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42 Comments

1. Noga:

I’m not a great believer in kumbaya. But this seems to have been done with restraint, candor, and taste. My best wishes for all parties for their efforts and humility. It is fine achievement.

May 2, 2008 - 1:23 pm 2. shanoboy.com:

I have really never understood the deal with the anti-Semitic comments from Blacks towards Jews. What’s the deal?

Adam Corrolla thinks its because when the Blacks speak about the hardships of their past, the Jews can always trump slavery with the holocaust!

Is it just jealousy?

May 2, 2008 - 1:31 pm 3. Pajamas Media » Reverend Eric Lee’s Anti-Semitism: A Personal Story [video]:

[...] UPDATE:  Reconciliation video between Ziman and Lee here. [...]

May 2, 2008 - 1:42 pm 4. WR Jonas:

Important liberal news right here on the Pajamas Media website. The next thing you know they’ll be defending atheism and promoting socialism. How did this become a Conservative website?

May 2, 2008 - 2:06 pm 5. Elle:

Absolute and total BS.

May 2, 2008 - 2:13 pm 6. Colette:

Who said it was a conservative website? I’d say it’s pretty centrist.

May 2, 2008 - 2:24 pm 7. J.J. Sefton:

I don’t think Adam Carolla would be my first choice for insightful analysis on race relations (let alone anything). In amy case, these incidents point to what I think is a central dilemma for many Jews, especially liberal Jews (I realize that sounds oxymoronic to some, but I and many others are an exception). Many in academia have to prove their liberal bona fides by being anti-Israel and by extension anti-Semitic. They descend into the madness of people like Noam Chomsky. It is they that are in the vanguard of Democrat/liberal thought. No longer the party of Roosevelt, Truman and Scoop Jackson. It is the party of Jimmy Carter – naval-gazers and blame-America-firsters… oh yeah, Jew haters as well.

Same with civil rights. The NAACP was founded in large part with Jewish support. America until after WW2 was openly anti-Semitic. A Roper (I think) poll showed 65% of Americans believed American Jews, fellow citizens, were a dangerous influence and should be deported. Sadly, with the coming of the 60’s it was the black radicals and Malcolm x’s who held sway over a disillusioned black community, so no surprise when the old canards were brought out as evidence of the lack of progress in the black community. Still suffering to this day thanks to the black race hustlers, radical left wingers (white and Jewish) who embrace the insanity of Islamofascist propaganda, good old European propaganda and every other nutty ideology to advance themselves at the expense of the people they allegedly want to “liberate.”

May 2, 2008 - 2:31 pm 8. mishu:

How does healing rifts between ethic groups go against conservatism?

May 2, 2008 - 2:42 pm 9. Larry:

Shanoboy, you’re close. The Jews endured slavery and two millennia of discrimination and pogroms, and yet when transplanted into the US, thrived and prospered. When the Jew looks at the black, he sees a fellow victim. When the black looks at the Jew, he sees another white guy born with a silver spoon in the mouth. He sees that, because the alternative is to admit that the primary obstacle to blacks at this point in history comes from within black American culture, and only a few heretics like Cosby are willing to take that bitter medicine. This is why it’s so much more palatable to embrace the Wright conspiracy thinking. It doesn’t get you anywhere, but it feels good.

May 2, 2008 - 2:54 pm 10. J.J. Sefton:

The exception being I am a conservative! Jeez I really need to proof my own writing.

May 2, 2008 - 3:03 pm 11. A. N. Pierson:

I am another who is not always for kumbaya, but found this affecting. It made me think — if there is no kumbaya, what then?

May 2, 2008 - 3:05 pm 12. AJ:

NO group has been better to blacks than Jews, going way back before the 1960s even. Yet anti-semitism in the black community is on the rise. It’s pure jealously. While blacks wallow in pity thanks to lying hypocrites like Wright, Jackson, Sharpton and apparently a HIGH majority of “black liberation theology,” Jews, like Asians and other minorites, get to work, work hard, learn English, value education and do not look to blame other. Pretty easy.

