03/25/2026
Black, Jewish Leaders' Civil Rights Mission a First for Federation
Mission delegates at the tomb of the Rev. Martin Luther King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, in Atlanta. Submitted photo
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Adriana Gasiewski
After joining 39 other Cleveland civic leaders on the first biennial Thomas and Joann Adler Civic Leaders Israel Mission in 2017, Jill Zimon, co-chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s civil rights mission and former AJC Cleveland president, came up with the idea to visit the South and learn more about Black Americans’ history.
McNair
“I felt that we had such success with the Adler trip in terms of building and strengthening bridges between the Black and Jewish community by having them come see a place that was so filled with history and so important to us in the Jewish community,” Zimon told the Cleveland Jewish News. “That we might demonstrated our interested in getting educated about and kind of walking in their shoes by visiting the South.”
Darrell McNair, co-chair of the civil rights mission, told the CJN that it was important for him to be a part of the mission because of its relevancy and local impact.
“Most of us weren’t old enough to remember the events dating back to 1940 and through the ‘60s, but we read about it,” McNair said. “We heard about it. What made the trip so impactful was actually seeing it, walking the same grounds, seeing the monuments, seeing exhibits, hearing people who were there at the time tell their stories.”
To make this trip a reality, she met with individuals at the Center for Human Rights as well as Abbie Levin, senior vice president / chief external affairs officer at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Daniel Pearlman, managing director, community relations and external affairs at the Federation, and Oliver Young, senior associate for external affairs at the Federation, in fall 2024.
Zimon
Zimon, a congregant of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation and a 2023 Difference Maker recipient, also worked with co-chairs McNair, Felton Thomas, head of Cleveland Public Library, and Renee Chelm, chair of the board of the Maltz Museum and a former board chair of the Federation.
After receiving the green light from the Federation, Zimon assembled a cohort of 40 Cleveland civic leaders, including herself, to travel to Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham from March 1 to March 4.
During their first day in Atlanta, the group visited the gravesites of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, across from the Ebenezer Baptist Church, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park and the EJI’s Legacy Museum.
“Those museums, whether it was that museum itself, Equal Justice Memorial Museum, the Equal Justice Initiative Memorial Garden – which really highlighted the lynching – I mean it memorialized, highlighted and really told the story just through sculpture,” McNair said.
In the night, they went to Montgomery, where the following morning Mayor Steven Reed greeted the group and talked with them. Then they visited the Mothers of Gynecology Monument and the Rosa Parks Museum before driving to Selma.
In Selma, they went to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and met a person who was able to give a firsthand account of the events of Bloody Sunday, when Alabama Highway Patrol troopers highway clashed with civil rights advocates outside the city on March 7, 1965.
When the group arrived in Birmingham, they had the option to attend a forum program or meet Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. The group also heard from Sarah Collins, sister to one of the four girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, recount the event.
“This woman still has not receive restitution for the pain and suffering she’s been through, let alone the experience of what had been done to her,” Zimon said. “It was very – difficult history to confront and absorb but critical, really important.”
They visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute before driving back to Atlanta and spending half-a-day at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, taking part in group activities and reflecting on the mission.
“At the end of day, what really resonated, I think, was the oppression and dismissiveness of a particular people, particular, and that paralleled so much with the Jewish journey,” McNair said. “And with that for the Black community, much of the struggle was about equal treatment, the ability to vote, the ability to have your voice heard.”
From visiting these monuments and talking to individuals, attendees and the Federation plan to work together to generate advocacy around voter rights, voter education, education and economic development.
“This is a long game,” Zimon said. “You have to look at the long haul – it’s not transactional. It’s not about one thing. This is about how you retain relationships, how you deepen relationships and how you determine how you can help each other.”
