The Combat Antisemitism Movement posted on November 3 that its African-American Alliance manager, Dazia Wallerson, had joined more than 200 Black and Jewish leaders at the 2nd National Convening of the Black-Jewish Alliance in Chicago, held October 12–14, 2026. CAM linked to its own report of the meeting and quoted Wallerson on what she said would actually move the work.
“It’s in the relationship that will carry us farther,” CAM quoted Wallerson.
According to CAM’s account, the summit was hosted by the EXODUS Leadership Forum, the Redstone Family Foundation, and The Unity Forum. Civic leaders, clergy, educators, students, artists, and philanthropists gathered to confront rising antisemitism and racism and to advance a shared national strategy for the historic Black-Jewish partnership. The Chicago meeting followed an inaugural convening in Miami in May, which Wallerson also attended.
Who spoke, and what CAM brought
CAM named the keynote speakers: television personality Van Jones; media executive and philanthropist Shari Redstone; civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Chavis; and Dr. Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth. Wallerson facilitated a “wedge issue” table, joined the “Shaping the Narrative” working group, and presented CAM’s Robert M. Beren Bridge Builders Fellowship, a year-long program for Black and Jewish college student leaders.
The National Strategy for Black and Jewish Partnership, first unveiled in Miami, has five pillars, CAM reported: promoting historical understanding; deepening relationships and trust; shaping a public narrative of allyship; coordinating across the field; and expanding partnerships for advocacy. Wallerson told CAM, “Sometimes we are called to start with a song, a shared meal, or a few quiet minutes together before diving into the work.” She added that the relationship would carry participants “above and beyond antisemitism, racism, and hate.”
Why the alliance is an antisemitism story
CAM’s own reporting locates the Chicago convening in a year of Black-Jewish unity forums in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlanta. The post is not a crime blotter. It is a record of institutions trying to rebuild a political friendship that once fought discrimination together and that antisemitic campaigns now work to split. In Western cities, Jew-hatred often arrives wearing the language of racial justice. A room of 200 Black and Jewish leaders refusing that split is the counter-move CAM wanted on the record.