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Lift Up Your Voices
Thanksgiving concert brings together groups of different religions.
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
StaffWriter
embers of nine Detroit-
area houses of worship
of various religions cele-
brated together Nov. 15-
at the Interfaith Thanksgiving Concert
of African-Arnerican Gospel and
Klezmer Music.
The concert, whose theme was "To
Everything There is a Season," brought
350 participants to Detroit's New Light
Baptist Church. Sharing the stage were
Concert-goers have An with the music.
the Metro Detroit Area Fellowship
Choir and the klezmer group Schmaltz.
"This event brought people together
to celebrate and dance and hopefully
meet members of other communities,"
said Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek. "They
came together in the hope of building
bridges between the African-American,
Christian and Jewish communities and
work together for the common good of
all."
The event was the second
Thanksgiving concert, sandwiching last
April's "We Shall
Overcome," concert,
an interfaith Passover,
Lent, Easter event
that brought together
900 participants. In
March 2002, the
group's 10 founding
clergy also traveled
together to Africa and
Israel.
"The mission, enti-
tled A Journey to the
Past, a Path to the
Future,' created a
bond, built bridges
and ever-lasting rela-
tionships between the
rabbis and the
African-American
ministers," said con-
cert organizer Nitzana
York.
York is special proj-
ects coordinator of
the Detroit Jewish
Initiative New
Leaders Project, a
project of the Jewish
Community Council
of Metropolitan
Detroit. The project's
mission "is to involve
the Jewish communi-
ty in collaboration,
Members of the group Schmaltz perform klezmer music.
11/28
2003
60
Dr. Benjamin Baker of New Light Baptist Church in Detroit, Rabbi Jonathan
Berkun of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Reverend Kenneth J. Flowers of Greater
New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, Rabbi Arnold
Sleutelberg of Congregation Shir Tikvah, Reverend Robert Dulin, Jr. of
Metropolitan Church of God in Detroit and Rabbi David Nelson of
Congregation Beth Shalom
relationships and initiatives with people
and organizations within the city of
Detroit," she said.
JCCouncil sponsored the mission
and the concerts along with
Community of Faith Baptist Church,
Greater New Mt. Moriah Missionary
Baptist Church, Metropolitan Church
of God, New Light Baptist Church,
Peace Baptist Church and Plymouth
United Church in Christ, all in
Detroit, and Congregations Beth
Shalom, Shaarey Zedek and Shir
Tikvah.
The interfaith clergy group was
formed by spiritual leaders from. the
nine churches and synagogues along
with Rabbi Marla Feldman, former
JCCouncil assistant director for domes-
tic concerns. Its goal is to revive the
spirit of cooperation between blacks
and Jews.
In its mission statement, the group
pledges that its members will "work
tirelessly to eradicate racism, anti-
Semitism, injustice, intolerance,
inequities and violence." .
Earlier this year, the interfaith clergy
group won national recognition from
the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism for outstanding black-Jewish
relations.
The group is about to embark on
Stage II of its mission, Rabbi Berkun
said. "We want to have, not only mega-
programs, but intimate conversations
and interactions with members of other
communities," he said.
"The three concerts whetted the
appetite of individual communities and
now people are ready to further build
relations and make more intimate per-
sonal connections and learn more from
one another." ❑