Mayor Eric Adams offered Dr. Michael Lomax, United Negro Faculty Fund (UNCF) president and CEO, and media personality-lawyer Eboni Ok. Williams with the Shine a Gentle Civic Braveness Award for Neighborhood Constructing at Gracie Mansion’s Hanukkah reception final Tuesday, Dec. 12.
The excellence is for non-Jewish advocates who lead efforts to fight antisemitism.
For Lomax and Williams, the work stems from bridging Black and Jewish communities by way of overlapping plights towards white supremacy. The awardees advised the Amsterdam Information that the award validated their long-standing efforts in linking the 2 communities.
“It means an amazing ton to me—my life’s work broadly is a full and full liberation of Black folks,” mentioned Williams. “And I do know that that requires a number of various things, [including] one in all our strategic partnerships and being in relationship with broad humanity—so my work particularly centered on the restoration of a historic, productive, and profitable relationship between Black People and Jewish People. Collectively, our communities signify an infinite risk to liberate each other and free ourselves from anti-Black racism in addition to antisemitism.”
Williams, whose laundry listing of a résumé consists of the Warner Music Group-backed podcast “Holding Court docket with Eboni Ok. Williams” and eponymous TheGrio community present “TheGrio with Eboni Ok. Williams,” sees this “mutual liberation” as the basis of her collaborations with JewBelong and eager to characteristic the primary Black shabbat (sabbath) on nationwide tv.
“That is each a private and an expert honor,” mentioned Lomax. “I grew up in Los Angeles [and] I had sturdy relationships with the Jewish group there by way of my dad and mom and the youngsters I went to highschool with and junior excessive, individuals who have continued to be in my life since then and all through my profession. I’ve all the time gravitated towards Jewish companions and doing the work of training reform [to fight] racism [and] antisemitism, so it’s great to have that work acknowledged.”
Lomax, who’s Christian, pointed to his Californian upbringing as seeds to his advocacy. These relationships blossomed into his function overseeing Dillard College’s Nationwide Middle for Black-Jewish Relations whereas serving because the HBCU’s president. These predilections had been reawakened by the 2017 “United the Proper” rally in Charlottesville. The white supremacist assault challenged Lomax’s complacency: He quickly noticed parallels between antisemitic assaults just like the Tree of Life synagogue taking pictures in Pittsburgh and anti-Black assaults just like the Tops Pleasant Markets taking pictures in Buffalo.
The reception overlapped with the continuing Israel-Hamas battle on the Gaza Strip, with the household of hostages in attendance and demanding their launch. It additionally coincided with a 32% uptick in reported antisemitic hate crimes within the metropolis final month in comparison with November 2022, in response to the NYPD.
“Few folks embody the idea of sunshine overcoming darkness like the 2 folks we honor tonight: Dr Michael Lomax and Eboni Williams—each who’ve achieved a lot to advertise the shared bond between African People and the Jewish group,” mentioned Mayor Adams. “They remind us that we’re a metropolis with folks from each nook of the world and, no matter our variations, our communities will all the time come collectively to assist and defend our fellow New Yorkers.”
With the “Folks’s Home” filled with, properly, folks, Williams hoped attendees would see previous the optics of a Black mayor awarding Black leaders. Throughout her speech, she known as upon Jewish People to be the chums to Black People that they “fairly anticipate Black People to be to them.”
“That work of mutual friendship…and strategic partnership must be one year a 12 months,” mentioned Williams over the telephone. “No one desires a good friend who solely exhibits up on the worst day of their life. Black People don’t need that and I’m sure Jewish People don’t need that…I hope they noticed a really proud, non-Jewish Black American lady say ‘I’m your good friend. I’ve a mezuzah on my door. You may stick with me, you possibly can really feel protected in my dwelling.’
“And I anticipate to have that very same degree of security and safety in your house and we show that one year a 12 months, not simply after we are underneath menace.”Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public security for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps hold him writing tales like this one; please take into account making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity in the present day by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
