Jews, blacks discuss relations

Embracing the goal of fostering understanding among diverse groups, members of Penn's black and Jewish communities joined together for a talk on civil rights Tuesday night at the Greenfield Intercultural Center. Burt Siegel, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, and Imam Kenneth Nurad-Din, a University chaplain, recounted their personal histories with the civil rights movement and spoke about the possibility of a similar movement in the future. The event -- which was sponsored by the student group Alliance and Understanding, which facilitates communication among blacks and Jews -- was marked by speakers stressing the need for all people to unite together in active support of civil rights. Nurad-Din said Jewish people accepted blacks into their communities after slavery was abolished in 1865, when black people migrated to areas in northeast cities where Jews were already situated. "Because of the nature of the relationship, Jews profited," he said, adding that displaced anger resulted in animosity between the two groups. Siegel described several such black-Jewish interactions as "flashpoints," a term he adopted from chemistry and defined as "when you put two substances together [and] they explode." Other events he defined as "flashpoints" are the black power movement and the rise of Louis Farrakhan. According to Nurad-Din, events such as these define the struggle for unity among oppressed groups and the problems in coalition-building among minority groups. Moving past the issues of black-Jewish relations, Nurad-Din reminded the crowd that "the freedom riders are still running, waiting to hand off the baton" because "oppression and injustice against one is oppression and injustice against all." Sherise Lindsay, a College sophomore and member of Alliance and Understanding, said the event influenced her to become more of an activist and "focus on the issue of getting out of [her] comfort zone," a problem that Nurad-Din and Siegel stressed throughout their discussion. Alliance and Understanding, a unique cross-cultural organization composed of Jewish and African-American students on Penn's campus, was created last year and won the William Haber International Award for social awareness. The group is sponsored by the GIC, Hillel and the African-American Resource Center. Afi Roberson, the executive chairperson of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Planning Committee and leader of Alliance and Understanding, said she hopes for Penn students to become more "socially conscious" through the group. The program is designed to "affirm identity, build community and cultivate leaders" for college years and beyond, Roberson said.

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