Timuel Black is a prominent African American civil rights activist, professor, and historian. Mr. Black was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1918, the son of sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves. His elementary school classmates included Nat King Cole and Johnson Publishing Co. founder, John H. Johnson. Following the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, he was drafted into the then segregated US Army and was one of the few American soldiers present for the liberation of Holocaust survivors at Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. The experience marked him for life.

Returning from the war, Mr. Black threw himself into the labor and social justice movements of the late 1940s and early 1950s, working alongside legends including Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois. In the 1960s, he worked directly for Dr. Martin Luther King, serving as President of the Negro Labor Council, organizing Dr. King’s Chicago Freedom Movement. He served in over one hundred organizations over the next seven decades, including establishing the Congress of Racial Equality and United Packinghouse Workers of America.

Rabbi Capers Funnye is first cousin to Michelle Obama and Chief Rabbi of one of America’s largest Black synagogues, the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago. Rabbi Funnye was raised in a conventional Christian household during the turbulent 1970s, an era charged with Afrocentrism and cultural separatism. Dissatisfied with what he considered a “slave master imposed religion,” he converted to Conservative Judaism. Rabbi Funnye represents the small number of African American Jews who actively participate in the mainstream Jewish community while treasuring their Black heritage. He consults for institutions including The DuSable Museum of African American History, The Chicago Historical Society, and the Afro-American Museum. His poignant wisdom and unconventional approach to life is inspirational.

Christopher T. Hexter is a St. Louis-based “super lawyer,” rated in The Best Lawyers of America, Inc. in Labor, Education, and Employment Discrimination Law. As a young man, Mr. Hexter was active in the Civil Rights Movement. He participated in Freedom Summer in Mississippi, served as a Freedom School teacher, and co-founded a student mentoring program for the St. Louis Public School System. His memories working in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement give a glimpse into the cultural exchange and bonds formed between the Jewish and African American communities and set the pace for his future as one of America’s leading civil rights lawyers.

Since, he has worked in both criminal defense and civil rights litigation and served as the ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law co-chair and Union Program chair. Mr. Hexter was also instrumental in building a joint venture between his synagogue, Central Reform Congregation, and Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church. He is currently developing a coalition to improve the educational opportunities for the public school students in Sunflower County, Mississippi.

Susannah Heschel is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, an award-winning author, and the daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel—the celebrated twentieth century Polish-born American rabbi, theologian, philosopher, and civil rights activist who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama. Her progressive views of race developed on her father’s knee. In our conversation, she freely shared her father’s experiences and heartfelt passion toward the non- violent struggle for racial equality against violently enforced and oppressive racist institutions. Professor Heschel gave a loving portrait of the life of one of the most influential civil rights activists and spiritual leaders of the twentieth century.

Dr. Fitzgerald Hill is the President of Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Arkansas, founded in 1884 by former slaves. He is a gifted academic mentor and community leader with experience as a successful head coach of a major NCAA football team. Dr. Hill’s coaching duties were interrupted during the fall of 1990 when he was summoned for active duty to serve his country in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In the summer of 1991, Hill returned to coaching the Razorbacks and resumed his doctoral studies with a Bronze Star and Commendation Medal in hand.

Dr. Hill has since appeared as a sports commentator on numerous television programs, including ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” and “Cold Pizza,” ABC’s “Nightline,” and HBO’s “Real Sports.” Dr. Hill’s procurement of investments in the economic and social infrastructure of the neighborhood surrounding Arkansas Baptist College has gone far to clean up the streets and reduce crime in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. He lives in Little Rock with his wife and three children.

Judge Kermit V. Lipez is the son of Jewish-Russian immigrants who raised him with a strong sense of duty to meaningfully contribute tosociety. He is also my dad's first cousin whom I have always referred to as "uncle." Following graduation from Yale Law School in 1967, Judge Lipez joined the U.S. Department of Justice Honors Program as a staff attorney in the Civil Rights Division from 1967 to 1968. It was there that he learned “...how complicated these issues were” and how “members of the White community who wanted to do something about civil rights issues had to be sensitive to how they would go about doing it.” He continued to become a successful and influential civil rights activist, not unlike many young Jewish lawyers of the era. Between 1970 and 1998, Lipez worked as a legislative aide for U.S. Senator Edmond Muskie, in private practice in Maine, and as a Justice of the Maine Superior Court until his appointment to the First Circuit Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton.

Judge Lipez looks back on his years in the Civil Rights Movement as formative. As his nephew, I can add that they were also formative to my own decision to become a civil and human rights lawyer and activist.

Rabbi Robert J. Marx is the founder of the Jewish Council on Urban Af- fairs and the Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, Illinois. He earned a PhD in philosophy from Yale University and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Throughout the 1960s, Rabbi Marx fought for civil rights alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, marching by his side in Chicago and Alabama. Since then, Rabbi Marx has continued to pursue justice and civil rights, leading the interfaith Black-Jewish dialogue. Rabbi Marx’s memories from his time with Dr. Martin Luther King shed light on the profound alliance the Jewish and African American commu- nities experienced in the first half of the twentieth century. His eloquent insight into such divisive topics as racism and his unstinting devotion to both pursuing total equality and helping disenfranchised communities in the face of persecution should motivate everyone to fight for civil rights in their own communities.

