When anti-Semitic neo-Nazis marched against black gangs in Toledo, Ohio two weeks ago, the result was a violent clash and 65 arrests. It was a dramatic reminder that Jewish- and African-Americans still share some common ground in fighting prejudice—just as they did during the time of the Civil Rights movement, notes Clarence B. Jones, former counsel and draft speechwriter for Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Blacks and Jews worked side-by-side to combat discrimination during the 1950s and 1960s but the two communities have drifted apart,” says Jones. “Now as we see anti-Semitism and racial prejudice come to the fore, it’s time to heal that relationship and work together to fight hatred.”

Jones will be the keynote speaker at the 2005 American Jewish Congress’ Brandeis Award Luncheon on October 30th, 11:30 AM, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. Tickets to the event may be purchased by the general public, and donations will support the activities of the American Jewish Congress.

Jones successfully negotiated volatile civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 as well as the Attica State Prison rebellion in New York in 1971. He was the first African American to become a partner in a Wall Street investment banking firm and is currently Vice-Chairman for the Advisory Board of Institutional Investors Consulting Corporation of Houston, Texas.

At the luncheon, Jones will introduce an initiative denouncing recent controversial comparisons of Israel to apartheid South Africa as inaccurate and denigrating to South Africans who suffered under apartheid rule. The American Jewish Congress has also released a statement decrying the Israeli-apartheid comparison as offensive to the African-American and Jewish communities.

The American Jewish Congress campaigned for the end of apartheid and has been at the forefront of efforts against racial prejudice in the United States and abroad for the past eight decades.

Jones will also speak on healing the rift between Jewish- and African-Americans at an American Jewish Congress fundraising luncheon in New York City later this year, where he will be honored with the Isaiah Award.

Los Angeles Luncheon to Honor Attorney Nancy Sher Cohen

The 2005 Louis D. Brandeis Award Luncheon in Los Angeles will honor noted attorney Nancy Sher Cohen, former managing partner of the Los Angeles office of Heller Ehrman LLP and co-chair of the firm’s Insurance Recovery Practice Group. She is the lead counsel for the lender in prosecuting claims for insurance coverage for the World Trade Center twin towers, and she has prosecuted claims against insurance carriers who failed to pay life insurance benefits to survivors of the Holocaust. Cohen has been named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California, and one of the Top 50 Women Litigators in California by the Daily Journal, and was listed for 2003 and 2004 in Chambers & Partners’ “America’s Leading Business Lawyers.”

The award was established to honor the memory of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, an advocate for the public interest who became known as the “People’s Lawyer” and is well-known for dissents that were instrumental in forming modern free speech doctrine. The prestigious award has been given to only 13 recipients since 1980.

For information on attending the Los Angeles or New York City events, contact the American Jewish Congress at (212) 360-1587.

The American Jewish Congress is a membership association of Jewish Americans, organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad, through public policy advocacy, in the courts, Congress, the executive branch and state and local governments. It also works overseas with others who are similarly engaged.