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Editorial

A Bond To Nurture

ews and evangelical
blacks are two distinct
communities working
to unite. We can do things togeth-
er that neither can do alone. Plus,
there are millions of evangelical
blacks to draw from in the United
States, and we need the friends.
And friends they are. Black
evangelicals look to be unified by
kinship with the Jewish people
and support of Israel, just like the
Jewish state unites Jews across
our religious streams.
A historic national summit on
black-Jewish relations was held
Sept. 14 15 in Detroit under the
leadership of the Fellowship of
Israel and Black America. FIBA is
a Plymouth-based organization
run by Pastor Glenn R. Plummer
of Ambassadors for Christ
Church in Redford.
Pastor Plummer, an evangeli-
cal minister whose heart bleeds
blue and white for Israel, became
a popular inspirational speaker
at pro-Israel rallies in the Jewish
community over the summer.
Rev. Plummer knows that
threats to the Jews are threats to
him. And he takes both threats

j

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personally.
With passionate, fiery delivery,
he connects Jews and blacks
through shared experiences,
such as slavery, prejudice and the
civil rights movement. He then
explains the evangelicals' no-
holds-barred, biblical-based love
of Israel. That love has a theologi-
cally based self-interest: Genesis
12:3 "And I will bless them
that bless thee, and him that
curseth thee will I curse."
In this case, self-interest is
good. There has to be something
in it for FIBA. For our part, we
must do more in a concrete way
to cooperate with, learn about
and help the black community.
Whatever the strains between
our two communities, supporting
Israel, fighting racism and anti-
Semitism and bringing people of
faith and good will together still
has its own reward. On this, the
two communities see eye to eye.
Because they don't have rooted
communities and churches in
the Holy Land, evangelicals, par-
ticularly blacks, are free to speak
from faith rather than politics.
FIBA is a group that will do this

—

and it will try to rouse other
black groups to do the same.
The national summit featured
a concert of rousing, inspirational
music — gospel and Jewish.
The gala concert at the Max M.
Fisher Music Center in Detroit
cemented the good feelings of
the summit. Pastor Plummer
drove the message home with
several well-produced videos and
during his on-stage banter with
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder
of the International Fellowship of
Christians and Jews, which is in
partnership with FIBA.
Let's be clear: Our new friends
are not anti-Islam, nor are we.
But all of us are working to pro-
tect ourselves, as many moderate
Muslims are, from radical Islam.
Ultimately, Jews must be will-
ing to give if our fragile new
bonds with evangelical blacks are
to solidify. We need to be will-
ing to challenge our attitudes,
not just toward blacks, but also
toward all people of deep, civi-
lized faith.
We must work with evangeli-
cal blacks to bring the message
of civil rights cooperation and

shared values to the Charles
H. Wright Museum of African
American History in Detroit and
the Holocaust Memorial Center
in Farmington Hills. Education
is key.
We must welcome blacks,
embracing them as they do
us. We not only must openly
appreciate their work for us
in their churches, but also
stand with them for social jus-
tice. And let's welcome them
into our synagogues and the
Jewish Community Center as

partners, not guests.
The fight against anti-
Semitism is clearly a shared goal,
as is the fight against racism.
Israel can be a central unifier
as well as the catalyst for com-
memorating and overcoming our
checkered histories.
This model holds a lot more
promise. Through its application,
both groups can win.

"Ritalin only
can do so much,
and there are find-
ings that when
someone goes off
the medication his
functions are lower
than when he went
on. This is the sort
of information that
the conference was
designed to bring
out, both to the parents of AD/
HD children and for adults who
are living with the condition.
Sometimes it's the same person
because there is a strong genetic
factor to it."
Michael Golds held a series of
jobs across the country before
making the commitment to com-
plete his education more than a
decade after struggling through
high school. Project Bold, a pro-
gram at OCC designed to help

AD/HD students, put him on
the path, which is why his fam-
ily holds the conferences at that
campus.
This year's keynote address
will deal with the joys and chal-
lenges of AD/HD. The conference
runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
with a fee of $60; and for stu-
dents, $35. For information call
(313) 438-3763 or go to www.
chaddmi.com on the Web.
"My favorite picture of
Michael;' says Barbara Golds,
"shows him on top of a rock that
he had climbed, high over the
landscape, arms spread out as
if to say, `I did it' That's who he
was."

E-mail letters of no more

than 150 words to:

letters@thejewishnews.com .

Reality Check

Michael Golds' Triumph

T

hey didn't have a name
for it 44 years ago. But
Barbara Golds knew
something was wrong when
her son, Michael, kept climbing
out of his crib — 17 times in a
row. It was over and over again,
almost nonstop.
"Back then they called it a
minimal brain dysfunction,
or sometimes they just called
it tsurris," (troubles) says
Barbara, over coffee in her West
Bloomfield home. "Attention
deficit, hyperactivity disorder ..
no one had any idea back then.
You just knew your child was dif-
ferent somehow.
"He was smart. He could take
a clock apart when he was 2
just to see how it worked. But he
couldn't achieve much of any-
thing in school, and it was hard
for him to make friends."
More than 30 years later,

Michael graduated from Eastern
Michigan University with high
honors and began graduate
school in Florida. In his second
year of studies there, a few weeks
after writing to a former aca-
demic adviser that "my future's
so bright I've got to wear shades:'
the promise was cut short by a
fatal highway accident.
On Friday, Oct. 6, the sev-
enth Michael Golds Memorial
Conference on AD/HD will be
held at the Orchard Ridge cam-
pus of Oakland Community
College. The conferences were
the best way his parents knew to
recognize the achievements of
their son.
Among other things, the
annual meeting, talks and work-
shops emphasize that AD/HD is
not only a childhood condition.
Parents are told that it probably
will go away in adulthood, but

sometimes it doesn't.
"Even then:' says
Barbara, "there is every
chance that when an
individual is given the
tools, he can compen-
sate, go on to reach his
potential and succeed
in life."
The disorder has
become an all too
familiar part of child-
hood. An estimated 4 to 5 per-
cent of children in this country
are diagnosed with it.
"That sounds like a lot, but
think about it:' says Barbara. "In
a school with 500 kids, maybe
20 will be AD/HD. There is still a
stigma attached to it; and when a
young boy seems to be given the
choice of being known as either
dumb or bad, the chances are he
will act out and fill the expecta-
tions of being bad.

George Cantor's e-mail address is

gcantor614@aol.com.

September 28 2006

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