Remembering Hazel Dukes - The Jewish Standard

The death of Hazel Dukes — the former national president of the NAACP — is a loss not just for the African American community, but the Jewish community as well. Hazel was my friend, and she was a true friend of the Jewish community.

In the aftermath of Hamas’s attacks on October 7, I reached out to Hazel on behalf of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. It’s a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights organization, and I am the director of its eastern region.

I had been in the early stages of coordinating a private roundtable between Black and Jewish grassroots community leaders within New York City to discuss how our communities could better understand each other’s current challenges and build back the critical historic path of allyship we once had. I was proud to see that the two people identified as possible co-chairs — the chair of the NYC Council Jewish Caucus, Eric Dinowitz, and the chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, Councilmember Kevin Riley — immediately and enthusiastically jumped on board.

We all agreed, though, that having someone whose singular presence would telegraph the seriousness of the gathering could be very helpful. And who better than the legendary former national president and current president of the New York chapter of the NAACP — Hazel Dukes?

Having lived and worked in the circles of the formidable Towns family, where father Ed was a longtime member of Congress, son Darryl was a longtime member of the State Assembly and current chair of the NYS Parole Board, and most relevantly, daughter-in-law Karen Boykin Towns was the vice chair of the NAACP’s national board of directors, I had many occasions to meet the famed Hazel Dukes.

This was different, though. I was reaching out to her, specifically asking for a meeting immediately following October 7, to have her help in participating in our efforts to combat antisemitism. Ms. Dukes’ staff, upon her instruction, immediately responded to my request most positively. Trying to find a date on her schedule was an eye-opening showcase into her known indomitability. She was 91 years old, and her staff was reading her schedule to me, with details of how she was flying to this conference, then to another meeting, then to a press conference. She literally did not have a moment free for more than two weeks.

When we did sit down together, I first thanked her for the NAACP writing a public statement decrying Hamas’s actions shortly after that terrible day. Unfortunately, when I showed that statement to people in the Jewish community, many knew nothing about it.

When I talked to Ms. Dukes, I detailed the issues that Jewish students were going through on college campuses, and how the chant “From the River to the Sea” was shattering our community’s sense of security and belonging. Hazel listened intently and with empathy. I had the privilege of hearing her recount some of her experiences in working with the Jewish community, in combatting both antisemitism and racism. She talked about gun violence, housing discrimination, and most of all, the need for our communities to remember how impactful we had been when working side by side.

Needless to say, she agreed to headline our roundtable, and to have the NAACP officially join with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in this effort at this crucial moment. But she didn’t stop there. She actively started naming others who should be involved, and what specifically they could bring to the conversation. She wanted to make sure I understood that she was not lending just her name, but she believed in what we were trying to do and wanted to participate actively in the fight.

By the time the roundtable occurred, two months later, she had fallen ill. While we did not permit anyone else to attend virtually, we all made an exception for Ms. Dukes. To be real — when she insisted, no one would dare to say no to Ms. Dukes.

During the opening statements, Ms. Dukes said that she did not have the physical strength to participate for the whole meeting, but she wanted to make sure that her voice was heard and her support felt. Somehow, she spoke for a solid 10 minutes, in a way that only she could, and to the leaders of both communities. We all felt the impact of her words, the magnetism of her famous smile, and her true drive, behind the scenes, to bring our communities together once again.

With Ms. Dukes’ death, the civil rights world has lost a historic figure. The Jewish world also loses a true friend. There is no doubt that affairs between the Black and Jewish communities, especially post October 7, have been far from perfect, and that has shown both communities the long road that we both must travel to reignite the coalition that once changed the world.

While I cannot speak to all of Ms. Dukes’ actions throughout her long and storied career, I can say this — in her last year, she warmly befriended this Jewish man who was half her age, made time to express the importance of the Black-Jewish relationship, and did what she could to impart to the next generation of leaders of both communities the importance of working together, and used her voice to help bring us together one more time.

Michael D. Cohen of Englewood is the eastern regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is a member of Governor Phil Murphy’s New Jersey-Israel Commission and a member of Congregation Ahavath Torah there.

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