I attended a Yom Hashoah service the other day here and there were MANY blacks in attendance…all talking about the similarities between them and us. Then the liberal “Jews” agreed. It is 100% garbage, and why both parties support the wrong political party: you know, the one who enslaved one and who supports the others’ worst enemy: Islam. Sad. I blame Rabbi Eric Yoffe and the leftist URJ for “our” issues. But I vote Republican—because I am not rich and because I read and think.

May 2, 2008 - 3:05 pm 13. Noga:

A. N. Pierson says:

“I am another who is not always for kumbaya, but found this affecting. It made me think — if there is no kumbaya, what then?”

I prefer to unsetimentalize the whole kumbaya thing by regarding it as a simple responsibility, defined as “rights begin where love ends”. We are not called upon to love and care for all in the same way we care for our closest and most chreished friends. But we are called upon to act on the benevolent instinct that inclines us towards others who are distressed in any which way. It is our responsibility to stock that benevolent disposition well, and make sure that our society does not run on the bare structucture of law and order alone. For a society to be a society, a human convergence of interests and individuals, the lowest form of friendship (caring for other people’s rights) is a must.

May 2, 2008 - 3:24 pm 14. Ellen K.:

I noticed Los Angeles Times coverage of this meeting this morning but your video was far more interesting and revealing. Well done. But I would like to know what these people said to each other behind closed doors. Oh, well.

May 2, 2008 - 3:28 pm 15. david p:

Rift’s don’t heal, they adapt, but I won’t adapt to people like Barrack Obama, he won’t be president of my country.

May 2, 2008 - 3:45 pm 16. David Thomson:

Daphna Ziman is probably being conned. I suspect that she is easily guilt tripped by “people of color.” Reverend Eric Lee doesn’t want the money to stop. Am I overly cynical? Nope, I don’t think so.

May 2, 2008 - 3:49 pm 17. Roger L Simon:

Well, David Thompson, if what you say is true, then there is very little hope for any of us. Only by attempting change will it happen. By insisting that you are “right” and that it won’t, you can be sure it won’t. Further, when I met Eric Lee face-to-face I saw contrition in his eyes. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe your cynical view from afar is more accurate. But I hope it’s not.

May 2, 2008 - 4:04 pm 18. Believer:

Roger,

I read your post with so much hope, especially since your first article and video had so affected me.

It should be noted that even before I watched the video, I was led to finally do what I should have done yesterday: ask forgiveness myself of someone I may have hurt.

Thank you. I’ll watch the video now, knowing a healing in my own heart has taken place.

May 2, 2008 - 5:03 pm 19. Believer:

Wonderful. We have two people who know where our hope lies:

From Ms. Ziman: “Divine intervention”

From Rev. Lee: “Servants” who “Yield to what God wants…”

May 2, 2008 - 5:25 pm 20. Allyson Taylor:

Actions will speak louder than words. I want to hear what the Reverend says to his congregants, and how he acts in the future. He got a lot of heat for the video that was shown last month, and I am wondering what his epiphany was. I will sit by and wait to see what Rev. Lee does in the future and maybe he needs a trip to Israel.

May 2, 2008 - 5:56 pm 21. Herbert Rubin, M.D.:

The race pimps will not let it go. There’s money to be made flogging the racist guilt-tripped white man. The hatred and rage are palpable under the skin. Even yellow skin is hated, as Koreans found out in Los Angeles. That Jews risked life and limb (some were murdered by the Rev. Al Sharpton and his mob) to open shops on 125th Street in NYC is turned into a source of rage and impotence, because self-loathing and the failure of the black family.

Good to blame whitey and the Jews, but it doesn’t explain why 25% of black men are in the criminal justice system and 10% of black males are in prison.

When affirmative action was overturned in California, black faces disappeared from most elite college campuses, replaced by Asians and other immigrant kids. Where are the black leaders? Where are the intelligent voices pointing out the obvious.

