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12 | FEBRUARY 20 • 2020 

My dear friend and 
colleague Rev. Deedee 
Coleman, the co-chair of 
the Coalition for Black and 
Jewish Unity, recently wrote 
a powerful editorial in the 
Detroit News about the 
need for her community to 
support the Jewish people. 
Coleman, the former 
president of the Council of 
Baptist Pastors of Detroit 
and Vicinity, is a longtime 
advocate for the Jewish 
people and Israel, and noted: 
“To my fellow African 
Americans, I declare loud 
and clear: Anti-Semitism is 
becoming a cancer, and we 
must find a remedy quickly. 
My heart is saddened, but 
we can never give up. And 
let us remember: We can do 
so much more together than 
ever apart.” 
The displays of kindness 
and support — and even love 
at times — are all around us, 
if we are only open to seeing 
it. These actions take place 
around the world (and even 
in outer space), as well as 
right in our own backyard. 
The Jewish Community 
Relations Council/AJC 
regularly builds cross-
cultural bridges and, in the 
process, often creates mutual 
friendships that strengthen 

our bonds with our non-
Jewish neighbors. 
The spate of anti-Semitic 
attacks that we saw last year 
— sometimes with tragic 
consequences — is not going 
away. The Jewish people, 
sadly but predictably, will 
grieve again. But we can be 
uplifted by the brave and 
kind gestures of support 
from people around the 
world, sometimes in the 
most remote or unlikely 
places. We have friends and 
allies, lots of them, whether 
we wish to admit it or not. 
We should embrace 
them. If we fail to do so, 
if we reject the hand of 
friendship, then we have only 
deepened our own isolation 
and vulnerability. That’
s an 
illogical and dangerous place 
to be, and especially unwise 
for a people who represent 
less than 0.2 percent of the 
world population. 

Mark Jacobs is the AIPAC 

Michigan chair for African American 

Outreach, a co-director of the 

Coalition for Black and Jewish 

Unity, a board member of the 

Jewish Community Relations 

Council-AJC and the director of 

Jewish Family Service’
s Legal 

Referral Committee.

allies from page 10

I wish more Jews could see what 
I get to experience fi
 rsthand 
— genuine acts of goodwill 
toward the Jewish people from 
dynamic, kindhearted and 
principled people.

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