Rabbi Jay and Dr. Mark have done an outstanding job organizing multiple series of powerful Building Beloved Community interactive discussions for the Black and Jewish communities. While each meeting begins with Bible text to create neutral and mutually relatable content, discussions quickly launch into passionate, deeply resonating topics with personal histories, stories, and pleas. Conversations and experiences are shared with truth, emotion, and sincere openness. We lean into the belief that supporting each other will proceed at the speed for which trust and relationships are built. I made a dear new friend through my participation in this group. We’ve met on Zoom once a week for two years since the start of the Pandemic. This group and our growing relationships are a personal inspiration and can serve as a model that would greatly benefit all communities. I hope to see an expansion of this noble and worthwhile mission.

The Bible is such a central text for both Jews and for the African American Christian community that I have found that when we study it together it brings out the deepest passions, yearnings, dreams and concerns that have been embedded in our communities for hundreds – or even thousands – of years. Black Jewish Bible study solidifies our shared heritage, our shared struggles, and helps pave a way forward filled with hope and empathy for one another.