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Updated Engagement Model to Drive Black-Jewish Forum

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Updated Engagement Model to Drive Black-Jewish Forum oints of view >> Send letters to: Ietters®thejewishnews.com EDITORIAL BOARD: Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar Publisher's Notebook Bankole Thompson Editorial interviews President Obama in Grand Rapids. Why Did Biden Attack Pollard? resident Obama wants Vice President Joe Biden to assuage Jewish voters during next p year's re-election campaign. That's hard to reconcile given Biden saying that if it were up to him, Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard would stay in jail for life. Biden, thanks to his foreign policy record in the U.S. Senate, is considered a staunch supporter of Israel. But he's completely out of touch if he thinks his strident stance on the contentious issue of Pollard's sentencing will resonate with Jews. His campaign job is to court Jewish Democrats as well Jonathan as the party's core, assuring them Pollard Updated Engagement Model the Obama administration is a loyal friend of Israel. Many U.S. House representatives, high-ranking To Drive Black-Jewish Forum former U.S. government officials as well as a host of well-respected political and Jewish leaders have n the course of my 25 years allowed us to do so even if the updated model of a Black-Jewish implored Obama to extend clemency to Pollard, a publishing the Detroit Jewish African-American community had coalition (he often quotes Rabbi former civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy I News, there have been an array moved on. Abraham Joshua Heschel with now serving a life sentence for passing classified of initiatives and projects intended Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and information to Israel. Pollard was arrested in 1985 to more closely link our African- Bridge Building Congressman John Lewis in his col- and sentenced two years later. He is the only person American and Jewish communities. It is this backdrop that now frames umns). However, Bankole also sees in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for disclos- These have run the gamut, from an emerging initiative between the a new generation of blacks and Jews ing classified information to an American ally. annual Martin Luther King com- African-American and Jewish com- who are neither living in the past "President Obama was considering clemency, but memorations to volunteers reading munities. The Black-Jewish Forum, nor personally traumatized by the I told him, 'Over my dead body are we going to let to Detroit Public Schools children, to be launched next Wednesday, Oct. 1967 riot/uprising. him out before his time," Biden said in a Sept. 23 from collaborations between indi- 26, at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield He sees members of the Jewish meeting with 15 rabbis in Boca Raton, Fla., accord- vidual churches and synagogues to Township, has the potential to refo- community, such as Dan Gilbert, ing to the New York Times. The Jewish Week in New mini-missions to Israel. cus, renew and strength- passionately driving economic York reported that Biden referred to Pollard as a Virtually all have the en relations between our development in Detroit. He sees "traitor." common threads of communities — with the remarkable handiwork of Ben Four years ago, according to JTA, Biden, then a being initiated by the the economic, social and Falik, Noam Kimmelman, Miriam senator from Delaware, reportedly said in a Shalom Jewish community and political revitalization of Liebman, Oren Goldenberg and TV interview that he favored commutation (not being framed by the Detroit and Southeastern other Jewish 20-somethings touch- just a pardon) – which would vacate the conviction civil rights struggles of Michigan the common ing and transforming the lives of of the serious crime of spying. It's unclear what the 1950s and 1960s and denominator. individual Detroiters. He sees the changed Biden's mind other than the troubling the 1967 Detroit riot/ Part of what will make work of Jewish volunteers, young notion that he's the fall guy for Obama, who, in this uprising. this forum and followup and old, committed to fighting pov- scenario, is against commutation but doesn't want Over the decades, unique is it was imag- erty and illiteracy. He sees a Jewish to be the frontline opponent. A 2010 U.S. House let- as the focus of the ined, conceived and is community that needs a more vital ter to Obama pointed to the "great disparity from African-American com- being driven by Bankole Detroit to retain many of its best the standpoint of justice between the amount of munity has shifted to Thompson, an influential and brightest while attracting new time Mr. Pollard has served and the time served other pressing concerns, and respected voice in talent who would find the quality – or not served at all – by many others who were including public safety, drugs, male the African-American community. of life and Jewish life in the region found guilty of similar activity on behalf of nations incarceration, education, employ- Thompson, the youthful senior edi- appealing. adversarial to us, unlike Israel." ment and family structure, most tor of the Detroit-based Michigan While Bankole is deeply commit- Unmistakably, time served should be measured Jewish community organizations Chronicle (the state's leading ted to Detroit and the metropolitan against the established time line for such a convic- and synagogues continue to initi- African-American news media out- area, he is a prolific writer and tion. Pollard, now 57, committed a felony, took money ate and build relationships via the let), recognizes that for Detroit and author who has a national follow- for his illegal actions, was found guilty, expressed shared struggle for civil rights. the region to rebound, the Jewish ing that includes President Barack remorse and has paid a fair price – 25 years. The In essence, we wanted the community must reclaim the dis- Obama (Thompson has written median sentence for such a crime is two years in African-American community to proportional role it once played in Obama and Black Loyalty and has prison; the maximum punishment is now 10 years. continue to view Jews as a caring providing leadership, ideas, invest- another book to be published in Biden has agreed to meet with a small, hand- subset of "whites" who understood ment and personal engagement. January of 2012 entitled Obama picked group of Jewish leaders to discuss Pollard, slavery and discrimination, and and Jewish Loyalty.) His dream is who recently underwent successful kidney surgery. who were hard-wired to repair the Modern Influence to develop and refine a new model Meanwhile, if Obama doesn't step up and rebuke world. Keeping the struggle for The icons of the civil rights move- of black-Jewish collaboration and Biden's attack on Pollard, chances are he agrees civil rights at the top of our agenda ment inform Bankole's vision for an share it with communities across with the vice president. I I Continued on page 29 28 October 20 - 2011 .
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