May 2, 2008 - 6:10 pm 22. abdul7591:

I tend to agree with the one commenter that black anti-Semitism is rooted in jealousy, and I have privately suspected this for a long time. I am neither black nor Jewish, but when I hear militant, angry, self-pitying blacks loudly trumpet the figure of “400 years” of oppression, I get the distinct feeling they are trying to say that this statistic makes them the most oppressed people in history, and that their oppression entitles them to whatever recompense they demand in the name of achieving a purported “racial justice.” Jews generally, and American Jews in particular, enrage the black bigot not because of any especially grievous sin on the Jews’ part, but because the very history of the Jews – a tale of suffering that goes back not 400 years, but literally thousands of years – completely discredits the angry black militant’s rather narcissistic claim that he is the gold medalist in the Olympics of victimhood. The reality of Jewish history undermines the black anti-Semite’s sense of historical and racial entitlement deriving from this claim to supreme victimhood, and it moreover affronts his ugly racial vanity.

In sum, I think one can respectfully honor the memory of blacks who suffered terribly in the distant past without kowtowing like politically correct invertebrates to modern day black charlatans who use guilt as a psychological weapon with which to bully whites, and then incite hatred among fellow blacks toward any white people, especially Jews, who refuse to fall for their despicable con game.

As for Eric Lee, I hope Roger is right that he has turned a corner, but one man’s conversion to decency is not enough to absolve black-Americans of the need to examine their own history of moral backwardness.

May 2, 2008 - 6:29 pm 23. Benson:

IMHO, J. J. Sefton has provided the most cogent comment. That said, I note that no one has dealt with one of the stereotypes that lies behind much of black animosity toward Jews and Israel: the Jew as parasitic shopkeeper in the black community. A similar stereotype exists for Chinese and (East) Indian merchants around the world; I have seen evidence for that in SE Asia (a Thai king wrote a book titled “The Jews of the East” about the Chinese minority in his nation). The Thai economy is not in the hands of ethnic Thais but is overwhelmingly held by powerful ethnic Chinese families, along with less obvious Japanese interests. In Fiji, an Indian minority dominates the economy, and that caused a civil war. So, too, in Belize — again, Indians with “too many” shops that charge “too much,” and a black population that feels powerless to correct the perceived injustice. In French Polynesia, the ethnic Chinese have a strong grip on the economy and squeeze the comptetion by controlling the unloading of ships importing goods for non-Chinese-owned stores. The profits leave Tahiti and wind up in condos in Hawaii and California — or so the story goes. My point: true or not, people believe it.

Where some folks have the gumption to make money by buying and selling, resentments can arise and give birth to stereoypes. The result is always hatred, misunderstanding and reactions that can range all the way from shoplifting to mass murder. As we know.

This problem is not well understood, perhaps because it is too hot to talk about openly. I expect to be attacked for even mentioning it. Governmental and private strategies for coping with it are, AFAIK, non-existent. Free trade would be a beginning, of course, but when two cultural traditions meet and one has a very weak concept of business while the other lives and breathes it, there are bound to be problems. How do you teach people to compete economically, when the concept/value is underdeveloped in their culture? When does simply doing business become exploitive? How can we justify handicapping one ethnic group in favor of another, in a misguided effort to level the playing field?

Please don’t misinterpret this comment as a gullible acceptance of rumor and a promotion of horrid stereotypes. I am trying to say that we have to recognize the causes for hatred, and realize that some of them have roots in how people perceive their economic circumstances. We must begin with that in order to find ways to defuse a problem that is much, much larger than just the resentment many black folks feel toward Jews: it’s a virtually worldwide pattern, and very common wherever distinctly different cultures come into contact.

Kumbaya, in my view, is superficial, temporary, and ultimately counterproductive. Feel-good rituals do not address powerful perceptions of injustice. It does no good to shame an angry man into silence; in fact, it damns his feelings as illigitimate, and degrades and humiliates him profoundly, punishing him for his thoughts. That’s a true horror, for it is a form of censorship. Better we get this problem out in the open and deal with it rationally!!

May 2, 2008 - 7:45 pm 24. mishu:

I’m watching the video now. That Lolita poster is an unfortunate backdrop.

