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Straight Talk

Young adults participate in a candid discussion about black-Jewish relations.

JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER

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RUMPLESTILTSKIN
JERRY ROSS BAND
HOT ICE
SIMONE VITALE
NORMA JEAN BELL
SUN MESSENGERS
REFLECTIONS
RADIO CITY

RUMPLESTILTSKIN

M

ost members of the 'ET;
audience weren't alive
or else they were too N,
young to remember T_
when blacks and Jews marched cl'
side-by-side during the civil rights 'L:::) _ .
movement of the 1950s and '60s.
Through memories shared by
parents and grandparents, these
young adults know of a former
alliance between the two com-
munities.
Through their own lifetimes,
young adults have witnessed the
strained relationship between
blacks and Jews and grapple
with ways they can work to build
bridges.
When the Young Adult Divi-
sion of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit sent out
invitations to "A Window of Op-
portunity: Black-Jewish Rela-
tions in the Archer Era," 125
people attended the program.
Many of the participants said
they were deeply concerned about
the nature of black-Jewish re-
lations. They also expressed a
desire to help revitalize Detroit.
"There is a lot in the national
press about the rift between
blacks and Jews," said event co-
chair Mark Freedman. "We don't
see it on the same levels as New
York or Los Angeles, but since
Jews left the city Detroit there
has been less connection between
the two communities.
"The city is moving forward.
With the new mayor, there is a

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Larry Tisdale, Michelle Cohen and Jeffrey Hollander.

lot of opportunity. Tonight is a the forum by asking if the sense
good opportunity for young adults of shared history during the civil
to talk about linking together rights movement is a myth.
"At what levels?" asked Akua
with the city."
During the hour-and-a-half Budu-Watkins, a longtime com-
program, panelists and members munity and human rights ac-
of the audience talked mostly tivist. "At the top there was a
about the popularity of Louis Far- sense of camaraderie, but at the
rakhan, rebuilding Detroit and grass-roots level it's not clear
the state of the black-Jewish about how well we worked to-
gether aside from the marches."
relationship.
At times the audience was
Panelists and other members
of the black community who shocked by the candid responses
spoke stressed a similar message: offered by some of the panelists,
working together on a daily basis including the response of Freman
and solving daily problems will Hendrix, Mayor Dennis Archer's
chief of staff.
help form alliances.
"I don't get up every morning
Brian Tauber, Mayor Archer's
economic development assistant wondering what our relationship
and program moderator, began with the Jewish community is,"
Mr. Hendrix said. "If there isn't
daily contact, I don't think there
is much incentive, beyond activist
groups, in talking about building
relationships."
Mr. Hendrix sees building a re-
lationship between blacks and
Jews as a low priority and is puz-
zled by the fact that the Jewish
community is working so hard to
build bridges.
When the discussion turned to
the Rev. Farrakhan's popularity,
David Gamlin, president of R3:
Revise, Restore, Rebuild, and Mr.
Hendrix offered a different per-
E.J.
Levy,
Paul V. Schapira,
spective on the minister's mes-
Southfield
Farmington Hills
sage than David Gad-Harf,
"I was raised in a
"During my first
executive director of the Jewish
year of college, I lived non-Jewish commu-
Community Council.
in the dorm with peo- nity and I personally
"I heard Farrakhan the last
ple who never met a experienced anti-
time he was here," Mr. Hendrix
Jewish person. They Semitism but
said. "He has a constituency and
believed a lot of the learned its origins
he knows what to say to appeal
negative stereotypes are more often root-
to his core constituents. He is ap-
about Jews and treat- ed in ignorance than
hatred. Therefore,
pealing to African Americans be-
ed me differently."
we need to set good
cause a majority of what he has
examples to famil-
to say hits on key issues. His anti-
iarize our neighbors
Semitic messages, African Amer-
with us."
STRAIGHT TALK page 98

Have You Ever Been The Victim
Of Discrimination?

Dawn Faxon,
West Bloomfield

"Yes. There are a
total of two Jewish

people in my office —
a manager and my-
self Anytime some-
one disagrees with
the manager, I think
it's because he is
Jewish. It's just an
uncomfortable situa-
tion."

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