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14
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FRIDAY, AUG. 7, 1987
offing after an after-
noon at Greektown
and a brisk drive to
Bloomfield Hills to visit a
country club, 16-year-old
Shahanna McKinney says
she is ready to join her new-
found friends in a game of
Star Power, whose rules
underscore the need for trust
and equality among people.
It is Thursday night.
McKinney and about 20 other
teens — some black, some
white . . . some Baptist, some
Jewish — are in the expansive
basement of the Hartford
Memorial Baptist Church on
James Couzens in Detroit,
participants in a youth pro-
gram intended, among other
pursuits, to erase racial and
religious barriers.
On July 29 and 30, the
Detroit church's youth group,
the inner-city Hartford
Building Black Christian
Men/Women, hosted a
predominantly white
assembly of Jewish teens and
leaders from Washington,
New York, Cleveland,
Milwaukee, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Ottawa, Toron-
to and other major North
American cities, as well as
New Zealand.
The Jewish youngsters
belong to the Habonim Youth
Camp Tavor in Three Rivers
near Kalamazoo.
Chuck Buxbaum, a
madrich (counselor) at Tavor,
explains the Labor Zionist
camp, which lasts six weeks
and is made up primarily of
Jewish teens entering their
last year of high school,
teaches youngsters about
leadership, Zionism and
Israel.
It was Buxbaum and
madricha Lisa Glazer who
approached the church and
suggested the two-day pro-
gram. Hartford Memorial has
had similar exchanges with
Thmple Israel.
One group from Tavor came to
Hartford Church, another
participated in a Jackson-to-
Ann Arbor peace march and
a third spent two days at an
Indiana commune.
In Detroit, many of the
teens said they are searching
for who they are. One is
McKinney, who lives in
Milwaukee, Wisc. She said
she has had intermittent
identity crises because she is
black and Jewish.
"When I first started going
to a Jewish school, I was call-
ed names because nobody
thought you could be black
and Jewish," she explains.
"But that was when I was 8
or 9 years old, and what do
kids at that age know?"
"Since then, I've handled
all the bad experiences.
That's not to say people
haven't discriminated against
me. But it's not racism, and
not anti-Semitism. It's ig-
norance, and I accept that —
and try to change it."
McKinney said she has
combatted ignorance by "try-
ing to teach a person instead
of fighting and arguing!'
"People are just rude
sometimes because it's hard
for them to understand
somebody being black and
Jewish:' she said. "I guess it's
just one of those things people
have never encountered.
"But I can say that as a
whole blacks and whites as a
group have never totally re-
jected the idea that you can
be black and Jewish!'
Ickfor Archer, a Baptist,
found more similarities than
differences with the Jewish
youngsters.___"I was surprised,
but I found out we're all,pret-
ty much the same," Archer
said. "They're more together,
more loving and more open
than we are. They really care
about people.
"I saw that there is really
no difference between us.
We're all one as human be-
ings, and that's the important
thing."
Added McKinney: "Even
though they're Christian and
we're Jewish, we all have
faith and believe in peace,
harmony and unity. What
better love to share? It was
good for us to get together as
people!'
Archer's Hartford youth
group formed, he said, "to let
black men and women form
identities and strong
religious beliefs," learned "it
doesn't matter where we're
from or who we are — we're
all equally important," accor-
ding to Archer.
_Wanda Leberette said
although she hopes to become
a Baptist minister she also is
studying Judaism. "I have
found a great deal of
similarities between Baptists
and Jews," she said. "We
share their struggle, their in-
ner strength and their
dependency on God. We both
have a sense of mission.
"While I don't put my
beliefs on others, I will will-
ingly open my mind to share
how I think to those who ask.
It's important for us to help