Reverend William Dwight McKissic, Sr. is the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. The author ofBeyond Roots: In Search of Blacks in the Bible, Beyond Roots II, If Anybody Asks You Who I Am, and Moving From Fear to Faith, Reverend McKissic lectures throughout the United States at leading academic institutions— including Harvard, Emory, and Wheaton—and major Baptist conventions. McKissic has received numerous awards and honors from Christian and civic organizations, including an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Morris Booker Baptist College. His perspective on the relationship between African Americans and the Jewish people is the result of years of study and reflects his vast wisdom, insight, and passion for both people groups, shedding light on African Americans’ Judeo-Christian roots.

Jane Ramsey is the President of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. Dedicated to social and economic justice, she has spent her life improving the lives of those in Chicago’s disadvantaged communities through social activism. In 2009, she was named among the top fifty Jewish leaders “leading the Jewish community into the twenty-first century” by Forward 50. She serves on multiple boards, including the Shalom Center and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. She has also served on the Ethics Coalition, the Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, and the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, among others. Skillful leadership and passion for the marginalized paved the way for her to stand at the forefront of Chicago’s most critical social issues, resulting in her fascinating assessment on the future of the relationship between Jewish and African American communities.

Rabbi Herman Schaalman is the Rabbi Emeritus at Congregation Emanuel in Chicago and former president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the highest rabbinical position in the United States. He is a true pioneer of interfaith dialogue in Chicago and the nation, known widely for his eulogy at the funeral of his close friend, Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. Born in Munich to a traditional Jewish family, Schaalman came to the United States on a scholarship to Hebrew Union College in 1935. His family immigrated to Brazil after his father was released from Dachau. His intimate knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism provided a foundation for a rebirth of Schaalman’s faith, giving him a lifelong passion to know God and other human beings on a remarkable new level.

Rabbi Schaalman’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement and early participation in the JCUA caused many Black leaders—such as Rabbi Funnye—to name him as one of the more influential individuals in their lives. To this day, Rabbi Schaalman continues to be a civil rights activist. His personal recollections of meetings with Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, give scope to his work in interfaith dialogue and anti-Semitism in the United States.

Chloé Simone Valdary is a unique, bright, and fearless young woman studying at the University of New Orleans. Ms. Valdary has written forThe Huffington Post, Tablet Magazine, The Jerusalem Post, and Israel National News. She is a consultant for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, the Assistant of Directors for the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (ISBI), and a fellow at the Lawfare Project. In 2012, she formed an organization called Allies of Israel to promote and advocate for the Jewish nation. As a result of her work, she was named one of the top hundred people positively affecting Jewish and Israeli life by Algemeiner.

Chloe grew up in an atypical Christian family that kept kosher and observed Shabbat and the High Holy Days. The fusion of her African American heritage with Christian and Jewish roots yielded a firebrand freedom fighter at the vanguard of today’s pressing conversation around civil rights, the modern State of Israel, and Zionism. Taking Elie Weisel’s ideology to heart—that it is fundamentally inhumane and contrary to human nature to be apathetic—Chloe boldly stepped onto the public stage as an activist on behalf of the Jewish people in the wake of rising anti-Semitism in the Middle East and Europe. Her experience with engaging a wide range of students from diverse backgrounds provides her with unique insight into how American students view Israel and Zionism in general.

Dumisani Washington is a pastor, composer, author, and music instructor in Northern California. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and raised in California, Pastor Washington is the grandson of a sharecropper in the segregated South. His parents instilled in him a deep pride and respect of his African American heritage. His Baptist roots sparked an interest in the modern nation of Israel that culminated in a journey to Israel in the early 1990s to better understand the foundation of his Christian faith. As Dumisani studied the Jewish Diaspora, he became intrigued by Israel’s multi-ethnic identity and the return of the Diaspora from Ethiopia, India/ Burma, Kaifeng, and other parts the world. His in-depth examination of this phenomenon caused him to develop a vision to strengthen solidarity between the Jewish state and communities of color.

Currently, he is the Director of the Institute for Black Solidarity for Israel and the Diversity Outreach Coordinator for Christians United for Israel. His illuminating understanding of Dr. Martin Luther King’s pro-Israel legacy is timely.

Professor Melvyn Zarr began his career in 1963 as a civil rights lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. He developed an expertise in litigating civil rights cases in Mississippi and Alabama, representing clients such as Dr. Martin Luther King. Zarr has served as a federal magistrate, the co-director of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a member of the American Law Institute and the Maine Criminal Advisory Commission, and a consultant to the Advisory Committee on Rules of Criminal Procedure. For the last forty years, Zarr has led the University of Maine’s School of Law’s Legal and Public Policy instruction and was named the law school’s Teacher of the Year in 2003. Beloved by students and peers alike, Zarr’s memories of Dr. King and his years in the vortex of the Civil Rights Movement provide historic insight into the individual Jewish volunteers who dedicated their lives to the cause of furthering civil rights alongside their African American neighbors.

Rabbi Michael R. Zedek is a passionate activist, scholar, teacher, and the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Emanuel in Chicago, Illinois. Previously, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and the Chief Rabbi of Temple B’nai Jehudah in Kansas City, Missouri. Rabbi Zedek is deeply involved in civic affairs and has served on numerous boards of national and international institutions. A recipient of numerous awards, including the Danforth Graduate Fellowship for outstanding teaching and a Fulbright-Hays Grant, Zedek’s years instructing at a predominantly Black college helped him realize that he had not been living out the ideals he so passionately taught. Zedek contends that his transformation lay in his ability to recognize that connecting with his Jewish roots—while handing educational ownership over to the Black community—was not mutually-exclusive with his advocacy of African American economic and social rights in the United States.