This is getting old.
Our enemies are loving every minute of it.
We just keep on keeping on with the hate, and we’re going to find ourselves in a lonely spot in this country and this world.
I’m not just writing to Jews, but to blacks, Asians, Hispanics, everyone.
Outside on the parking lot of the Jewish Community Services building, the media met with about a dozen mostly black citizens who were concerned about a closed-door meeting being held inside.
This was an opportunity for blacks and Jews to sit down and talk.
Instead, one or two individuals distracted the meeting because they weren’t on the invitation list.
We have blacks and Jews at a very angry place right now, and an elected official was livid for not being invited.
Instead of the “tachles,” the truth, the meeting had to wade through questions like these:
Is the organized Jewish community doing enough to defend the Orthodox community?
Were the “right” black leaders in the room?
Were the “right” community and political leaders in the room?
None of those questions, which were absolutely pondered by some, were the point of this meeting.
A Jewish man representing a Jewish organization is being charged by police for his alleged assault on a 15-year-old black teen.
Yes, Rabbi Dovid Katz was assaulted by eight black teens earlier this fall, and it would have been extremely appropriate for black pastors and community to leaders to have come out in condemnation of this terrible act. But they didn’t to my knowledge. That’s wrong.
But that doesn’t mean we as Jews shouldn’t condemn any sort of violence by any person of any faith or color, especially if that person is Jewish. If the perpetrator is Jewish, we should be the first to step forward in an effort to learn the truth, and not even present the suggestion of hiding anything. Yes, Jews are eligible for the same due process and justice as any other person in this great country, whether the verdict is guilty or not guilty.
Jewish, black, yellow, white or whatever, we all have to be better than this.
Still, in this country, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Mr. Werdesheim’s alleged assault is exactly that, alleged. Until the state’s attorney’s office and the police and the justice system demonstrate otherwise through due process, the word is innocent.
Getting back to the JCS parking lot. I approached a black man, who told me he had a lot he wanted to say to the press on the subject of Shomrim, the public safety group.
I identified myself as being from the Jewish Times. I was wearing a yarmulke. But maybe, just maybe he didn’t see it because it was nightfall.
He refused to talk to me.
He told me that the Jewish Times was not a legitimate news organization. But that’s nothing new for me, I’ve had a small handful of Orthodox rabbis tell me the same thing while I was reporting on some of their colleagues sexual molestation habits. That’s not what this man was “really” saying to me. He didn’t want to talk to a Jew. It was plain, it was simple. It was bigotry against a Jew outside of a Jewish facility. No different then when bigotry’s poster children, the Westboro Baptist Church appeared at the nearby JCC.
I asked the black man where he was from, and he turned his back on me.
I then told his back, whether he liked to hear it or not, that I grew up walking distance from where we were standing, that I attended city public schools at all levels within that same walking distance, and that I currently live in the same area. I asked him where he lived. His back didn’t answer. Then he turned around to my arm outstretched for a handshake. He refused at first, but finally he shook hands, all the while looking down at the pavement on this cold December night.
You see I don’t disagree with some of what is being said. I stayed hoping for conversation. Away in the cold night he went.
I think there should be black members of these volunteer groups serving Upper Park Heights and like a mirror reflect the diversity of the communities served.
Shomrim has had at least one active member, who happened to be black. I’ve been told the group wants to have more. That’s great to hear.
How can we be a community of tolerance and diversity if we don’t work together, not just around desks but riding with each other on patrols or helping one another in so many, countless ways.
The answer is we can’t.
The answer can’t be, we don’t want it.
Prejudice isn’t part of God’s handbook, the Torah. If you say you believe in God, you don’t if you are prejudiced.
It goes both ways. Black prejudice against whites and Jews is as equally unacceptable.
It’s not as if there aren’t great efforts going on already. The Baltimore Jewish Council has always been on the front line of bringing minority groups together. Learn about the Elijah Cummings Youth Project. But it’s not just that. On missions to Israel, Dr. Art Abramson and the Council have taken people of all colors and backgrounds.
Each Sunday, black church goers use Baltimore Hebrew and use Temple Oheb Shalom for services. I imagine a proud God, knowing that his children are praying from common ground.
But then back to the parking lot where another black adult told me that he could get on his phone and get 20 people here to retaliate for the beating of the 15-year-old.
Oh, this is getting so old.
Our enemies?
They are fear of the unknown. They are fear of difference. They are apathy, they are prejudice.
They are all having their day at our expense. They know we can be better than this.
Problem is, we aren’t reaching out and doing enough. The point is, not to reach out and expect something in return.
Just reach out.
I got a handshake out of doing that on Wednesday night.
That works for now.

“Each Sunday, black church goers use Baltimore Hebrew and use Temple Oheb Shalom for services. I imagine a proud God, knowing that his children are praying from common ground.”

Phil, you are so wrong. They shouldn’t even be allowed to step on the grass of a shul, let alone go inside it for their services.