Dr. Benjamin Chavis: MLK would have wanted a strong Israel

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host and diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what’s behind the news that spins the globe.

The African-American and Jewish communities were once allies in the civil rights struggle in the US.

Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish businessman and head of retailing giant Sears, Roebuck, with Booker T. Washington to help fund nearly 5,000 schools for Black children across the Jim Crow South.

Jews made up a significant percentage — by some estimates the majority — of non-Blacks marching in the South and organizing voter drives.

Many leading rabbis, including Abraham Joshua Heschel and Joachim Prinz, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King.

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Dr. King was planning to bring hundreds of Black pastors and community leaders to Israel in 1967, but that historic visit was derailed by the Six-Day War. He was planning to lead the mission in 1968, but was tragically cut down by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis before he could.

Five hundred African-American and African pastors visited Israel this week to fulfill MLK’s vision, and to work on rebuilding the Black-Jewish alliance, which has frayed in recent decades, characterized as often as not by mutual suspicion and ignorance.

Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis began working with Dr. King at the age of 14 in North Carolina. He rose to prominence in the civil rights movement, and was wrongly convicted for a 34 year sentence for fighting for racial desegregation.

After having his conviction overturned, Chavis became head of the NAACP and the Million Man March.

Chavis, who has been active in fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism, said that the downturn in Jewish-Black ties was the result of the deaths of the leaders who brought the communities together in the 1960s.

He stressed that there would not have been an effective civil rights movement without the support of the Jewish community, and that is one of the reasons the two communities must work on the relationship.

“Blacks and Jews are stronger together than separate and apart,” said Chavis. “I think Blacks have to speak out more against antisemitism. I think Jews have to speak out more against racism against Blacks and other communities of color.”

If Dr. King was alive, he said, he would say the key to a democratic Middle East is a strong Israel, not a weak Israel.

Lazar Focus is available on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Yitzchak Ledee.

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