Black Asian and Jewish Alliance demand unity and leadership

For nearly two decades, Black, Asian and Jewish activists, intellectuals, and faith leaders used to meet at the recently passed away June Jacob’s home in North London. There was no formal membership  and often no agenda,  but we all just instinctively knew that we needed a safe place to support each other, share ideas,  and talk through some of the difficult issues of our time that affected our minority communities.

Here we would discuss our plans and efforts to confront all forms of racism and prejudice. We called ourselves the Black Jewish Forum, later to be called the Black, Asian and Jewish forum.There was no formal membership  and often no agenda,  but we all just instinctively knew that we needed a safe place to support each other, share ideas,  and talk through some of the difficult issues of our time that affected our minority communities. 

For example, the rise of the BNP and the alarming deaths of Black men and women in police custody. We met and talked through the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq war, The Middle East  and other monumental events.

During those years we learnt a lot about each other, including the need to root ourselves in the universal space that ‘your struggle for equality is my struggle, and mine is yours’. We were also able to be honest about problems and oppression within our own communities. This rarely happens in other networks.

In the end though the group fell away, in part because we’d run our course.  We didn’t feel the necessity to remind each other that we were united, that was a given. Furthermore, in many ways we were all consolidating the establishment of our separate organisations, such as the Runnymede Trust,  JCORE, The 1990 Trust and Operation Black Vote.

And then in this last year or so, with the rise of anti-semitism and islamaphobia,  many of us such as Omar Khan, Radhika  Bynon, Francesca Klug, and Edie Friedman were reminded just how important leadership from different communities and faiths is, particularly at time when there are those who seem hell bent on seeing us tear each other apart.

After muting the idea that we come together again as group, it was initially said that, ’there was no point: the climate is so toxic, that any reasonable intervention would be seen as pointless in such a polarised space'. Klug intervened and reminded us all, ‘that’s exactly why we should be there, to talk to and listen to a silent majority that is looking for true leadership.’ She is right of course.

Like any entity that is reborn we knew it needed new ideas and new blood, and so the involvement of individuals such as Michael Segalove, Rachel Shabi and the MP Clive Lewis has given this an energy and articulation that is both relevant and inspiring.  Our soft launch, by way of a letter in the Guardian has been met with a chorus of approval. On seeing the deluge of positive comments on social media, the writer, broadcaster and signatory to the letter, Yasmin Alibhai Brown said, “For the first time in months, I feel optimistic and we can bring communities together”.

It’s early days for BAJA and we know there’ll be detractors consumed with breaking up any unity we seek to forge.  But we as a growing group, with a deluge of likeminded supporters, are convinced that with broad leadership we can build upon definitions of racism that bring people together, and in some small way be a beacon of hope for all our communities.

Simon Woolley

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/05/jeremy-corbyn-labour-and-the-ihra-definition-of-antisemitism