Rabbi Capers Funnye celebrated Martin Luther King Day this year in New York City at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a mainstream Reform congregation, in the company of about 700 fellow Jews \u201d\u201d many of them black. The organizers of the event had reached out to four of New York\u2019s Black Jewish synagogues in the hope of promoting Jewish diversity, and they weren\u2019t disappointed. African-American Jews, largely from Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, many of whom had never been in a predominantly white synagogue, made up about a quarter of the audience. Most of the visiting women wore traditional African garb; the men stood out because, though it was a secular occasion, most kept their heads covered. But even with your eyes closed you could tell who was who: the black Jews and the white Jews clapped to the music on different beats.<\/p>\n
Funnye, the chief rabbi of the Beth Shalom B\u2019nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, one of the largest black synagogues in America, was a featured speaker that night. The overflowing audience came out in a snowstorm to hear his thoughts about two men: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. King is Funnye\u2019s hero. Obama, whose inauguration was to take place the following day in Washington, is family \u201d\u201d the man who married Funnye\u2019s cousin Michelle….<\/p>\n
Funnye hasn\u2019t built all his bridges yet, let alone crossed them, but the progress he has seen \u201d\u201d both as a black Jew and as a black American \u201d\u201d has mellowed him. \u201cYou know, as a young man I was angry about the way we were laughed at and ignored,\u201d\u009d he said. \u201cI sometimes went down to the kosher meat market here in Chicago, put my face right up in the face of one of the Orthodox rabbis and yelled, \u201d\u02dcI ain\u2019t never seen no white Jews before!\u2019 I was so hurt I became obtuse and bitter. But I don\u2019t feel that way anymore.\u201d\u009d He paused. \u201cThere\u2019s no need to shout. People are ready for a dialogue, to talk and to listen.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n