May 2, 2008 - 8:30 pm 25. Roger L Simon:

Benson, while I agree with some of what you say, I beg to differ with you about the nature of this (and some other) Kumbayas. I find it odd to be saying this because I have long been a critic of the “California Style” although I am a Californian. Still, you miss two points. People like Reverend Lee are quite intelligent and realize the processes you describe as well as you do and are capable of self-criticism, just as you are. Secondarily, in every good Kumbaya (and none are perfect) each party moves toward the other, trying to release their own prejudices. Ziman had to do that too. So did we observers. Frankly, I think you are too quick to judge. Perhaps this event was just “a show.” But perhaps it influenced the participants on a deeper level. Who are you to judge in this instance? Who am I? Neither of us know. Only time and actions will tell.

May 2, 2008 - 8:35 pm 26. Colette:

Benson, in terms of the African American/Jewish problem, perhaps your point had some validity in previous decades. But the days of the Jewish shopkeeper in the black neighborhood are long gone. Such stereotypes are merely perpetuated by people from earlier generations, who should and do know better now. Shaming an angry man into silence isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if his “feelings” are in fact illegitimate and he knows the racial stereotypes he is railing against are a thing of the past, as in the case of Rev. Lee. It’s hardly censorship to correct someone when they are preaching untruths.

May 2, 2008 - 8:41 pm 27. Perry Birman:

Blacks resent Jews for the same reason many other peoples do.
In spite of adversity wherever they lived, Jews have surmounted obstacle after obstacle without casting themselves as a grievance group. Jews educated themselves, became entrepreneurs and placed a strong emphasis on family. As a result, Jews have made it into the upper percentiles of society wherever they are – because nobody gave them a free ride.
Leaders of Black society (Jackson, Sharpton, Wright) on the other hand, have brainwashed their followers to see themselves as victims in much the same way Islamist leaders do. Jews never had oil wealth or affirmative action programs; they succeed on their own.
Simply put, Blacks (and Muslims) are resentful and envious that Jews achieve what they have been indoctrinated to believe they cannot.
What is puzzling is that Jews have advanced their lives by means of pure Conservative principles of hard work, education, family, and self-reliance. G-d only knows why most have become so liberal!!!!!

May 3, 2008 - 4:38 am 28. J.J. Sefton:

Some interesting comments about victimhood (a bit like two old Jewish men – “you think YOU’VE got problems? Oy vey!” In all seriousness, no matter what has happened, Jews have somehow picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and started over – and succeeded. My mother survived Mauthausen, the labor brigades and two death marches, but I don’t use that as an excuse to walk around with a chip on my shoulder thinking the world owes me something, or using it as an excuse to not integrate into society or engage in anti-social behavior.

This is what scares the living s**t out of Wright, Jackson et al – they will be relegated to the dust bin of history when black people actually finally and fully integrate themselves into American society by embracing the middle class American values that they claim aren’t “authentically black.” Not by constantly being played as the victim and buying into that bloody myth.

May 3, 2008 - 5:11 am 29. Benson:

Roger: You seem to me to say that self-criticism was a necessary tool in the process that got Lee to back down. That should set off some alarm bells! It appears to me that Lee was isolated — deprived of his support group — and then put under pressure to admit his failings and change his viewpoint. That, plus the necessary self-criticism, reminds me of KGB interrogations from the Stalin era…and of a few other nasty things.

You ask who I am to judge in this instance; I take that as not just a demand that I produce my qualifications, but that, because “Neither of us know,” no one is entitled to render an opinion. That seems to imply that everyone should go along with the hot tubs and hugs, and shut up. My answer to your question: I think of myself as a principled and rational individualist. Please don’t ask me to stand down, for if you do, you will be requesting the silent acquiescence of every other observer.

Colette: You badly underestimate the lingering effects of slavery, Jim Crow, KKK terror and discrimination. All these things are either gone or much reduced, yet they still sear the souls of black folks. No, a lot of people do NOT know better, because among other things they can point to contemporary offenses as evidence of the survival of race hatred. For many if not most black people, slavery is just as significant today as the Nazi era is to Jews, and that stereotype of the Jewish blood-sucking merchant is still vital. Simply ending the enormity (whether it was imagined or real) does not eradicate its consequences. As to shaming an angry man, I think you forget that anger comes from hurt. Adding shame to pain cannot be helpful. Or…?

