Dillard University relaunches National Center for Black-Jewish Relations

On Jan. 17, Dillard University President Rochelle Ford announced plans to relaunch the Dillard University National Center for Black-Jewish Relations.

The reinvigorated center will continue the work of the initial center, which aimed to reduce hostilities that were emerging between members of the African American and Jewish communities, but it also will have action projects that build upon the conversations and relationships formed through the Center’s programs.

“Possibly worse than in the 1980s, when Dillard established the National Center for Black-Jewish Relations, America is polarized, with a growing distrust and hostility toward each other in the Black and Jewish communities. Often the conflict is a result of a lack of knowledge, appreciation and understanding of the alliances of the Black and Jewish communities during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as the shared history of genocide and social experiences,” said Ford. “Instead of letting differences separate our communities, Dillard wants to reestablish bonds through conversations, education and learning that result most importantly in courageous actions to improve our society.”

One factor making the relaunch even more timely has been the attention that Kanye West and Kyrie Irving drew over recent antisemitic comments. White supremacists and other antisemitic groups have celebrated West in particular.

The center, the only one of its kind, was originally founded in 1989 by Samuel DuBois Cook, the fourth president of Dillard. He served from 1974 to 1997.

Under the leadership of Cook, the National Center for Black-Jewish relations hosted annual national conferences and produced the book, “Black-Jewish Relations: Dillard University Conference Papers,” which

Cook edited. A classmate and friend of Martin Luther King Jr. at Morehouse College, Cook was greatly influenced in 1949 by his Jewish professor and mentor at Ohio State University while pursuing his doctorate.

Cook was on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and was presented the Alfred W. and Genevieve Weil Medallion Award by the Jewish Chautauqua Society for his efforts in building more harmonious relationships between the Black and Jewish communities.

During its first eight years, the center’s activities were devoted to revitalizing the black-Jewish alliances that had been so successful during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In 1998, the center expanded its charter to focus on the new realities of America’s future, asking African Americans and Jewish Americans what insights they can bring from their respective social experiences and intellectual traditions that can contribute to solving problems related to race and ethnicity.

The center has been dormant for the past two decades.

Rev. Herbert A. Brisbon III, Dillard University chaplain, will help lead the center’s planning committee’s efforts.

Joining Dillard in revitalizing the Center are: Aaron Bloch, JCRC/ executive director, Goldring Family Foundation Center for Jewish-Multicultural Affairs; Arnie D. Fielkow, immediate past CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans; Ron Gubitz, executive director, Tulane Hillel; William “Bill” Hess, trustee, Dillard University; Kahlida Nicole Lloyd, founder, Mission Reconcile; Wendell Shelby-Wallace, special advisor, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Shari Rogers, president, Spill the Honey.

As part of its King Legacy Celebration over King Weekend, Dillard partnered with Spill the Honey to host a screening of the documentary “Shared Legacies: The African American-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance,” in

We www.supportSJL.com addition to a panel discussion with national leaders discussing the film and the status of Black-Jewish Relations.

The night before the screening, Bloch hosted a beloved community dinner where HBCU students, staff, faculty and alumni dined with civil rights leaders, the documentary’s directors, and other leaders in the Jewish community. The objective was for meaningful conversations to occur, creating a ripple effect to make meaningful connections and change.

“People Love Dead Jews” author Dara Horn to speak at Gates of Prayer

Everyone knows who Anne Frank is. Holocaust commemorations are everywhere, with interfaith participation. Solidarity rallies after events like the Tree of Life shooting similarly draw crowds.

But when it comes to actual living Jews who fight back against antisemitism and defend themselves from enemies sworn to genocide or average people displaying profound ignorance, well, “not so much.”

That’s the central theme of Dara Horn’s provocative book, “People Love Dead Jews.” Horn will be at Gates of Prayer in Metairie for the Landau Lecture Weekend, March 10 and 11.

Her sixth book, “People Love Dead Jews” is her first non-fiction work after five best-selling novels.

A year after the highly-acclaimed collection of 12 essays came out, Horn said she does not want to be right about its thesis, but has been disturbed to find that she was even more correct than she originally thought.

One example of the dichotomy comes from the Anne Frank Museum itself, the place devoted to perpetuating the memory of a girl whose best known quote is about the innate goodness of people, written three weeks before she met a group of people who weren’t, as she was shipped off to the concentration camps, Horn relates. There was a controversy over a tour guide not being allowed to wear a yarmulke, and the audio guide display had a country’s flag attached to each language — except for Hebrew. The living Jews were supposed to erase their religious and national identities while commemorating a dead Jew.

It is the same compulsion that draws people to rationalize attacks on Jews as being justified because of alleged Jewish actions, such as claims that Jews are behind gentrification of neighborhoods of color, or are persecuting Palestinians.

She will speak about the book at the 6 p.m. dinner on March 10.

On March 11, she will provide a new perspective on Jewish storytelling, with “Introductions to Yiddish and Hebrew Literature” at 9 a.m. She will explore how Jewish literature from the 19th and 20th centuries challenges the notion of stories having a beginning, middle and end.

At the noon lunch, she will speak about her novel, “A Guide for the Perplexed,” about how technology changes memory and memory shapes the soul. The work intertwines Genesis, medieval philosophy and the digital age.

Gates of Prayer has a limited number of copies of “People Love Dead Jews” available for $12. Reservations for the programs with meals are requested by March 6.

Dream Street counselor applications open

Applications are now open for Camp Dream Street counselors. Dream Street is a five-day, four-night camping program for children with physical disabilities, held at Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica.

The camp was founded with the mission that all children, regardless of their abilities, must be offered the chance to have fun, to make new friends, achieve, to be accepted for who and what they are, and to learn from the challenges of group life. Dream Street is a place where children with physical disabilities are given the chance to be children — not “special” children, not children with disabilities, but just children.

Much of the staff comes from NFTY Southern members. Teens in grades 9 through 12 are eligible to apply to be counselors. Opening day for staff is May 27, campers arrive on May 29 and closing day is June 2. More information is at dreamstreetms.org.