points of view >> Send letters to: Ietters@thejewishnews.com Publisher's Notebook Editorial Why Not A Local 'Partnership 2000'? Working Toward A New Black-Jewish Alliance p artnership 2000 is one of the more mean- ingful and enduring initiatives of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Created in the mid-1990s, it's a mechanism through which hun- dreds of diaspora Jewish communities "adopt" regions in Israel. Partnership 2000's underlying concept is simple ... embrace one geographic area of Israel, understand its challenges and opportunities, and develop enduring relationships and friendships. Michigan's Partnership 2000 ini- tiatives, overwhelmingly led and funded by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, focus on the Central Galilee region of Nazareth ID, Migdal HaEmek and the Jezreel Valley. Over a 15-year period, Detroit's consid- erable investment of time, energy and millions of dollars has made its Partnership 2000 relationship one of the strongest among all world Jewish communities. The depth of this commitment to the Central Galilee region is evident in the array of initia- tives that have been created and the thousands of Detroiters and Israelis who have been impacted. Among the examples: • Professional exchanges involv- ing physicians, educators, entre- preneurs and political leaders; • Teen and young adult exchanges, including community and Birthright missions to the region and Israeli teens participating as summer Tamarack campers; • Collaborations between Detroit area and Central Galilee universities, including Wayne State and Oakland University; • Assistance from Detroiters in creating a Jewish Hospice program and business incubators for new immigrants; • Common social action agendas developed between women from Detroit and the region; • A music camp that has brought together Israeli Jewish and Arab teens with their Detroit Jewish counterparts. the viability and vitality of Detroit. It took the recent economic meltdown and ongoing exodus of our young adults to other cities for our community lead- ership to start recognizing that we "take care of our own" by also helping to take care of those around us. A smattering of fresh initiatives, such as the re- envisioning of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, the opening of a Moishe House in Midtown and the creation of a Jewish Funds for Social Justice young adult cohort are joining established vol- unteer initiatives, including the Jewish- inspired Summer in the City, Jewish Community Relations Council programs relating to poverty and literacy, and elementary school alumni returning to mentor children. Also, some synagogues have ongoing relationships with churches. But there is currently no vision, no strategy and no plan for maxi- mizing our community's positive impact on the city And, just to be clear, the recent efforts by Dan Gilbert and Quicken Loans are essential to creating a vibrant busi- ness core in Detroit, and he should be properly rewarded for the eco- nomic risks he is taking. But, he is not and cannot be positioned as the Jewish community's proxy for engagement with Detroit. That responsibility belongs to us. And a domestic Partnership 2000 vision for the Northwest Detroit area, which was recently designated by the city as one of three demonstration areas to receive additional services and investment via its ambitious Detroit Works initiative, is an excellent way for our community to concentrate its future philanthropic and volunteer efforts in ways that create long-term value while building real, lasting relationships. What items might comprise a "domestic" Partnership 2000? Here are some random ideas. First to consider, some possible collaborations with the Northwest Activities Center, formerly the Meyers-Curtis Jewish Community Center: • Annual Jewish Book Fair night for Jewish authors/black authors at the Northwest Activities Center and the Maple-Drake JCC; • Jewish Ensemble Theatre utilization of the Northwest Center's 450-seat DeRoy Theatre for part of its season (imagine if the recently produced JET production "Palmer Park" was also performed five minutes from where the play was actually set?); • Exchanges and all-star games, ranging from the JCC's Kenny Goldman league to ComePlayDetroit, utilizing courts at the Northwest Center and the JCCs in Oak Park and West Bloomfield; • Establishment of a Meyers-Curtis JCC "alumni organization" with volunteers coaching, mentoring and otherwise assisting the financially strapped Northwest Center in such areas as performing arts, But there is no vision, no strategy and no plan for maximizing our community's positive impact on the city. 'Adopting' Northwest Detroit While the Partnership 2000 model has been developed and refined over the years for maxi- mum impact and value, its basic principles are not unique to Israel. In fact, the model is easily adaptable for other uses. It is in this context that the Detroit Jewish community should "adopt" the distressed Northwest Detroit neighborhoods where we once lived, worked and played as our domestic Partnership 2000 companion region. As a Detroit Jewish community, we are finally acknowledging that the fate of Southeastern Michigan and our Jewish community are linked to Domestic Partnership on page 27 26 January 19 • 2012 iN T his week, America celebrated the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The federal holiday not only celebrates King's historic role in the Civil Rights Movement, but also has become a national day of service — a chance to reca- librate our path as a country and a people to ensure we live up to the ideals that this Rev. King champion of equality stood for. The Jewish community is linked to King because it played a significant part in his-life's work. Many of his closest advisers and confidants were Jewish, including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who walked with King during the 1965 march on Selma, Ala., and Stanley Levinson, a New York businessman regarded as one of King's closest advis- ers. Two of the three young activists lynched in Mississippi in 1964 following their investigation into a church burning — Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — were Jewish and were slain alongside African American James Chaney. Shared sacrifice created a bond between the two commu- nities that began to weaken after King's 1968 assassination at age 39. Once Civil Rights legislation was passed, other priorities in both communities led to a weakening of the black-Jewish alliance. Emerging black leaders, such as anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan, who preached "the blacks need to do it on their own, and we've got to break away from Jewish partners," only served to widen the rift. What both communities never lost, however, was a shared commitment to social justice. Larry Jay Tish, a Jewish actor who runs a two-man com- edy show, "Black-Jew Dialogues," with business partner Ron Jones, told the Joint News Media Service the rift between blacks and Jews is because of a lack of education and understanding: Young people don't know of their shared his- tory and have nothing to build on. Last fall, Arthur Horwitz, publisher of the Jewish News, and Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan Chronicle, took a step toward a re-imagined alliance between the local African-American and Jewish communities that would reinforce working initiatives and identify new ones. Horwitz and Thompson created the Black-Jewish Forum, opening up a dialogue and creating an opportunity for both communities to change their mindsets, not only about each other, but also how to work together to help bring economic resurgence to Detroit and the metro region. Obviously, one meeting does not a movement make. The October meeting was just the first seed to be planted, one that now must be watered and nurtured. Plans envision additional meetings of the Black-Jewish Forum and a coalescing of groups of like-minded people from each community in the pursuit of a specific, tangible set of goals. Thompson has a book coming out this spring, Obama and Jewish Loyalty, which is sure to also shine more light on the state of the black-Jewish relationship. The birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. provides the per- fect occasion for the Jewish community to reflect on our shared history with the black community. It also provides an opportunity for us to look forward and shape the future of the local black-Jewish relationship and the good that can come from it.