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  "path": "/letters-to-the-editor/2026/03/09/jesse-jackson-black-jewish-rabbi-drivers-license-trump-iran-war-barron",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-09T11:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://chicago.suntimes.com",
  "textContent": "<p>The Rev. Jesse Jackson's <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries/2026/02/17/rev-jesse-jackson-civil-rights-leader-rainbow-push-obituary\" >passing at 84</a> came after the release of Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s new PBS series, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.pbs.org/show/black-and-jewish-america-an-interwoven-history/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23480324820&gbraid=0AAAAAooDyp19OuVDETLWmQaWAOEUpp0Fb&gclid=CjwKCAiAzZ_NBhAEEiwAMtqKyzWyUTWstTexWO3_d7CZPtC1YCcJxiP2er3-zUChLY41TcduP5qLERoCAxQQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" >“Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History.</a>\" It brings to the fore the Black-Jewish allyship, which has frayed, along with the need to stitch it back together.</p><p>An iconic civil rights activist and political influencer, Jackson’s obituary contains a reference to his <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/08/17/reporter-talks-to-black-press-on-hymie-remark/44055d97-fc62-440d-b081-c41e55d64bd3/\" target=\"_blank\" >“Hymietown” comments </a>made to Milton Coleman, a Washington Post reporter in 1984. “All Hymie [read Jews] wants to talk about is Israel; every time I go to Hymie Town [read New York City], that’s all they want to talk about.”</p><p>This episode became a model for managing an explosive situation with important lessons for today.</p><p>My late husband, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://tanenbaum.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/\" target=\"_blank\" >Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum</a>, was director of interreligious relations at the American Jewish Committee at the time of Jackson’s comments. Along with much of the Jewish community, he was outraged.</p><p>But rather than attacking Jackson as an antisemite, or Jackson attacking him as a Zionist, the two clergymen created an opportunity for learning, healing and reconciliation. Three years later, in 1987, at great personal risk, Jackson came to New York to meet Rabbi Marc on stage at Queens College's Colden Auditorium for the Black-Jewish People to People Project.</p><p>Outside the auditorium was a vociferous group of demonstrators, members of the extremist Jewish Defense League, who were brawling with the police. But both men appeared on that stage in the face of \"threats, slanders and intimidations.\"</p><p>Both were open about the issues that divided them: Israel’s sale of arms to South Africa, and Jackson’s refusal to disavow Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitic pronouncements of Judaism as a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2019/5/8/18619012/nation-of-islam-leader-louis-farrakhan-shutdown-on-facebook-not-surprising\" >“gutter religion.”</a></p><p>And yet, the evening ended with an affirmation of the important allyship between Black and Jewish people, with Jackson declaring: \"The enemy is not within this room. … When we understand that the enemy is outside, then we understand, too, that our allies are inside. … Let there be no question that the alliance is real, the goals are shared, and our direction will be forward.\"</p><p>To my mind, the most important lesson to come out of the Jackson-Tanenbaum encounter is this: If Blacks and Jews are to restore an urgently needed allyship, both must desist from subjecting each other to litmus tests.</p><p><i>Georgette Bennett, founder and president, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, and founder and chair, Multifaith Alliance.</i></p><h3>Driving test as senior not as stressful as my teen experience </h3><p>Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias ended my 64-year drought of road tests to renew my driver’s license. With my license expiring in two weeks on my 81st birthday, I needed to take <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/springfield/2025/05/23/illinois-senior-road-tests-bill\" >the road test</a>.</p><p>The nice lady next to me in my Subaru Crosstrek was very clear: \"Follow my instructions precisely.\" No wiggle room there. I jettisoned my normal, somewhat aggressive driving style to little more than a crawl and passed in a quick 10 minutes.</p><p>During the test, my mental \"wayback machine\" went to the spring of 1962. Pop, who taught me how to drive as there was only \"Rules of the Road\" instruction at Kelly High School, took me to the West Side Department of Motor Vehicles facility off the Congress Expressway for the driving test.</p><p>With only a couple hundred miles on my driving logbook, I was quite nervous and intimidated when the burly driving tester replaced Pop in the car now under my control.</p><p>Passing was critical, as my senior prom was just weeks away, and I was scheduled to drive Joanie Downtown to the Sheraton Chicago Hotel for my first big boy-girl social event. Passing the dreaded driving test to get my license was a life crisis.</p><p>Overwhelmed, I flunked. In great distress, I sat stunned as we left the DMV. But less than a block away, Pop stopped the car and shouted, \"We’re going back. …You can do this.\" Buoyed with Pop’s confidence, I took the second test determined to pass. And I did.</p><p>Good thing I didn't have a similar adventure with the road test this time. After passing last week, I asked my tester if many people flunk. \"Oh yes,\" she said, \"and they have to come back on another day for a do-over.\" Glad I didn’t have to face the anxiety of waiting another day 64 years ago.</p><p>All in all, 1962 turned out to be a pretty good year. Got my license due to the teaching and inspiration of Pop and got to drive Joanie Downtown to the senior prom. Thanks, Pop.</p><p><i>Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn</i></p><h3>Warmonger</h3><p>President Donald Trump's decision to change the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2025/04/23/pete-hegseth-defense-secretary-pentagon-trump-fox-signal-woke-s-e-cupp\" >Department of Defense</a> to the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.history.com/articles/department-of-war-defense-name-changes\" target=\"_blank\" >Department of War</a> was not a play on words. It was an indication of his goals.</p><p>This president will not only invade Venezuela and instigate a regime change in Iran, but he will make moves on Cuba, the Panama Canal Zone and Greenland. This is not a president of \"peace\" but a modern \"warlord\" like his pal Vladimir Putin.</p><p>If you are an investor, invest in the companies that make up our military industrial complex.</p><p><i>Warren Rodgers Jr., Orland Park</i> </p><h3>Barron can help dad achieve military goals </h3><p>Now that Barron Trump is approaching his 20th birthday, perhaps it’s time to mimic his old man’s vaunted patriotism and enlist in the military, instead of waiting for a reinstitution of the draft. No doubt he may catch a draft or develop a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/haley-campaign-press-release-donald-trump-and-the-mystery-the-spontaneous-bone-spurs\" target=\"_blank\" >bone spur</a> if that were to occur. However, with his collegiate background, perhaps he could gain a commission in today’s Army, thus guaranteeing our next war has a definitive plan for execution, not just to last <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5763127-trump-us-military-iran-operations/\" target=\"_blank\" >four to five weeks or “to go far longer than that.”</a></p><p><i>Lawrence Pietras, Glen Ellyn</i></p>",
  "title": "Rev. Jesse Jackson angered Jewish community, then reached out for common ground",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-09T11:00:02.336Z"
}