Seventeen-year-old
Natira Blue recently recounted to her class why she stopped
shopping at a grocery store in the Williamsburg section of
Brooklyn. "The Hasidic owner kept staring at me, she said.
"I guess they figured because I was black, I would steal
something from them."
A junior at the Bronx High School of Science, Natira was one of
34 students of different races and religions who, in a social
studies class, talked recently about discrimination they have
experienced. Their sharing was part of the school's first
experiment with a Shared Dreams curriculum developed by the
Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a New York- based group that
seeks to break down racial stereotyping.
The three-hour curriculum, which can be done on one day or over
three days, explores how Jews and African-Americans have
historically worked together to fight racial injustice, focusing
on the close history of support between the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. and the Jewish community. It's based on the book
"Shared Dreams (Jewish Lights Publishing) by Rabbi Marc
Schneier of the Hampton Syn.a.gogue, Westhampton Beach, the
founder and president of the foundation. (Materials are donated by
the foundation to participating schools and can be downloaded from
the group's Web site,
www.ffeu.org.)
The curriculum also encourages students to examine whether they
speak out against injus.tices, whether they are tolerant of others
or take action to promote equality. They also were encouraged to
write down one realistic goal encompassing King's ideas that they
will try to accomplish in the next year.
At the school, teacher Morton Minchenberg recalled for his
students his own experiences with racial bigotry. He lost family
members in the Holocaust. As a 20-year- old Yeshiva College
student in 1960, Minchenberg learned that most Woolworth stores in
the South would not serve blacks at their lunch counters. This led
him to take part in a student picket line at a Woolworth store in
Washington Heights. "We held up picket signs and marched back
and forth in front of Woolworth's, Minchenberg said. "We
thought that everybody would respect our picket signs. To our
amazement, Jewish and African-American Woolworth shoppers totally
ignored us. We were invisible, he said.
For Natira, the
class was a revelation. "I did not know that many Jews worked
or even died for the civil rights movement. When I go home, I now
see the Jewish community in a much more positive light, she
said in an interview later. "Both communities have a lot more
in common, because both were persecuted for many years.
Gene Bongiorni, the school's vice principal and social studies
chairman, said, "We value this kind of exchange and hope to
expand it to other minority groups and other .classes next
year." Schneier said his quest for improved racial
understanding began in 1979, when relations were strained: The
black community was upset over Israel's close relationship with
South Africa, which had a government that discriminated against
blacks, and the Jewish community was upset that some black
leaders, including then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
Andrew Young, had met with Palestine Liberation Organization
members.
"People had forgotten the close bonds between blacks and
Jews during the civil rights movement, said Schneier. "Dr.
King mobilized black communities in the South to break down
segregation laws and help blacks register to vote. Many Jewish
leaders supported him during those turbulent times.
Masha
Mitsengendler, a 17-year-old junior at the Bronx High School of
Science, is an immigrant who knows about that treatment.
Ostracized by her schoolmates in St. Petersburg, Russia, because
she was Jewish, she recalled to the Bronx students, "I would
come home crying. My teacher told me, You have to leave Russia
because you are Jewish and have no future here.' Masha said of
the Shared Dreams program, "I believe these classes help
break down mistrust among different religious, ethnic and racial
groups.
Daniel S. Lee, 16, a Korean student from Bayside, related an
incident from his own life. Last year he watched his father ask a
black woman and her three children to leave his shoe store after
she made anti-Semitic remarks about a new Jewish store owner
across the street. Daniel asked his dad why he gave up a $30 sale.
"He told me if she wants to be ignorant or racist, that's
fine, but don't beat it into your kids.
Twenty-three Jewish day schools in Queens and 63 on Long Island
have adopted the program, as have 12 New York City public schools.
Manhasset High School is among the Long Island schools that expect
to start the program this fall. (The Foundation for Ethnic
Understanding is located at 1 E. 93rd St., Suite 1C, New York,
N.Y. 10128.)
Paul Wisenthal is a freelance writer. Sanjay Nadesan
contributed to this story
Seventeen-year-old
Natira Blue recently recounted to her class why she stopped
shopping at a grocery store in the Williamsburg section of
Brooklyn. "The Hasidic owner kept staring at me, she said.
"I guess they figured because I was black, I would steal
something from them."