Why do you put quotes around that word “feelings”? To indicate that the hurt and rage are fake? There is nothing illegitimate about them — you are wrong to deny their validity and importance. As to censorship, I suggest that isolating, then badgering a person into backing down and confessing his sins is intimidating. The tacit message is, “Shut up! And if you don’t we’d like to get our hands on you!”

Too, Lee is now likely to be regarded with suspicion by his associates, who may be antagonized by what they see as an establishment that cannot tolerate the truth. “Look what they did to Lee!” While I readily admit that a kumbaya cannot impose censorship, it certainly runs the risk of creating rumors of repression and generating paranoid fantasies.

That nonsense will appeal to some, because the kumbaya does smack of cult indoctrination and reprogramming. It reminds of Scientology, EST, The Children of God, and other authoritarian/totalitarian mind-bending groups. That makes it suspect, no matter how soft and loving and watered-down it is, and even though it’s voluntary.

There are better ways to deal with Jew-hatred, ways that show more respect for the people who are confused and embittered by vicious myths. The use of isolation and pressure to bring about a confession of error and a possibly insincere expression of contrition is not how bigotry should be opposed, for it’s too inquisitional. But that’s another topic.

May 3, 2008 - 7:28 am 30. Colette:

The stereotype of the Jewish merchant is alive, because people like Rev. Lee repeat it, not because it exists. If adults like Rev. Lee stop perpetuating it, a younger generation won’t have it drilled into their brains and it will cease to exist.

Also Benson, when you write that “for many if not most black people, slavery is just as significant today as the Nazi era is to Jews”, you seem to miss the point entirely. Jews as a group have made enormous efforts at reconciliation with the countries that massacred them. The memory of what happened is kept alive both to honor the dead and to be sure it doesn’t happen again, not to keep Jews in some constant state of anger and victimhood. It’s not today’s generation of Gemans who sent Jews to concentration camps, and Jews know that and don’t hold it against them. Some Jews in earlier generations did. My father wouldn’t buy a German car, for example. But after a generation or two, those feelings die out if they are not stoked and kept alive by professional victimhood profiteers.
It’s not really about Rev. Lee, Benson. It’s about his grandchildren.

May 3, 2008 - 7:48 am 31. Michele:

This is a first step to rising above hatred, how do you critize a monumental effort.

May 3, 2008 - 10:56 am 32. Elle:

I don’t know if Ms Ziman and the other Jews around that table were simply guilty of wishful thinking OR were actually conned OR were really this abysmally stupid. Be sure that Rev Lee and his associates want only to keep the contributions of the liberal Jewish buffoons rolling into their respective organizations.
You got the truth at the event at which you were “honored”, Daphna while the “good Germans” were in the room but “didn’t hear” what went on. Your work with children is commendable. Just don’t fool yourself-and be sure to have someone taste the food whenever you find yourself breaking bread with these people.

May 3, 2008 - 2:33 pm 33. harry:

Anybody remember the pogrom during David Dinkins administration? It started when a Rabbi’s car accidently ran over a couple of Black kids. Angry neighborhood Blacks took to the streets and proceeded to find Jews to beat or kill. They succeeded in killing an innocent Jew having nothing to do with the accident. Dinkins did very little to calm tensions and he is to blame. I wonder what may happen if Obama becomes President. Would he turn a blind eye to Black rage? It’s not a question of if but when.

May 3, 2008 - 8:23 pm 34. maya:

I think that anyone who doesn’t recognize the light that Daphna Ziman is spreading is a skeptic and an idiot!
She has the courage to stand up for all of us, but also the wisdom to turn an enemy to a friend!
Just the fact that she’s a Clinton supporter has made me consider changing my vote.
I’m a pricnciple in a very difficult school in the inner city. I showed my entire entire student population the first video, which most of my african american students were devided about.
some have been told since pre school that the Jews were taking advantage of them. After seeing this video and understanding Ms. ziman’s courage of conviction, the entire student body cheered. They made up a huge poster saying “No more HATE! No more Anti semitism”
Daphna Ziman is our hero!!!!!
G-d Bless you, Daphna!

