32 | MAY 2 • 2024 
J
N

T

amara Lopes of 
Southfield is getting 
ready to help welcome 
the first Detroit cohort of 
Rekindle, a group aimed at cre-
ating social change 
by bringing leaders 
from Black and 
Jewish commu-
nities together to 
discuss racism and 
antisemitism.
From a cafe in 
Detroit, the cohort of 14-16 
people, equal in numbers of 
Black and Jewish participants, 
will work to build bridges 
between the communities, 
she says. They’ll meet for 
four biweekly sessions on 
Wednesdays, with a fifth final 
session to culminate. 
In the first session, they’ll be 
getting to know each other and 
discussing Black and Jewish 
history and intergenerational 
trauma, she says. “I’m excited 
because we are having a dia-
logue,
” she explains. “This will 
allow us to break down barriers 
and listen to each other for who 
we really are.
”
Rekindle, which started in 
Cleveland in 2021, is in the 
recruitment phase now, with 
applications coming in as word 
gets out about the program. It’s 
a way of rekindling the relation-
ships the two communities built 
during the civil rights move-
ment, she explains. “We are 
fighting the same fight whether 
we know it or not … I believe 
we’re stronger together than 

separate.
”
Detroit will be the eighth city 
where it’s running cohorts, says 
Matt Fieldman, 
executive director 
and co-founder. “I 
wanted to see the 
two communities 
work better togeth-
er,
” says Fieldman. 
“Participants walk 
out with a new understanding 
of the other communities, with 
new partners in the other com-
munity and a real action project 
that they can point to and say ‘I 
did that.
’”
Fieldman added that 
Rekindle has made a $10,000 
commitment to the launch of 
the Detroit chapter. 
There have been conversa-
tions and disagreements, and 
sometimes emotions run high, 
but the focus is on what they 
can do together, he says. 
“We don’t have to agree on 
everything to be good allies, 
especially as it relates to mak-
ing our cities better,
” he says. 
“Let’s focus on what we can do 
together.
”
Jeff Jenks of Huntington 

Woods says he’s 
enthusiastic about 
the opportunity 
to participate in 
the project, which 
he learned about 
through a JCRC 
email. At 84, he 
says he’s spent his life involved 
in civil rights and supporting 
democracy and sees the need to 
contribute on a local level. 
“It puts Jewish intervention 
back in the book,
” he says, 
adding that he sees a need to 
reinforce the connections and 
support between the Black and 
Jewish communities. 
Involved in other initiatives 
around Metro Detroit aimed at 
bolstering these relationships as 
well, he says it’s critical to work 
toward stronger understand-
ing. “We will build legitimate 
bridges; we will work with Jews, 
especially the young genera-
tions,
” he says. “I want to listen 
to younger people and how 
they’re thinking. It has been a 
long time since we intentionally 
built bridges among young peo-
ple. I want to learn new tech-
niques for change.
” 

Yevgeniya Gazman of 
Farmington applied to take 
part in Rekindle to meet other 
young leaders and foster collab-
oration between 
communities. 
“When we sit 
down together and 
learn from one 
another and we 
collaborate, our 
impact is exponen-
tially greater,
” she says. 
Gazman says she’s in multiple 
groups focused on community 
building and learning from 
one another. Born in the Soviet 
Union, she immigrated to the 
United States as a child refugee 
and says she feels a pull toward 
wanting to learn more about 
the Black experience in this 
country. Rekindle is something 
she’s compelled to make time 
for, even as she has started a 
new position as an immigration 
attorney. “I just know I need to 
show up, and I have zero doubt 
that good things are going to 
happen,
” she says. 
She adds that she’s hoping 
to come away with stronger 
ties to other young Black 
and Jewish leaders in the 
community as well. “I hope to 
make new friends so we can 
have relationships that are more 
than just policy decisions,
” she 
explains. “I want to have people 
in my life that I can invite to 
Shabbat dinner and be part of 
their simchahs.
” 
Visit rekindlefellowship.org/
detroit to apply. 

New group in Detroit aims to help communities 
work together to effect change.

Rekindling the Unity of 
the Black-Jewish Alliance

Tamara 
Lopes

Jeff Jenks

Matt 
Fieldman

Yevgeniya 
Gazman

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

