Presidential primary candidate Jesse Jackson, using openly anti-Semitic canards in many of his speeches for the candidate.
Tatum, who is editor-in-chief of the Amsterdam News, also said that “although Blacks and Jews have been at each other’s throats in America over the past several years, oft-times blaming each other rather than blaming the power structure of this country, over perceived slights, advantages and disadvantages, it is abundantly clear that this has been a tragic error.”
TRAVELLED TO BITBURG
He explained his concern over the decline of the coalition as one reason for his decision to join American Jews in a journey to Germany to protest President Reagan’s decision to lay a wreath at a grave in Bitburg which contains bodies of Waffen SS troops.
Tatum asserted that there was no option for Black Americans but to speak up for Jews, adding “for if the time ever comes for the Black Americans to be spoken up for, who will be there?”
Reserve General Uzi Narkiss, chairman of the Information Department of the World Zionist Organization, who was commander of the Central Command that liberated Jerusalem in 1967, discussed the current Mideast peace efforts involving King Hussein of Jordan.
STRUGGLE FOR JERUSALEM STRESSED
Narkiss said it was “important to continue the political struggle in order that Jerusalem may remain the capital of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
