Posted by Donald Cohen-Cutler, Legislative Assistant

I was privileged to eat breakfast with the founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Rev Jesse Jackson this morning. Bob Heller, the Chair of the Union for Reform Judaism Board, Rabbi Marla Feldman, Director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism. Rev. Jackson and I spoke about the state of Jewish African-American affairs in this country as if it were a topic in a university classroom. And then it hit all of us at the same time, but Rev Jackson verbalized exactly what we were thinking.

“We don’t need to have a summit meeting or call a Black Jewish press conference. We just have to do stuff together.”

This seems extremely obvious after the fact. We, the Jewish and African American communities, have worked on many issues together since the early civil rights movement. However these coalitions were not to forward the relationships of Jews and African Americans, they were to pursue justice for all. We worked together not because of personal agendas but because it was what we did.

This was a profound statement. We all should just do stuff together. If we work on our personal relationships, I think our political ones will become stronger. Coffee and juice leads to better relationships than a summit or press conference.