Blacks & Jews:

Building Beloved Community

Our Mission

To re-imagine and revitalize the historic relationship between the Black and Jewish communities of Puget Sound and nationally.

Blacks and Jews share a biblical narrative of transforming a painful past into a redemptive future. The story of the exodus from Egypt has inspired our communities for centuries to pursue paths to liberation, and during the civil rights movement, we worked as allies in the struggle to end racism and antisemitism. Black and Jewish clergy, students, community leaders and activists came together to support Dr. King’s dream of building Beloved Community, an America of racial equity and harmony.

For complex reasons, those working relationships declined over subsequent decades. But today, with nativist racism and antisemitism rising regionally, nationally and globally, old friends are renewing bonds of trust, friendship and mutuality and turning toward one another for nourishment and support. Founded in 2019, Seattle’s Blacks and Jews: Building Beloved Community Initiative aims to renew Black-Jewish relationships and promote partnerships and joint action to enhance equity, harmony and prosperity our Puget Sound Beloved Community.

Our Approach

Our Approach

We explore our history and relationships, nurture our souls and support spiritual resilience through bible study.

We build trust and friendship through fellowship programs — sharing food, ideas, conversation and concerns in community, online and in each other’s homes.

We explore opportunities and build momentum for joint action, including political advocacy and business and civic collaborations.

Our Leadership

Mark R. Jones, Ph.D

CEO and Research Director for Sunyata Group. Regional-level Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) examiner, senior member and past Chapter Vice-President of Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and a Vice Chair in the Human Development and Leadership division of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

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Primary analytic strategy is adaptive design approach (inferior treatment groups) employing mixed methods designs using qualitative context and content analysis techniques, and quantitative clustering and classification techniques such as Binary Logistic Regression Analyses, ANOVA, Repeated Measures ANOVA, Multiple Regression Analyses, Discriminant Analyses, Decision Tree Classification Analyses, Bayesian Analyses, and Scale Equivalency Testing.

Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum

With degrees from NYU (1972), Rutgers University (1974) and Jewish Theological Seminary (1980), Rabbi Rosenbaum has more than thirty-six years of rabbinical experience. He has distinguished himself as a man of creativity, passion and compassion with innovative programming that both engages and educates.

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Rabbi Rosenbaum became HNT’s Rabbi Emeritus in July 2019 after serving as HNT’s spiritual leader since 2002. He has been connected to the Seattle-area for a very long time. His wife, Janine was born and raised in Seward Park. He’s also an unabashed fan of the Seattle Mariners who frequently uses baseball analogies in his sermons.

Our Programs

• Nine Puget Sound rabbis and nine African American ministers formed the Black-Jewish Clergy Bible Study Initiative to support mutual learning and explore the strengths and challenges of historic and current Black-Jewish relationships. While only two years old, this initiative has been successfully replicated by clergy in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and Detroit, and we now have an additional monthly intercity study session to exchange best practices for Black-Jewish partnership today. Local members also hosted a film screening and community discussion of a documentary exploring the legacy of Black-Jewish partnerships over the past 100 years and led conversations on race relations during the 2021 Limmud Seattle festival. These two community cultural events reached over one thousand participants.

• Based on a successful Jewish renewal model from the 1960s, Building Beloved Community is forming a first Black-Jewish “havurah.” This social group will monthly in one another’s homes to discuss contemporary issues and build a framework of shared cultural and personal experience.

• In 2019, a pilot Black/Jewish bible study initiative for the lay community engaged 60 people over three months. Participants studied biblical freedom texts together and discussed current issues of community racism and antisemitism. Based on the pilot’s success, a new monthly Black-Jewish Bible study experience for the lay community will launch online in February 2021.

• In Winter 2020/21, Faith and Philanthropy brought together 10 Black and Jewish leaders in the philanthropic sector. Their shared curriculum and discussions focused on the psychology of giving and receiving with the aim of creating deeper mutual understanding and a basis for future joint action.

Joint Action

We are focusing most of our efforts on education and relationship building because we believe successful action proceeds at the speed of trust. Nonetheless, these promising advocacy and network-building results give us confidence of this work’s worthiness and promise:

• The Nehemiah Initiative is working to stem the tide of gentrification and rejuvenate the African American presence in Seattle’s Central District. The leader of this initiative, Bishop Garry Tyson recently met with a colleague rabbi from our Bible Study Initiative and Jewish real estate developers from his congregation to discuss Jewish communal support and participation in the elevation of a district that has significance for both the Black and Jewish communities.
• A group of business and finance leaders from the Black and Jewish communities are working with Seattle’s Urban League to explore the creation of a Black-Jewish Entrepreneurs Roundtable.

• Participant rabbis from the Bible Study Initiative were invited and joined their colleague Black clergy to support then Police Chief Carmen Best at a public press conference. Reciprocally, Black clergy in the group issued a powerful public statement condemning the antisemitic remarks of DeSean Jackson and Stephen Jackson and affirming the value of the historic Black-Jewish relationship.
• The newly re-constituted Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) has committed to create a strategic Jewish communal response to the concerns of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Goals and Next Steps

Success for us means:

• A significant number of Blacks and Jews walk away from our programs with a deeper understanding of what makes each other afraid, what angers us, what frustrates us, what inspires us, and what gives us hope.

• We will work together more, with greater passion and with greater enthusiasm on issues of common moral concern. The number of people we can draw into joint action will greatly increase and include a broader range of people from both communities.

• New friendships develop. We feel closer to each other, one on one, and as a linked community. If there are misunderstandings, we know we have a friend we can talk to who will lend us a sympathetic ear even if they don’t always agree. If a Jew wrongs a Black or if a Black wrongs a Jew, we will have a more nuanced method for talking about it, so that misunderstandings don’t build into resentments.

• In summary, we will build a shared mutual commitment to and experience of Beloved Community.

To accomplish these goals over the next 12 months we plan to:

• Amplify our programming to reach more people.
• Investigate more opportunities for joint action.
• Develop a website that will enable us to communicate our message to the community more effectively.

• Increase the social interaction between Seattle’s African Americans and Jews through the creation of a Black-Jewish Havurah (discussion/social group that meets monthly).
• Strengthen the relationship between the Bible study groups in Seattle, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Detroit; add two more cities to this group.

Events

How You Can Engage

To address questions or find out more about the Beloved Community or any of its programs, please contact:

Dr. Mark Jones: Dr.Mark.R.Jones@BuildingBelovedCommunities.net
Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum: rabbirosenbaum@h-nt.org

or simply fill out the form below!

Reverends & Rabbis

Dr.Mark.R.Jones@BuildingBelovedCommunities.net

rabbirosenbaum@h-nt.org

Sunyata Peace Center

Maple Valley, WA

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