Ostensibly, the party was about Chanukah and Kwanzaa.
About 30 Jewish and African American activists gathered at the Mill Valley home of Ellen and Mel Rosen Sunday evening for candlelighting as well as feasting on latkes, challah, bagels and salads and — most importantly — socializing.
They’d been invited by the Jewish Community Relations Council “to share heritage and friendship during this season of light, Chanukah and Kwanzaa.” They did.
Even more, they pledged to continue a heartfelt dialogue and commitment to action that began last April when a JCRC subcommittee was formed comprising blacks and Jews.
The impetus for launching this freeform journey came from JCRC member Steve Shaiken of Fairfax and his friend Luther Wallace of San Rafael. Shaiken recalled that the first time five JCRC members met with five African Americans and JCRC assistant director Judy Penzo, “We really didn’t know where we were going.”
Meeting monthly at members’ homes, the group slowly jelled while “working together, trying to figure out what to do together,” said Penzo.
Some sessions resembled old-fashioned salons. The group carefully crafted a mission statement. Troubled by the rash of church burnings around the country, the committee composed a letter to Congress supporting President Clinton’s efforts to halt the fires.
When Prop. 209 loomed on the horizon, the committee took measures supporting local opposition efforts.
As her fellow subcommittee members and their guests settled in for after-dinner introductions and discussion, Yvonne Bush said, “We hope to move forward.”
Bush, who is African American and Jewish, said the group members “want to go into the schools, maybe put together written materials…We have a lot of great ideas.”
But most important, she stressed, “We have grown to love and know one another very well.”
“We thought it would be great to do something together with the African American community, and finally we really decided, `Well, look, we don’t even know each other,'” said JCRC member Eva Seligman-Kennard, as she dressed the salad in the kitchen, where everyone gathered and shmoozed before eating and lighting the menorah.
Although differences surfaced between the two groups during the first few sessions, Seligman-Kennard recalled, in the end “we agreed there was no need to harp on the negative. Instead, we decided, `Let’s gather around something positive.'”
The Chanukah-Kwanzaa party reflected a conscious effort to meet yet again, but strictly in a cozy, low-key way.
“We didn’t want it to be a big deal,” Seligman-Kennard said.
For Seligman-Kennard, the gathering represents “a step forward” toward her goal of true understanding between Jews and African Americans.
Regina Carey, who met Shaiken and Wallace through the trio’s involvement in the Democratic Party, said that as a child growing up in a mixed Jewish and Catholic neighborhood in San Diego, “I always understood that there was some common ground” between blacks and Jews.
The subcommittee would like “to do a project that shows the full Marin County community that not only is there a connection, but there’s a positive and valuable connection and that it is possible to work together and accomplish things,” she said.
Wallace, who recently returned from a JCRC-sponsored trip to Israel for non-Jews, said he was surprised to learn that there were only 12 million Jews worldwide.
“When we combine these numbers [of blacks and Jews] we can become a force. That’s why I’d like to see us continue.”
“Here, locally, we have the opportunity to make headway,” agreed Shaiken. “I think that what we’re doing…is consistent at least with our role, as Jews, to do the right thing. And this is the right thing.”
By the end of the evening, everyone left full of food, song and a better understanding of both holidays.
Kwanzaa, based on the traditional African festival of the harvest, was developed in the 1960s in the United States by Ron Karenga, a professor of pan-African studies and a black cultural leader.
Now observed throughout the world, Kwanzaa begins Dec. 26, lasts for seven days and, like Chanukah, involves nightly candlelighting. Each candle signifies a different principle, such as unity, self-determination and creativity.
Describing Kwanzaa to non-blacks proved slightly challenging, however.
“You will never know how fortunate you are to have a continuous history,” said Dr. Dan Collins. “You have a continuous stream of commitment.”
African Americans, brought as slaves “into a nation that for 250 years destroyed everything you had,” lost language, family and tradition, he said.
“What we’re trying to do with Kwanzaa is reestablish these things. We don’t know what the hell Kwanzaa is, and we’re struggling.”