Two outstanding women in America’s Black community have taken action to help heal the rift that grew out of United States Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young’s meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s UN observer in New York and the visits of some Black leaders with PLO officials in Beirut.
Mrs. Coretta Scott King has announced that "a major national workshop on Black-Jewish reconciliation" will be held during the week-long celebration in honor of her martyred husband’s 61st birthday. The celebration will take place beginning Jan, 10 in Atlanta at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change of which she is president. Participants in the program include. Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, one of three religious leaders invited.
Tanenbaum, who will deliver the keynote address at an ecumenical service commemorating the life and work of Dr. King on Jan. 15 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, said the invitation is a "major gesture of friendship and reconciliation between responsible leaders of the Black and Jewish communities." He added, "In a world in which there is so much human suffering and denial of human rights," what binds Jews and Blacks together." is infinitely greater than what divides them."
Secretary of Health and Welfare Patricia Roberts Harris, in accepting the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the Israel Bond Organization’s Professions Division at a meeting in Pikesville, Md., said "we ought to be angry that more than two generations after the depression, poverty and injustice still exist on such a scale" in the U.S. and the Americans ought to be "determined to do something about it." But, she added, "I have not come here tonight to scold this audience. If I had a lecture in mind, I would choose another occasion, because this group has demonstrated that it understands our responsibilities as a humane society."
Speaking of Israel, Secretary Harris said it "still stands as a symbol of liberty to all freedom-loving people of the world. Whether we are Black or white, Americans or Israelis — those who stand with Israel make a stand for freedom, and make a stand for the rights of all mankind."
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
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.
