The 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association (92NY) hosted a race relations discussion with civil rights leader and speechwriter Dr. Clarence B. Jones, who worked on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and New England Patriots Chairman Robert Kraft in the city last week. They were briefly joined by Mayor Eric Adams.
The pair first joined forces on a 30-second anti-hate ad that ran during this year’s Super Bowl LVIII in February. Jones, 93, who chairs the Spill the Honey Foundation, narrates the short. He quickly addresses all forms of hate crimes and encourages bystanders to speak out against injustice. Kraft, 82, who runs the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, paid $7 million for the ad. It was met with mixed reviews given the current geopolitical climate, but Jones and Kraft have since become fast friends.
“I’ve never seen what’s going on in the country in the last few years,” said Kraft. “It started with Charlottesville and to see in the United States of America men carrying signs, dressed as Nazis, saying Jews and Blacks will not replace us.”
Their discussion last week, moderated by broadcast journalist Gayle King, continued promoting their message of anti-hate. They also spoke about the bond between Black and Jewish communities in their struggle for equality in the U.S.
“Dr. King told me this story,” said Jones, “He accompanies Rabbi Heschel to the [mountains] and they walk into this backroom with 750 or more rabbis all dressed in the same regard, holding arms. Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel walked to the middle of the room, they began to sing in Hebrew ‘We Shall Overcome.’Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel stood there, sobbing. Martin says Clarence, I expect when you hear any of our brothers and sisters yelling antisemitic stuff, you tell them that story.”
Both agreed that there’s a sense of loss among younger generations of Blacks and Jewish populations about shared history and solidarity during the Civil Rights Movement. They said they plan to launch an anti-hate social media campaign targeting young people.
“We have to do something with young people,” said Kraft. “We need messaging that can resonate with them because unfortunately they’re getting so much of their information from TikTok and so much of that is just not accurate information.”
Adams recently declared social media’s grip on the youth a public health crisis, demanding that platforms do better when it comes to its undue influence on the youth, that diversity in communities be celebrated, and that leadership regain control of higher educational institutions and begin encouraging civil discourse.
“It is unbelievable how social media has hijacked the narrative and normalized hatred, antisemitism, islamophobia. The algorithms that are used to bring our children to dark places is what we need to really fight against, and that’s what you’re seeing here,” said Adams. “We cannot take for granted what we’re seeing carried out on a global stage, and how we’re seeing it proliferated. We’ve normalized hate.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.