Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

What happened?

Nothing, according to the Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond. People just misjudged the nature and depth of earlier relationships.

"The fact that there were some relationships going on in the civil rights movement should be celebrated. But the assumption that this was a widespread and deeply rooted alliance may be a mistake," said Hammond, during a recent talk at Berkeley's Congregation Beth El.

"It may be a mistake to confuse what may be happening in a particular segment of the population with what may be going on at the grassroots level."

Hammond, trained as a physician, is founder and pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, where he plays an active role on boards and coalitions addressing youth and race-relations issues.

While participating in a dialogue with rabbis and other African-American clergymen through Boston's Jewish Community Relations Council, he came into contact with Rabbi Ferenc Raj, who later left Boston to become Beth El's spiritual leader.

At Raj's suggestion, the synagogue invited Hammond to Berkeley to serve as a weekend scholar-in-residence.

"He reminds me of Maimonides because he was a doctor and a rabbi," said Raj of his friend and colleague. He's "a very learned and kind person who would like to build bridges between the African-American and Jewish communities."

In addition to leading Torah study, Hammond addressed the congregation on "Black-Jewish Relationships: Where Do We Go From Here?"

"If there's going to be a next time [for a black-Jewish alliance], there are some mistakes that will have to be avoided," said Hammond who left his practice as an emergency room doctor in 1992 to devote full-time to his ministry.

One mistake is assuming that the leadership of an organization is representative of the entire group. Noting that relationships often tend to form at the top, Hammond instead emphasizes the importance of the "bottom-up process" of grassroots relationship building, which ensures longer success.

He recommends sharing holidays, hosting one another at religious services and organizing such events as black-Jewish seders.

In addition, he recommends holding black-Jewish dialogues, where participants can safely explore issues and then act as ambassadors taking information back to their own communities.

"We could get everything out on the table," he said of the Boston dialogue. "At the end of it perhaps we still didn't agree, but we had a greater appreciation of each other's viewpoint."

Raj agrees, saying that over time the group was able to discuss everything from Jewish racism to the emergence of Minister Louis Farrakhan. The rabbi hopes to bring his experience in the Boston dialogue to Berkeley, to develop similar programs.

"It would be more than just a dialogue. People would benefit and create jobs for those who have no jobs. This is my dream," said Raj.

"The most important teaching of the Bible is that we have one common ancestor."

But before a group can enter into an alliance, Hammond said, it must focus on its own development and explore what it can do for itself. He cautions that this turning inward should not undermine the recognition that participants are interconnected.

"When I come to the table of dialogue, I come not as a beggar but as a contributor, so no group is saying to any other group, `Solve my problems,'" Hammond said.

Instead, the goal is to "sit at the table in real partnership with others."

Relationships also require an honest assessment of each group's interests — where they converge and where they differ. Imbalances between African Americans and Jews went unacknowledged for years and created an undercurrent of tension that contributed to the erosion of the relationship.

"Jews are moving out and blacks are moving in," Hammond said, describing some perceived imbalances. "Jews are on boards of black organizations, but not the reverse."

Finally, it is important to be realistic and patient.

"Relationships should precede an exchange of resources," Hammond said. "There are issues of power. Who has it? How do we share it so no one feels patronized or taken advantage of?"

Hammond is optimistic and believes there will be a future partnership between Jews and African Americans. A common history of persecution, stigma and minority status and a shared theology of exodus and exile provide common ground to come together.

"I have a sincere belief in the God of history. That God has a way of breaking through to get us to do what we ought to do rather than what we want to do," he said.

Besides, there is the practicality of joining forces, he added. Echoing Benjamin Franklin, he said: "If we don't hang together, we will definitely hang separately."