Building relationships between communities

It is news to no one that antisemitism is on the upswing, particularly since October 7, Olga Meshoe said.

“There has been a void of voices speaking in solidary and support with Israel,” she continued. “We have seen it at some level in leadership, but I think that the voice has been lacking among ordinary men in the street, including important minority groups, and specifically from the Black community.”

Ms. Meshoe and her husband, Joshua Washington, both are Black; he is African-American, and she is from South Africa. They’re active Christians, and good friends to Jews and Israel. The couple, who live in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be in Bergen County on Sunday for the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey’s Scott Pazer Memorial Speaker series. (See box.)

Ms. Meshoe is passionate about the need to revitalize the dormant but vital relationship between Black and Jews.

“The work that we’ve been doing for over 10 years does several things, including bridging the gap of understanding and relationship between Jews and Black people, and retelling the narrative of the civil rights movement.

“We do that to showcase the truth that historically, we have been together, even going all the way back to the era of the segregated South, with Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington as an example,” Ms. Meshoe said. Rosenwald, who made a fortune with Sears Roebuck, and Washington, the educator, speaker, and philanthropist who founded the Tuskegee Institute, worked together to build schools for Black children.

“We’re also telling the story of the relationship between Israel and Africa, to show that there has always been solidarity and support between those regions, and that the support must continue.

Beyond storytelling, how can the relationship between Blacks and Jews improve?

“I’m going to extend that question so it’s not just about the Black group, but also the Christian group,” Ms. Meshoe said. “Bible-believing Christians do recognize Israel’s right as a sovereign state to exist and to defend itself, and also they know who the Jewish people are.

But how do we actually put action to our words of support? How do we say ‘never again’ and mean it? How do we correct the failures so that these two communities, Black and Christian communities, indeed are able to say, ‘Okay, not on our watch.’”

“Our goal is to lead, in that if there are people in the audience who are despondent, who have been feeling hopeless, we can give them hope that there is support. That there is love.”

There also are practical steps to take, Ms. Meshoe said. The first thing is “Education. Education. Education!

“Many young people, especially on college campuses, are ignorant about the past. They’re ignorant about the relationships that once existed between Blacks and Jews. They’ve been told the lie that the Black experience of slavery was the fault of the Jews. So there has to be education.

“The second step is community engagement. Oftentimes a person doesn’t know who the other person is. So bring Black people and Jews together, be it for a session like we’re having this coming Sunday, or be it for Shabbat dinner.”

It’s good to humanize people, so they’re not cartoons, but people. That’s how they can begin to work together.

“I use the phrase calling truth to power,” Ms. Meshoe said. “That’s holding those who are in leadership accountable for what’s going on.

“For too long, we’ve had people in leadership — we can be talking about the Ivy League and what we saw in that hearing in Congress earlier in the year, or we can talk about how, unfortunately, we have mayor and pastors and other clergymen who say and do things that perpetuate the false narrative.

“Holding our leaders accountable for the division, and the hate, and the misinformation and the disinformation also is important. That’s a different strategy, but it’s also an important one.”

Ms. Meshoe is a lawyer; she was living in South Africa, practicing law, when her father, the Rev. Kenneth Meshoe, MP, “learned that the lie that Israel is an apartheid state was being peddled,” she said. “And as a Black South African man, he was like, ‘Wait a minute. I’ve read about Israel. I’ve visited Israel several times. This is not true. It is not an apartheid state’

“As Black people in South Africa, we have the moral authority to speak about what apartheid is and is not because of our experience. We have a responsibility to speak up.

“And so he started a nonprofit organization, and in 2013 he called me to be the legal advisor.

“I was doing very well for myself. I was climbing the corporate ladder. As a Christian, I was praying for Israel. So I said to my father, ‘I don’t have time for this problem.’ I didn’t understand why I should.

“But thankfully, my father is a wise man, he didn’t listen to me, and we went ahead and did it.” He formed his nonprofit.

“I had my first exposure to the narrative about Israel, and how it was being used to demonize the Israeli people, during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.” (That was when Israel targeted Hamas facilities in Gaza.)

“So the more I read, the more I learned, the more I realized that I couldn’t keep quiet. So since then, long story short, I’ve always used my voice to educate.

“Also, as a Christian, I am very grateful to the Jewish people for my faith. It is not possible to be a Christian without understanding the Old Testament and understanding who the Jews are.

“And a third point — as an African, I am very proud of my continent. I am very hopeful about what my continent can accomplish, but I also recognize that if we’re going to do so, we need good friends. Russia is not a friend, and China is not a friend. Israel has shown itself to be our friend.

“When we look at the decolonization movement, Israel was on the ground, helping newly born African nations to build themselves.

“The relationship between Israel and Africa goes all the way back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. And I know that Genesis 12:2 is real. ‘I will bless those who bless you, and curse him that curses you.’

Also, she added, “building and strengthening the relationships between the Africans and Jews, and Africans and Israelis, is going to be important for us moving forward, because, frankly, Jews are the leaders in so many fields, whether it’s agricultural expertise — Africa has a great need for that — or counterterrorism — sadly, Israel is at the top of its game there. And if we are going to rekindle and strengthen these relationships, they have to be based in truth, and that means that education and community engagement are very important.

The organization that Ms. Meshoe leads, in South Africa, is called DEISI — Defend, Embrace, Invest in, and Support Israel. “Unbeknownst to me, my husband’s father, Pastor Dumisani Washington, started an organization the same year that my father did,” she said. Her husband now leads that group; it’s called IBSI — the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel.

There’s a story to how she and Mr. Washington met, she said; she might well tell it on Sunday.

Who: Olga Meshoe and Joshua Washington

What: Will talk about Black Zionism at the Scott Pazer Memorial speaker series