May 3, 2008 - 8:37 pm 35. memomachine:

Hmmmm.

1. A “monumental effort” at what? Not being an antisemite? Is it really that hard? Do we need a 12 step program or perhaps an antisemitic patch?

2. IMO antisemitism, like all racial bigotry, is a failure of character. And you don’t “heal” failures of character quite that easily. It takes, from personal experience, a lot more than just thinking about it to reform.

It’s also the easiest thing in the world to fake. Ask any young child trying to evade responsibility. A few tears, some obvious contrition, solemn promises and a dignified demeanor. And then all is forgiven.

Sorry but I’m not buying it. But then again I’m not Jewish so if it turns out to be an act, I’m not the one going to suffer the consequences.

May 3, 2008 - 8:39 pm 36. Perry Birman:

Maya,
The fact that you are a Principal in a school underscores exactly what is wrong with our educational system. You don’t capitalize the first word of your sentences. You don’t punctuate. You can’t even spell.

Pathetic.

May 4, 2008 - 3:27 am 37. Roger L Simon:

“Roger: You seem to me to say that self-criticism was a necessary tool in the process that got Lee to back down. That should set off some alarm bells! It appears to me that Lee was isolated — deprived of his support group — and then put under pressure to admit his failings and change his viewpoint. That, plus the necessary self-criticism, reminds me of KGB interrogations from the Stalin era…and of a few other nasty things.”

Whoa, Benson…. running off the rails a bit here, aren’t we? I seem to recall Lee was sitting at the table with Charles Steele, the head of the SCLC who had flown out from Atlanta for the occasion. Steele was quite an appealing guy in my view, and might be said to provide a measure of support for Lee, who didn’t seem to be unhappy to be there either. But then the KGB works in mysterious ways. (BTW, Benson, in Stalin times it was the NKVD).

May 4, 2008 - 9:13 am 38. Laura Fisher:

I love Peace, I love dialogue, but I do not believe for one minute, contrition or not, that this is a sincere meeting of the minds. Hundreds of years, Blacks have blamed Jews for the Slave trade. Hundreds of years, in the US, Blacks have used the same racist slurs towards Jews, and have been allowed to get away with it, because they were considered the underdogs. Anti Semitic statements on black websites, churchs, and man on the street are common. Rev. Lee, like Wright is an example of a man who does not change overnight. His coffers were going to be affected, and a do good Hillary supporting liberal decided to make her candidate look good, by reaching out to her “brother”. This whold thing was so staged, and the other parties involved where there why? I thought that group Stand With Us was a college campus educational group. And why was the most egotistical Rabbi from East Hampton there? I lived in East Hampton, and he is a Rabbi to the stars? Was there no one from LA, where this incident took place that could represent the people of LA? I think the whole thing stinks of a money making scheme and PR ploy for all parties involved. Sorry PJ medial got caught up in it.

May 4, 2008 - 9:15 am 39. Dan Friedman:

Kiss, kiss, hug, hug, did Reverend Eric Lee make anti-Semitic statements at an event given by an African-American fraternity, commemorating the assassination of Martin Luther King, or not?

May 4, 2008 - 10:59 am 40. Thomas:

AJ:

“NO group has been better to blacks than Jews, going way back before the 1960s even. Yet anti-semitism in the black community is on the rise.”

American blacks are also quite ‘liberal’ and those are the political circles they run in. Anti Semitism, in general, has been rising on the left.

May 4, 2008 - 10:12 pm 41. luther jews:

[...] Eric Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of making some disturbing anti-Semitihttp://pajamasmedia.com/blog/healing-the-rift-between-blacks-and-jews-on-holocaust-day-video/Trying to Put a Name to the Face of Evil New York TimesCan the right celebrities raise concern for [...]

May 5, 2008 - 6:59 am 42. giselle:

If ever I have wittnessed a miracle, this is it!!!! I can’t believe that Daphna Ziman was so gracious that she got Rev. Lee to join her in her effort to abolish racism. We all need to learn from her courage of conviction!
If she was going to be on Hillary’s team at the white house I’d vote for Hillary, because that would show great judgement.

May 5, 2008 - 11:17 pm

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